NCC Members have free access to this Guideline on the Principia website.

Software asset management is an emerging specialisation in the field of IT Asset Management. Currently very few companies take a systematic approach to managing their software assets and there are few specialist practitioners. This probably results from the unique challenges posed by managing software assets, on the IT team.

Unlike other physical assets such as cars or PCs, software is more difficult to identify and account for simply because it can't be seen without special audit or discovery tools. You may know what was originally deployed but is it still out there?

Again unlike physical assets, which are typically owned and written off over a period of time, most commercial software is not owned by the oganisation, but licensed and the terms of the license govern what may and may not be done.

The challenge is greatest with applications software, which may be deployed on many thousands of PCs including laptops that are remote from the organisation's network. Unless locked down users can install additional software, which makes the management task even more challenging.

The result of poor software management is inefficiency that results in higher IT spending, higher IT support costs and wasted budgets.

Software Asset Management can reduce the total cost of ownership of the organisation's software assets and improve the effectiveness of application deployment, which will have wide-ranging benefits across the whole organisation.