Last month the ITIL v3 guide to Software Asset Management was published. This guide is complementary to the core ITIL publications and is the result of a review and update of the original ITIL v2 Software Asset Management book. This is good news especially for those that need to optimize their software cost, get better visibility into software ownership and /or who are facing software licensing compliance issues e.g. as a result of virtualization.

Wat is Software Asset Management (SAM)? Interestingly enough the ITIL v3 glossary does not provide a definition for SAM, but only for Asset Management. The new book however solves this gap by providing the following definition: "Software Asset Management (SAM) is all of the infrastructure and processes necessary for the effective management, control and protection of the software assets within an organization, throughout all stages of their lifecycle."

Now in terms of how SAM is related to other ITILv3 components, I see some challenges. First of all the SAM book indicates in section 1.1 that the SAM database  - which I think should be called a Software Asset Register to be consistent wih the ITIL v3 glossary - is logically part of the Configuration Management System. This brings up the question: which process owns / manages which information? SAM or Software Asset and Configuration Management (SACM)? If the answer is both, what happens when there are conflicting changes?

Secondly there is a definition issue; Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM) is defined in the ITILv3 glossary as "the process responsible for both configuration management and asset management", where Asset Management is "the process responsible for tracking and reporting the value and ownership of financial assets throughout their lifecycle".  In addition the ITILv3 SAM book indicates at the end of section 9.1: "SACM is the critical process in the support of SAM". So  far so good.  Where I am getting confused is when I also read in section 9.1: "Asset management, however, forms the basis of any good SAM system, and is best accomplished using a supporting relational database. The overall asset management process within SAM include: ...". And my brains are further tested when it says: "All of the financial aspects of asset management are within the scope of financial management".

So, although the ITILv3 SAM book gives provides good advice on how to justify, define and implement Software Asset Management, there is still some work to be done when integrating SAM into an ITILv3 based service management system.

By the way: Did you know that HP provides one of the market leading IT Asset Management products which also supports Software Asset Management (incl. heterogeneous virtualized environments)? Check it out here!

Regards,
Jeroen Bronkhorst