What software asset management is
Software asset management (SAM) is knowing three things for each client: what software is installed, what they’re paying for, and how much of what they pay for isn’t being used. Everything else, from renewal reminders to budget conversations, follows from those three answers.
For an MSP the stakes are practical. Clients pay for licences nobody uses, renewals roll over unnoticed, and a review meeting goes better when you can say what the waste is in pounds.
The three questions to answer for every client
- What is installed? The applications on each device, read from the MDM or RMM, not from memory.
- What is paid for? Every licence and subscription: seats bought, cost per seat, billing term and renewal or commitment date.
- What is unused? Seats bought minus seats in use, priced at what the client actually pays.
Where the data comes from
No single system holds all three answers, which is why spreadsheets go stale. In practice the data is spread across a few places:
- Installs: your MDM and RMM report the applications on every device. Not every tool does, so check which of yours do.
- Microsoft 365: the admin centre shows seats bought and assigned for each subscription, and Entra ID shows when users last signed in where the tenant has the right licence.
- Distributors: if you buy through a distributor, it holds the real client price, your cost and the commitment date.
- Everything else: line-of-business and security software is usually added once, with seats, cost and renewal date.
How to price licence waste
Waste is only worth acting on if it has a number. The sum is simple: unused seats multiplied by the cost per seat per month, multiplied by twelve.
As an illustration with made-up numbers: a client with 25 Microsoft 365 seats bought and 22 assigned has 3 unused. At £18 a seat a month that’s about £650 a year, which is easy to explain and easy to act on. Use the client’s own price where you can, because that’s the figure they care about.
A simple monthly routine
- Check seats bought against seats assigned for each subscription, and chase the gaps.
- Look at licensed accounts that are disabled or haven’t signed in for a long time.
- Review renewals and commitment dates coming up, so you can change seat counts while you still can.
- Add anything new a client has bought.
- Put the total waste, in pounds, in the client’s review.
Doing it without a spreadsheet
Omnia Manage keeps one licence register per client. Microsoft 365 seats sync from each tenant, installed software comes from Intune and Action1, distributor prices and commitment dates come from Pax8 and Arrow, and anything else is added once. Unused seats are priced in pounds, renewals email you at 30 days, 7 days and on the day, and the total sits in each client’s IT review.