Software Asset Management
Manage your software assets before they manage you.
Why SAM?
Knowledge is power: Get on the front foot with vendors and negotiate from a position of power with a clear view of your licensing and entitlements.
Cost control: Stop paying for unused “shelfware” and renegotiate software contracts to reflect what you actually need. SAM finds savings in what you already have.
Risk mitigation: Clean up licence exposures as they arise to prevent compliance breaches, fines and costly true-ups.
Why now?
Rising vendor audits: 52%* of organisations have been audited more than twice in the past 18 months. SAM ensures you’re always audit-ready.
Tighten security: Security teams can conduct easier risk and vulnerability assessments using SAM licensing scripts that provide accurate information about the software deployed, versions and patch levels utilised, and which users are accessing it.
Time is money: SAM takes time to implement properly. The sooner you start, the less likely you are to be caught off-guard when the renewal bill or audit notice comes.
Why Invictus Partners?
Proven results: We’ve saved our clients more than So far, we’re just over $1 billion in enterprise software costs since 2014.
Strategic approach: We consider the whole picture – people, process, tools, and governance – rather
than take a tool-first approach to SAM.
Flexible service models: We can provide resources to support an in-house SAM function or manage SAM for you as a service.
Vendor-agnostic: As objective advisors that do not resell, audit or implement software, we act only in your best interests.
Reduce software licence costs in three ways with Software Asset Management best practices.
Reduce software licence costs in three ways with Software Asset Management best practices.
Cost savings
Short Term 10-25% reduction in annual software spend in the first year
Cost avoidance
Medium Term 5% cost savings on average over the next 5 years
Cost management
Long Term Savings stabilise at 2-3% on average
How SAM helps you save across the Software Asset Management lifecycle.
Most organisations are not getting value from their software assets. Without visibility of the licence footprint, IT is forced to estimate software needs in an effort to balance cost and end-user productivity. These estimates are inevitably too high or too low, resulting in the wrong volume of licences for their operating environment. Both scenarios can be expensive – too many licences means you’re overspending, and too few puts you at risk of compliance penalties.
Cost savings: Understand your licence position to make better purchasing decisions.
Knowing your organisation’s actual software needs means you can procure and deploy the right increments of software in the right areas and do so more cost-effectively through volume purchase agreements or bundled services.
Cost avoidance: Implement systems and processes to prevent unnecessary spending.
SAM tools and efficient processes can be introduced to set up asset tracking and reliably forecast software expenditure. This helps to minimise non-compliance risk by identifying and addressing any licence deficits in advance.
Cost management: Monitor and optimise to keep costs under control.
Increasingly automate and optimise costs over time. With full transparency of SAM data and contract flexibility, IT is well-positioned to drive business decisions and prepared for transformation initiatives.
Software Asset Management consulting that works with you and for you.
Our SAM service is a ‘choose your own adventure’-type engagement. BYO vendors and tools (if you already have them), decide the next steps for your organisation and tell us how you want them delivered. We provide global coverage with clients across Europe, the Middle East, Australia, the UK and the US.
SAM client pathway examples:
SAM client pathway examples:
SAM
client 1:
(US)
Hybrid model, multi-vendor
Vendors:
Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, VMware, Red Hat, Adobe
Enhance in-house SAM capabilities and manage transition to a hybrid model, and ongoing advisory.
SAM
client 2:
(Australia)
Fully outsourced (SAMaaS), multi-vendor
Vendors:
Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, SAP, VMware, Adobe, Citrix, Informatica, Salesforce, Autodesk
End-to-end set-up of remote SAM function, including SAM tool configuration and optimisation, and ongoing advisory.
SAM
client 3:
(France)
Fully outsourced (SAMaaS), single vendor
Vendors:
IBM
Set-up support, ongoing provision and support of ILMT.
Vendors we manage:
- SAP
- Oracle
- IBM
- Microsoft
- Citrix
- Red Hat
- VMware
- Adobe
- Informatica
- Salesforce
- Workday
- Autodesk
- ServiceNow
- Infor
SAM tools we work with:
- ServiceNow
- Flexera
- Aspera
- VOQUZ
- Snow Software
- Vendor-specific tools
- Other SAM tools
SAM models we use:
- Resource augmentation
- Fully outsourced
- Hybrid model
- Snow Software
Software Asset Management solutions for Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, IBM, and more.
Oracle Software Asset Management
Many organisations think they are compliant with Oracle licensing, only to find out the hard (and expensive) way that they are not. This occurs when IT teams lack visibility into actual software use and estimate software needs in an effort to balance cost and end-user productivity.
Invictus Partners’ Oracle SAM service ensures you stay compliant by reviewing and monitoring your Oracle deployments. We assess usage against entitlements, determine whether you are under- or over-licensed, and address any compliance exposures as they arise.
SAP Software Asset Management
Invictus Partners can manage and optimise your entire SAP landscape on an ongoing basis, helping you avoid hidden costs and only pay for what is needed to ensure your existing SAP licences meet your current business demands and requirements.
Our SAP SAM offering is a proactive solution that protects your organisation from the risk of non-compliance and the associated commercial impact. We offer SAM either as a service (SAMaaS) or as a hybrid model, working in conjunction with your organisation’s SAM resources.
