How to build a scalable ITAM strategy that delivers on its promise

Asset data lives in spreadsheets, compliance reports, and vendor portals. Sure, it gets tracked, counted, and reviewed — but it rarely tells the full story of an organization’s ITAM strategy.

ITAM programs that appear functional on the surface often fall short where it matters most: cost control, operational clarity, and strategic flexibility. The organization in question may have invested in ITAM tools, and their dashboards might glow green, but the real questions go unanswered.

Which licenses are underused?

Which software as a service (SaaS) tools are duplicative?

Which contracts are bleeding budget quarter after quarter?

Many organizations don’t know. Not because they’re ignoring ITAM, but because they didn’t scale their programs alongside the estates they’re meant to govern.

What should ITAM already be delivering?

IT environments rarely stay still. Assets multiply, software licensing evolves, and cloud usage surges without warning. But, for many organizations, ITAM programs remain narrowly focused, anchored in compliance while everything around them accelerates.

That myopic focus leaves value on the table. Optimization efforts stall until true-ups force the issue. License data exists, but doesn’t shape procurement strategy. Sustainability goals get set without the asset intelligence required to support them.

A mature ITAM strategy helps surface the right decisions before they become urgent. It draws clear lines between entitlements and actual usage. It helps identify overlap and inefficiency in sprawling SaaS portfolios. And it supports environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives with data that tracks hardware lifecycles, energy usage, and responsible disposal.

More than anything, it creates confidence across teams, renewals, and budgets. So if that foundation is missing, gaps start to form.

Why does ITAM still often fall short?

The idea of ITAM is rarely the issue. Most organizations understand the need. They’ve invested in tools, built internal processes, and assigned responsibility. But even with the right intentions, many programs never gain momentum.

One reason is bandwidth. ITAM often starts as a small team tasked with monitoring compliance. Over time, the responsibilities multiply — SaaS tracking, hybrid cloud governance, sustainability mandates — but the headcount doesn’t. Specialists become generalists and visibility fades. According to Flexera’s 2024 State of ITAM Report, 53% of IT teams report challenges in gaining or maintaining complete visibility into their technology investments.

Another roadblock is tooling. Many organizations still rely on spreadsheets to manage IT assets. Even those with discovery tools struggle to connect data across business units, contracts, or cloud providers. The result is a patchwork of systems that can’t keep up with the organization’s technology growth.

And leadership hesitancy compounds the problem. Many still perceive ITAM as overhead, not an opportunity. If tooling costs are scrutinized and headcount requests stall, then the risk remains theoretical until it becomes real.

So, it’s not that organizations are doing nothing. It’s that their current approaches aren’t always built to scale. And the longer they remain stagnant, the harder it becomes to course correct.

What is good ITAM actually worth?

A well-run ITAM program prevents problems and creates measurable value through cost avoidance, strategic alignment, and better use of existing assets. But the gap between perceived performance and actual results remains wide.

Flexera found that even advanced ITAM teams estimate 30% waste on desktop software. For data center software, it’s 22%. For infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and SaaS, 20% each. These numbers reflect a persistent inefficiency hiding beneath the surface of day-to-day operations.

Audit risk adds another layer. In the past three years, 22% of surveyed organizations in Flexera’s report paid over $5 million in audit-related costs, and the number of companies hit with penalties exceeding $10 million nearly doubled.

License reuse, reduced maintenance on unused software, and stock-keeping unit (SKU) corrections have become essential levers for avoiding waste. Per the same report, 45% of ITAM professionals cite license reuse as their primary source of cost savings, followed by vendor negotiation and reclaiming underused products.

This is the value organizations should expect. Optimization, cost control, and risk mitigation aren’t “nice-to-have” deliverables. They’re the baseline of an ITAM program that’s working as intended.

No one should build an ITAM strategy alone

Publisher licensing changes, new SaaS contracts emerge, cloud migrations require oversight, and executive sustainability goals evolve. Everything moves fast and depends on having the right data in the right place at the right time. That’s hard to do with a small internal team, no matter how skilled they are.

That’s where SHI comes in. Our IT asset management services are built around modular, right-sized capabilities that scale to your needs, whether you’re supplementing internal staff or outsourcing end-to-end program management.

For organizations just starting out or reassessing their current strategy, our ITAM discovery and inventory services offer a clear starting point. These engagements provide actionable insights into asset inventory, software usage, license positions, process maturity, and more.

Are you concerned about audit exposure or licensing complexity? We can help. From readiness reviews to publisher-specific negotiations, our audit management experts bring experience across Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP, and other top vendors, offering you guidance throughout every phase.

For ongoing program optimization, our software asset management (SAM) managed services deliver tailored license optimization strategies. That includes entitlement tracking, contract rationalization, SKU corrections, and spend forecasting.

And for organizations aligning ITAM to ESG goals, our sustainability solutions help track hardware lifecycles, support responsible recycling and reuse, and build ESG reporting into core ITAM workflows.

Whether you need publisher-specific expertise or support across your full IT estate, we deliver the depth and scale to maximize your ITAM strategy.

How can you fix your ITAM program?

Most ITAM programs aren’t broken. They’re unfinished.

Organizations that want more from ITAM don’t need to start over. They need better alignment between priorities and capabilities. That means building visibility that extends beyond compliance, creating processes that support sustainability goals, and enabling teams to make confident, well-timed decisions about the assets they manage.

That level of performance doesn’t come from dashboards alone. It comes from strategy, expertise, and support that can adjust to the shape and scale of your IT infrastructure.

Ready to take control of your IT estate? Connect with our experts to help you reduce risk, cut waste, and build a smarter, more sustainable ITAM strategy.