How to measure SAM success with tangible metrics
What exactly does “good SAM” look like? It’s a simple question, but one many SAM professionals still struggle to answer. While there’s no shortage of best practice advice and even an international standard, proving SAM effectiveness in the real world can be a challenge.
That’s partly because different organizations have different priorities and ways of measuring things; so despite there being documented SAM best practices, there’s always some level of interpretation that needs to be applied in order to identify and track metrics that make sense to your situation.
Just looking at SAM solution reports can sometimes be like trying to read the raw code of the ‘Matrix’ – to most of us it’s just a load of information with no immediate business value.
Thankfully, learning how to interpret data from the SAM solution is (if you’ve chosen the right SAM technology, at least!) a lot easier than trying to learn the Matrix.
In our latest white paper “Metrics to measure SAM success”, we’ve identified eight key metrics that can form the basis of an effective SAM reporting regime, giving you the information to prove the value that SAM is delivering as well as gaining the necessary sponsorship for continued (or increased) SAM investment.
These eight metrics are:
- The percentage of ‘managed’ software titles which can be covered by an accurate and timely Effective Licensing Positing (ELP) report
- The percentage of software vendors which can be covered by an accurate and timely Effective Licensing Position report
- The percentage of devices covered by the SAM platform
- The percentage of entitlements that is recorded in the SAM platform
- The percentage or volume of software titles that is recognized by the SAM solution
- The percentage of software requests that go through unauthorized channels
- The percentage of named user licences with ex-members of staff
- The percentage of servers not allocated a performance role
Each of these metrics is discussed in more detail in our new white paper, which is free to download.
By understanding the data requirements for each metric and then how to benchmark the metric against the organization’s goals, SAM managers can both track their own progress as well as demonstrate to third party stakeholders where the program is succeeding and where there is a need for greater investment, adoption and/or sponsorship.
Having the right technology, capable of capturing and reporting on the metrics described above, is half the battle.
The other half is understanding why the information is important and what to do with it. To understand the balance between the collection and interpretation of data, download the white paper today.