A UK marketing services organization wanted to strengthen the management of its software estate while providing additional specialist support to its internal Software Asset Management (SAM) team.

With multiple key software publishers to manage, the organization needed ongoing visibility of its license positions, greater control over software costs and access to specialist expertise for renewals, compliance risks and potential publisher audits.

ITAA was engaged to provide an ongoing SAM Managed Service across the organization’s key software publishers.The relationship has now been in place for three years, providing continued support as the organization’s licensing and commercial requirements have evolved.

The Challenges

Managing a complex, multi-publisher software estate placed significant demands on the organization’s internal SAM resources. The team needed to maintain accurate licensing positions, identify and address potential compliance exposure and uncover opportunities to optimize software costs. Upcoming renewals also required detailed analysis and commercial support to ensure purchasing decisions reflected actual requirements.

At the same time, the organization wanted specialist expertise available should a publisher audit arise, without increasing its permanent internal SAM resource.

The Solution

ITAA established an ongoing SAM Managed Service combining regular governance with detailed license management across the organization’s key software publishers.

The ongoing service includes regularly refreshed Effective License Positions (ELPs), maintaining visibility of licensing requirements, risks and optimization opportunities. ITAA also reviews software inventory and SAM tool coverage to identify data quality or discovery issues that could affect licensing decisions.

Specialist support is provided around software renewals, including compliance analysis, pricing modelling and rightsizing. Where licensing risks are identified, ITAA works with the organization to establish appropriate mitigation actions before they develop into unnecessary commercial exposure.

Regular reviews and quarterly reporting provide the internal team with a consolidated view of opportunities, savings, licensing risks and recommended actions across the software estate.

The Results

Over three years, the SAM Managed Service has delivered measurable financial and risk-management benefits:

• £152K in cost savings achieved
• £215K in total optimization opportunities identified to date
• £2.9 million in potential licensing risk mitigated
• Additional optimization opportunities continue to be identified

Beyond the headline figures, ITAA continues to identify and resolve individual licensing issues across the estate while supporting the organization ahead of major software renewals.

Conclusion

The SAM Maturity Assessment gave the organization something more valuable than simply a measure of its current capabilities: clarity about what needed to happen before implementation began.

By establishing a realistic maturity ambition and identifying the foundational changes required to support it, the organization could approach SAM development in a more structured and achievable way.

This created a practical path from identifying current gaps and risks through to an effective SAM program designed to strengthen software license compliance and improve cost control.

Organizations planning to develop or improve their SAM capabilities can benefit from understanding whether the right foundations are in place before implementation begins. ITAA’s independent SAM Maturity Assessment helps establish realistic priorities and a structured path forward.

Talk to us about assessing your SAM maturity and identifying the right next steps.

*Protecting our clients’ confidence is of the utmost importance at ITAA. While our case studies are based on true projects, we have used fictitious names and removed or changed other identifiable details.