Software Asset Management (SAM)

Software Asset Management (SAM) is the practice of integrating people, processes, and technology to allow software licenses and usage to be tracked, evaluated, and managed. The goal of SAM is to reduce IT expenses, human resource overhead, and risks inherent to owning and managing software assets. This includes, but is not limited to, maintaining software license compliance, tracking inventory and usage of software assets, and maintaining policies and procedures surrounding the definition, deployment, configuration, use, and retirement of software assets. SAM represents the software component of IT Asset Management (ITAM), including hardware asset management. SAM is linked to ITAM due to the concept that, without effective inventory hardware controls, efforts to control the software are significantly inhibited.