C-level executives are aggressively seeking new ways to save money through 2023. They are increasingly turning to IT asset managers to discover savings.

Cutting back on unnecessary IT expenditure is essential. A Flexera The Report found that IT asset managers estimate, on average, that 1/3 or more of their IT budget is currently wasted. This includes desktop software (38% of wasted spend), data center software (34%), SaaS (33%), and IaaS/PaaS (33%).

With global economies teetering on the brink of recession, the importance and influence of Itam teams is growing. This year’s Flexera State of ITAM Report found that 43% of IT asset manager (ITAM) teams report directly to the CIO/CTO, nearly twice as many as last year when that figure was just 22%.

ITAM, SAM savings impacting IT budgets

High-performing ITAM teams continue to focus on cost savings and modernization. Top shelf ITAM managers know how to save money. Software asset management (SAM) programs achieved savings most successfully by reusing (non-cloud) licenses to avoid having to buy new ones (83%); better negotiating supplier contracts (83%); and reduction in maintenance expenses for unused software (81%). The study also found that savings from SAM programs increased as the programs matured.

ITAM managers know how to avoid audits. This is still an important skill. Fifty-two percent of respondents reported an audit by Microsoft in the past three years, followed by IBM (34%) and Oracle (31%). An unfortunate 14% of companies said they have paid more than $5 million in software vendor audit fees in the past three years — up from just 9% the year before.

More than half of SAM respondents (53%) underscored the importance of software asset management and reported having implemented “sophisticated” SAM practices, which the report says go beyond responding to audits and tracking SaaS and cloud usage, as well as ongoing tracking and optimization. of software licenses. Fewer organizations are this far into hardware asset management (HAM), with only 36% of reports adopting “advanced” HAM, defined in the report as including end-of-life/end-of-service tracking in addition to inventory, implementation and firmware.

Survey methodology

The Flexera State of ITAM report examines the thinking of 500 global professionals who manage and participate in ITAM, SAM and HAM processes in medium and large organizations with at least 1,000 employees. The research was conducted in the summer of 2022.

Read the full report from Flexera.