SAM: Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast
The quote above is not exclusively the domain of SAM, nor is it my own: thank you Peter Drucker. SAM professionals (myself included) have long chimed the mantra of SAM being all about the right blend of people, process and technology.
But perhaps it is time to add a 4th circle to that often-referenced Venn diagram: Appetite for Change.
I want to turn this question over to the end-user community: those organizations that have received SAM consultancy to the point of having compliance reports generated for them - how many of you acted on the guidance that would have saved you money?
When presented with that red or black figure at the bottom of an ELP (Effective License Position) did you feel like the assignment ended? or did you feel like another program of work was about to start? How many reasons could you come with up NOT to apply the recommended improvements that an ELP might have contained?
This is the rub - this is the grit that forms the oyster. This is where the organization has to put some skin in the game. Another quote I am fond of referencing comes from Thomas Edison:
"Opportunity is often missed because it is disguised in overalls and looks like work".
领英推荐
The SAM consultancy did not perform the equivalent of shoving screwdrivers into the back of your servers, nor did it hypnotize your users to buy volumous quantities of software that were surplus to requirements.
Perhaps it is time to re-engineer the definition of SAM to accommodate a needed appetite for change:
"SAM is the discipline of maintaining an accepted value of demonstrable software contracts and licenses, balanced against the risk of non-compliance and appetite for change."
And this is where we start to delve into the realm of FinOps - what do we mean by value? Is it purely fiscal? or could it be regulatory or legislatory? Comparing the cost of an e-portal against its technology stack is relatively straightforward, but what happens when that technology stack underpins a CRM solution or a payroll system? Perspective is subjective: our point of view in demonstrating value against the cost of IT has to be meaningful to the business, not merely those in charge of accounting.
As ever, your thoughts on the above are welcomed - particularly so against the proposed new definition of SAM!