General compliance gets in the way of software asset management

The focus on general compliance issues is getting in the way of achieving the benefits of software asset management (SAM).

A survey conducted by SAM consultant Liken Group reveals that 87% of IT and SAM executives questioned felt that a growing focus on compliance-only criteria meant SAM targets under the ISO/IEC 19770-1 standard were unsustainable.

Other areas of the standard such as risk mitigation and cost control are also being sidelined, says the research, by an ill informed, short-sighted approach at board level, which some respondents described as a “tick-box” compliance culture.

In the survey, 87% of respondents felt that unless the situation changed drastically, their organisations would be unlikely to meet full SAM targets over the next 12 months.

Of these, 80% felt that the situation had worsened markedly over the last 12 months, as enterprise wide compliance-only business drivers have taken centre stage.

Of those who feared for their own company’s ability to achieve and sustain ISO 19770-1, 95% felt it was due to a top-down squeeze on internal resources, and 83% said a lack of board level understanding of the benefits of the standard as a whole package was to blame.

In addition, 82% of those who expressed concerns were worried that other benefits of the standard, such as risk mitigation and cost control, would be lost.

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