Software Asset Management and Licence Compliance

Most organisations cannot answer a simple question with confidence: are we correctly licensed for the software we use? Inventories are incomplete, entitlements sit in contracts and emails across several departments, licence metrics differ between vendors and change with each agreement, and the shift to subscriptions and cloud has added new ways to overspend. When a vendor audit arrives, teams scramble to gather data and often accept findings they cannot challenge.

This programme builds a SAM capability step by step. It starts with the risks, costs and benefits of SAM and the business case for investing in it, then covers licensing models and contract terms, discovery and inventory data, the effective licence position, core SAM processes and governance, and finally audit readiness, cloud and SaaS management and continuous optimisation.

Built on recognised practice. The programme references the ISO/IEC 19770 family of standards for IT asset management, including the management system requirements in ISO/IEC 19770-1, software identification tags in ISO/IEC 19770-2 and entitlement schema in ISO/IEC 19770-3, the IT asset management practice in ITIL 4, and the FinOps Framework for managing cloud spend. Participants learn how to use them as practical guides rather than checklists.

Decisions this programme improves. Whether to invest in a SAM programme and tools, and how to justify it; which licence model and contract terms to accept at renewal; whether to true up, reharvest or retire licences; how to respond to a vendor audit request; how to govern SaaS and cloud subscriptions bought outside IT; and who owns software assets across IT, procurement and business units.

How it is delivered. Twenty hours across five sessions, built around one running case: a mid-sized organisation with mixed on-premises, cloud and SaaS software facing a vendor licence review. Participants reconcile sample inventory and entitlement data in a spreadsheet, calculate an effective licence position, identify savings and risks, and prepare an audit response plan and SAM business case.

In-house option. For organisations, the programme can be tailored to your own vendors, contracts, discovery tools and procurement processes, and delivered to IT, procurement, finance and compliance teams together.

Who Should Attend

IT asset and SAM staff: SAM analysts, IT asset managers and licensing specialists

IT managers: infrastructure, service management and end-user computing managers

Procurement and vendor management staff: software buyers, category managers and contract managers

Finance and compliance staff: IT finance analysts, internal auditors and compliance officers

IT governance and security staff: professionals responsible for IT controls and software risk

Objectives

Explain the risks, costs, challenges and benefits of software asset management in a changing IT environment

Build a business case for a SAM programme that gains management commitment

Distinguish common licensing models and metrics, including per user, per device, per core, subscription and consumption-based licensing

Interpret key licence terms and contract provisions that affect compliance and cost

Gather information about the organisation's environment, stakeholders and existing data sources before implementing SAM

Design core SAM processes for acquisition, deployment, inventory, reconciliation, reharvesting and retirement

Calculate an effective licence position by reconciling entitlements with installation and usage data

Prepare for and respond to a software vendor audit in a controlled way

Apply SAM practices to SaaS and cloud services and identify optimisation opportunities

Identify and address common issues that arise when implementing a SAM programme

Course Outline

Why SAM Matters: Risk, Cost and the Business Case

Software as a financial, legal and security risk
Common causes of non-compliance and overspend
Benefits of SAM: cost control, compliance, security and better negotiation
Understanding the organisational environment and stakeholders
Building and presenting a SAM business case
SAM maturity and where to start

Understanding Software Licensing

Licence types: perpetual, subscription, term, open source and freeware
Licence metrics: users, devices, processors, cores and consumption
Enterprise agreements, volume licensing and maintenance
Virtualisation, disaster recovery and indirect access considerations
Key contract terms: audit clauses, transfer rights and usage restrictions
Open source licence obligations

SAM Processes, Data and Tools

The ISO/IEC 19770 family and ITIL 4 IT asset management practice
Discovery and inventory: agents, network scans and data sources
Software identification tags and normalisation
Entitlement records and proof of licence
Reconciliation and the effective licence position
Selecting and implementing SAM tools

Governance, Compliance and Vendor Audits

SAM policy, roles and responsibilities
Integrating SAM with procurement, service management and security
Controls over software requests, approvals and installations
Audit readiness and internal compliance reviews
Managing a vendor audit: scope, data sharing, findings and negotiation
Common implementation issues and how to overcome them

Cloud, SaaS and Continuous Optimisation

Managing SaaS subscriptions and shadow IT
Cloud licensing and bring-your-own-licence arrangements
FinOps principles and cloud cost visibility
Reharvesting, rightsizing and renewal planning
SAM metrics and reporting to management
Action plan: next steps for SAM in your organisation

Competencies

Software asset management principles

SAM business case development

Software licensing models and metrics

Licence contract interpretation

Discovery, inventory and entitlement management

Effective licence position calculation

Vendor audit preparation and response

SaaS and cloud licence optimisation

SAM governance and reporting

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