SAM as a Service

Software Asset Management
#1

I am looking to develop an in-house SAM as a Service model, with a defined service catalogue of SAM offerings which can be directly linked to recharge costs which can be calculated based on a markets size, requirements and complexity. I have spend many months on this but would really be interested in thoughts of peers to get another perspective;

What would you include/like to be included from an in-house SAM team?
How would you look to ‘bundle’ work that SAM teams do to provide a catalogue?
How would you calculate costs of these services?

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#2

A couple of thoughts on this:

  1. I think this would make a good virtual study group. Depending on your timings it would be useful to link you up with other end users who have done this or want to explore it.

  2. A couple of approaches I’ve seen include bundling the SAM service cost into requests or other monthly service delivery. For example if someone requests software or subscription or instance a small surcharge is added for governance. So SAM service cost is added like a VAT. I have also seen orgs use the competitive market cost from a SAM services company as a benchmark, your service does not necessarily need to be cheaper, but it’s a good comparison.

I look forward to reading what other SAM pros have done in this area.

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#3

We’re building that but with SAM tools. The way we see it, the closest association would be to AWS/Azure. In the sense that you activate whatever services/products you want to use and pay either a monthly subscription or based on a consumption model (e.g., number of databases analyzed).

I don’t see why this would not work with services, would be very interested to hear more on how you define the model.

#4

Happy to share my ideas with others to provide input in a workshop.
Here are some other mandates to make my life more interesting!

  • It cannot be linked to licenses or annual spend and this information may not even be available when I need to ‘quote’ for the work

  • It cannot be FTE based, although from the charge I need to calculate how many FTE I need

  • It cannot make a profit or loss

  • It must be an annual service charge that I can calculate up front based on x,y,z and then half yearly or annual adjust the charge and predict what that means in terms of impact on FTE

#5

JuliaV,

Likely too early for a tool for cost recovery though Apptio comes to mind during a past PoC I explored with them. I have a book from them, TBM or Technology Business Management. Might contain some ideas to help get you launched. I’ll be on the sidelines to see where this goes, providing the customer levers to engage your services helps optimize SAM, no one likes fees unless there is benefit tied to it. This makes a direct linkage for them