Building a SAM Center of Excellence

For the penultimate post in the #DoMoreWithSnowServices series we explore why customers may wish to setup a Software Assessment Management (SAM) Center of Excellence (CoE) and considerations in doing so. Today’s guidance is from Michael Swan, a Project Manager within Snow Software. For a business that’s chosen to structure itself as a ‘group’, either through natural expansion into other markets, or via M&A, one key benefit typically sought is the reduction of costs. This is largely delivered by identifying functions or processes that can be centralized and managed at group-scale, delivering economies relative to that scale. The employment of a group-wide SAM/ITAM strategy can also deliver additional efficiencies, as a global approach to Software Procurement empowers the group to bring the full weight of their buying power to bear when entering negotiations with a Software Vendor. Centralizing expertise in both the License and Technical administration that underpins a successful SAM strategy into one CoE also allows firms to expand their SAM function quickly into new markets following a standardized, iterative process, and then achieve progressively more ambitious goals, typically following a maturity curve of the four steps below.

1.   Achieving Full Visibility

2.   Ensuring Compliance

3.   Optimizing Cost

4.   Automating Process

The alternative approach, maintain siloes within a group with independent practices, processes, strategies and tools, will often mean that different operating companies sit at vastly different points along this curve. As the less mature parts of the group look to progress, it is rare that they’re able to avoid reinventing the wheel as bureaucracy, misaligned incentives, and sheer scale work to prevent proper cooperation between SAM teams. A CoE is at its core, simply a large SAM team, supported by a technical staff specifically equipped to provide exhaustive discovery and inventory of assets. To deliver on this model, the key high level areas to be fulfilled are:

1. Product/Service Ownership – A clear ownership to define strategy, ensure stakeholder support and resource the CoE.

2. Licensing/SAM Expertise - Experienced people that understand the T&Cs of vendor agreements and the benefits and drawbacks of various Licensing models. They’ll also need to be trained in best practice use of a market-leading SAM tool like Snow Software’s Technology Intelligence Platform.

3. Process and Documentation - A key benefit of working with a shared service structure is to optimize process and ensure consistency across the group. Process is a crucial part of the SAM trifactor and essential for long-term ROI.

4. Technical Experts - An application operations team needs to be in place to deal with day-to-day monitoring and challenges.