Research highlights SAM shortfall

Opportunities abound for resellers to plug the gap between UK firms' awareness of software asset management (SAM) and the investment they actually need to make, new research has suggested.

The survey of 149 IT professionals, carried out by VAR EasySAM and vendor Centennial Software, found increased focus on SAM among UK IT departments, with 75 per cent of respondents saying they conduct a software audit at least monthly.

However, EasySAM said the current UK software piracy rate of 26 per cent proves that most organisations are still not equipped to make effective decisions about licensing.

Robbie Richmond, managing director of EasySAM, said: “If firms are conducting audits but do not know what to do with the data, resellers can offer that as a service.”

The research also found that 76 per cent of those polled had been contacted by software publishers in the last year, as vendors look to licensing among existing customers to fill revenue gaps.

Matt Fisher, vice president of marketing at Centennial, said: “The divide in awareness and investment provides the channel with the opportunity to go in and do the last bit
of the job.”