To manage your application portfolio well, you need a platform that does more than count licenses. It should assess relevance, remove duplicates, align with business goals, and support smart technology choices.
Why SAM Tools Are Not Effective for Application Portfolio Management
Software Asset Management (SAM) tools are popular for organizations that want to track software use and manage licenses. They excel at managing software licenses and ensuring compliance. But when it comes to the complex, strategic discipline of application portfolio management, SAM tools fall short.
Application portfolio management (APM) provides integral license visibility. Visibility helps avoid wasted spending, shadow IT risks, and missed chances for innovation.
SAM vs. Application Portfolio Management: The Core Difference
A software asset management tool is primarily designed for compliance and cost control. It answers the questions:
- Do we have the right licenses for the software we’re using?
- Are we compliant with vendor agreements?
- Where can we reclaim unused licenses?
An application portfolio management platform, by contrast, is about business enablement. It helps organizations see the value, redundancy, risk, and strategy of each application. This applies to on-prem, SaaS, and hybrid environments. APM is not just about whether you hold the correct license; it’s about whether you should use the application at all.
Application Portfolio Management is about driving the business forward. And that’s where Software Asset Management tools hit their ceiling.
How SAM Tools Miss the Mark
1. They’re Compliance-Centric, Not Strategy-Centric
SAM tools are great at managing software vendors. They help track licenses, ensure you are ready for audits, and spot possible overspending. But application portfolio management requires evaluating whether each app delivers ROI, aligns with business objectives, and supports innovation. SAM tools don’t help you understand why you have the app in the first place or whether it still belongs in your environment.
2. Limited SaaS Visibility
The software world has shifted to cloud-first, subscription-based ecosystems. SaaS management platforms can monitor usage down to the user level and uncover shadow IT. SAM tools often lack deep integrations with SaaS apps, relying on procurement data and manual input.
This means they often miss important usage patterns. For example, they may overlook redundant SaaS tools that do the same job. They might also miss apps that departments adopt without IT knowing.
3. Poor Lifecycle and Redundancy Management
Application portfolio management isn’t just about tracking what’s installed. Asset owners should focus on understanding the full lifecycle: onboarding, adoption, growth, decline, and retirement.
Application Portfolio Management tools can identify functional overlaps and rationalize your stack to reduce waste and complexity. SAM tools usually view software as either licensed or unlicensed. They do not consider if two apps are hurting each other’s value.
4. No Business Capability Mapping
One of the most powerful aspects of application portfolio management is linking each application to the business capabilities it supports. This creates a clear map of your technology’s contribution to strategic goals. SAM tools don’t typically have this feature.
They may know how many licenses you have and how many you use. However, they cannot say if the application helps with an important business task. It might just be another subscription that wastes money.
Application Portfolio Management Matters Right Now
Organizations are spending more than ever on software, especially SaaS. Without strategic oversight, stacks become bloated, redundant, and risky. Managing software licenses is necessary, but it’s not sufficient.
A SaaS management platform or dedicated APM solution gives you the visibility, analytics, and governance to make hard calls. Calls including cutting dead weight, consolidating vendors, and aligning tech spend with business outcomes. If your tool’s only superpower is producing a compliance report, you’re missing half the picture.
Navigate Towards Visibility and Control
Software asset management tools are invaluable for compliance and cost control. But they don’t manage the health, value, and future of your entire application ecosystem. To manage your application portfolio well, you need a platform that does more than count licenses. Your platform should assess relevance, remove duplicates, align with business goals, and support smart technology choices.
It should not only be about managing software vendors. It is also about managing the value your software brings to the business. If you don’t build your toolkit for that, you steer blind.
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