A SAM Discovery Tool is a software product designed to collect software installation data from your network and to create compliance reports. There are many Discovery Tools on the market. Some are expensive whilst others are free of charge.
Discovery is just one element of Software Asset Management – it is NOT a credible SAM strategy in itself. To manage software assets you need to know the licenses you own, understand your license entitlements and how these can be applied to your current installs, management of the process of requesting and approving new software installations, and management of the procurement process.
Discovery is a critical component of SAM, but only when you include license and ownership, approvals management and deployment. Do you have a credible SAM solution with just a SAM Tool?
Compliance reports are great, and if understood can save your company on licensing costs while helping to avoid legal costs related to software licensing violations. However, understanding the complexity around licensing isn’t straight forward. It requires someone with a full understanding and one who keeps up to date with Vendors changing licensing models & product use rights (PURs).
This is where The SAM Club comes in. We do not promote any particular Discovery Tools. Our service is to work with you and provide assistance and guidance where you use a SAM Tool to ensure the information provided is understood and used in the correct way in conjunction with our unique SAM Workbook.
If you do not use a Discovery Tool, The SAM Club can still assist with our unique SAM Workbook. The SAM Workbook contains data on what licenses you own, your entitlements and how these licenses are deployed. From here, with access to your Vendor licensing portals, we can provide the information and advice you need around licensing and compliance, together with inputs to budgets and technology road maps.