As part of this month’s SAMPanel debate, we are very happy to welcome a new contributor in Libby Phillipps, Marketing and Events Co-ordinator with License Dashboard, who we asked, “Looking ahead, what are your predictions for the SAM market?”

Below was her response;

In a nutshell, the cost of effective SAM is going to climb. This will manifest in a number of ways, the most obvious of which is an increase in the level of audit activity.

Back in 2012, according to Gartner’s survey at their annual ITFPAM events in London and America, there was a 63% chance that an organization would be audited. There is now a 68% chance of being audited in the next 12 months. This isn’t just about larger companies with 25,000 employees or more, either – you’d be forgiven for assuming that because an organization is larger, they’re more likely to be audited – but more and more we hear that smaller companies with between 500 and 5,000 employees have been targeted.

Again, looking at revenue generation, we can expect to see the prices from vendors increase. Vendors spot an opportunity for revenue in changing license metrics to increase the customer bill, and the cost of support and maintenance is also likely to increase year on year.

Because of these rising costs and the increased threat of an audit, we’ll see more and more clients moving towards a hybrid of inhouse and outsourcing of their Software Asset Management, if not a fully Managed Service. As it is, many organizations struggle to stay on top of compliance, and with vendors’ new ‘simplified’ offerings actually being quite complex, the risk of being caught out continues to grow. Without in depth licensing knowledge and expertise, organizations are susceptible to failing to accurately reconcile what’s installed with what’s used as well as spending precious budget on purchasing unrequired licenses.

We should also expect to see the demand for ITAM Professionals increase due to the growing complexity and evolution of licensing rules. Organizations will be unable to allocate adequate time and resource to stay on top of their compliance and rather than purchasing a sweeping, all-inclusive agreement just to avoid the rigmarole of dissecting a more bespoke one, both organizations and SAM vendors will look to ITAM Professionals to undertake negotiations around the costs associated with protection and maintenance.

About the Author

Libby Phillipps | Marketing and Events Co-ordinator with License Dashboard | Connect with Libby

Always looking to make the working lives of her clients that little bit easier, Libby Phillipps is dedicated to helping IT, Finance, Procurement and SAM professionals deliver savings to their organization with License Dashboard. She is also crazy about her pooch Kes and have a love hate relationship with aerobics and running…

About License Dashboard

A global leader in Software Asset Management, License Dashboard combine unrivalled software licensing expertise with professionally-developed software solutions designed to help both large and fast-growing organizations manage their software expenditure, minimize costs, optimize utilization and streamline the entire software lifecycle.