Microsoft Software Asset Management
Many organisations think their Microsoft Licensing Solution Provider (LSP) provides them with a SAM service, but this isn’t the case. As Microsoft partners, LSPs have a vested interest in reselling Microsoft and work on a commission basis for selling ongoing solutions, on-time renewals and true-ups. True SAM requires objectivity; you can’t get that from a Microsoft LSP.
Invictus Partners delivers a neutral and independent Microsoft SAM service, providing impartial facts, informed insights, and realities by reviewing and analysing Microsoft’s licensing terms, agreement structures, release information and “glossy brochure”-style marketing information.
IBM Software Asset Management
IBM is one of the strictest vendors, requiring customers to use its own licence management tool, ILMT, for SAM purposes. This can provide another layer of administrative complexity for organisations who use other SAM tools to manage their non-IBM software assets.
Invictus Partners offers an IBM SAM managed service that takes over the management of your existing ILMT install, providing support, knowledge and report collateral you need to effectively manage your IBM licence usage and stay compliant. For organisations who don’t already have ILMT in place, we can quickly and efficiently set up this tool and run it as a service.
Chat to an expert
Our Software Asset Management process breakdown:
Phase 1
SAM Maturity Assessment
Phase 2
Software Licence Health Check
Phase 3
SAM Program Development
Phase 4
Monitoring & Optimisation
Our Software Asset Management Consulting Service breakdown:
We can provide expert licensing advice at any point along your SAM journey. We do this in four phases, which are available as an end-to-end service, or as separate engagements.
Phase 1
SAM Maturity Assessment
The first step is a pragmatic introspection to determine where your organisation sits on the SAM Maturity Curve and how you can attain value out of a SAM program.
Disorder
Reactive
Compliant
Proactive
Strategic
In our experience, the vast majority of organisations toggle between the Reactive and Compliant stages, only moving beyond these when SAM becomes a dedicated function within the business.
Phase 1
SAM Maturity Assessment
The first step is a pragmatic introspection to determine where your organisation sits on the SAM Maturity Curve and how you can attain value out of a SAM program.
Disorder
Reactive
Compliant
Proactive
Strategic
In our experience, the vast majority of organisations toggle between the Reactive and Compliant stages, only moving beyond these when SAM becomes a dedicated function within the business.
Phase 2
Software Licence & Asset Management Health Check
We help you gain a complete view of all software programs, assess usage against entitlements to identify compliance gaps, and devise remediation strategies where necessary.
Phase 3
Software Asset Management Program Development
We work with you to establish a SAM program, or increase the capability of your current SAM practice, through the design and implementation of SAM processes and workflows and the configuration of SAM tools.
Phase 4
Software Asset Lifecycle Monitoring & Optimisation
Once set-up is complete, we monitor usage against entitlements and adjust systems accordingly to ensure data accuracy. From here, the SAM program gradually becomes more efficient as tools are optimised and the organisation increases in SAM maturity.
Download our Software Asset Management Services datasheet
The Invictus Partners difference: Software Asset Management Solutions
Invictus Partners is the ideal choice to partner with on your SAM journey, having saved our clients more than So far, we’re just over $1 billion since our inception in 2014. Our team comprises 30+ year IT industry veterans who have worked on all sides of the technology table (software vendor, systems integrator, support provider and client-side).
SAM serves different purposes in organisations depending on their IT infrastructure, software portfolio, business goals, and factors such as their user base. Our SAM service is tailored to each organisation’s needs in managing and optimising their licence real estate. We address the diverse challenges, ranging from IBM requiring clients to leverage IBM Licence Metric Tool (ILMT), SAP’s SLAW reporting and coverage for Indirect Access, through to IaaS, PaaS and SaaS consumption monitoring.
Managing an organisation’s software and licence entitlements is a complex operation that requires a careful mix of people, processes and tools. The Invictus Partners team has the technical expertise and knowledge of best-practice processes, systems and tools to ensure an effective SAM roadmap and strategy for every organisation.
Talk to a SAM expert
Doug Gibson
Managing Partner
Doug is a 29+ year international IT veteran, having worked in executive and general manager roles with organisations including SAP, Oracle, and IBM across A/NZ, Asia Pacific, and Africa. Doug’s intimate knowledge of software vendors, licensing and auditing practice has enabled him to successfully assist clients in retail, manufacturing, utilities, the public sector, and financial services to achieve positive outcomes in their audits, along with assisting them during software contract negotiations. Heading up the team and the company, Doug embodies the relevant skills and mindset to grow this company into a worldwide organisation.
Talk to a SAM expert
Katherine Xu
SAM Delivery Lead
Andy has spent 30+ years working for large corporate customers in all sectors of industry ranging from IT, mining, health, defence, federal and local government institutions within Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and North America working in contract management, health and safety, project management, environmental sustainability, cloud migration strategy and vendor compliance roles. Andy specialises in several related fields such as corporate licence compliance, auditing, audit defence, Oracle contract management, Oracle Unlimited and Enterprise Agreement negotiations, projects and change management as well as software/hardware asset management, cloud deployments, cloud licence migrations and licensing/ITAM/SAM training.
Got questions about Invictus Partners Software Asset Management?
Need more information on SAM before taking any big steps?
Read our complete guide to Enterprise Software Asset Management.
*Flexera ITAM State of the Market Report