Gartner analyst Patricia Adams published a new ‘MarketScope’ for IT Asset Management Repositories last month. View a reprint here. In case my link sets off the Gartner intellectual property fire alarm (as it appears to have done in previous years) you can also view a reprint via this blog post from Jon Hall at BMC). The analysis is split into two parts: an industry synopsis followed by a broad-brush... 

The GPS in the satnav of your car is able to tell you your location by listening to signals of satellites orbiting the earth. Your GPS won’t work with one satellite source; it typically needs four different satellite signals in order to provide a confident judgment of your location. Each satellite in the sky transmits a message, which includes its current position and the time of transmission. From... 

The ‘Barium Manifesto’ back in December stated the need to ‘Shake things up’ in the software licensing industry and create an industry regulator. We’ve been busy building since then. I’m pleased to share with you that since January we have: Created a legal entity (not-for-profit limited by guarantee) Written a manifesto (Thanks to Kylie Fowler, Rory Canavan and Martin Chalkley for their... 

What do people mean when they refer to a ‘SKU Catalogue’ for license management? In this article I hope to demonstrate why organizations utilise SKU catalogues, the difference between SKU catalogues and software recognition and the business value to SAM practitioners. Shopping for Coca-Cola Browse any supermarket around the world and you are likely to find a section of the store dedicated to Coca-Cola... 

Jens Rugseth, CEO of Inmeta Crayon Norwegian licensing reseller and SAM specialist Inmeta Crayon has acquired FAST Limited. InMeta Crayon, with headquarters in Oslo, has presence in Northern Europe, Germany, France and the Middle East. The team has over 600 employees, over 10% of which are said to be ‘SAM Experts’. The company provides licensing, SAM services and consulting and claim that ‘SAM... 

Time to change the record? The BSA and other trade bodies such as FAST and SIIA have traditionally used a ‘Stick’ approach to raise license compliance up the corporate agenda. The CEO going to jail and fines are the usual battle cry (despite no executive responsible for license management going to jail in my knowledge for the last decade). Is it time for the BSA to change their tune? Especially... 

Swedish vendor Snow Software aims to be number one SAM vendor by 2015 (Turning Torso, Malmo, Sweden) Gutsy talk from Snow Software this week who are aiming to be the number one SAM tool in the world by 2015 following 44% growth last year. The announcement came with the release of V6.2 of their License Management offering. Snow claim their SAM offering will be ‘the first SAM specialist to offer customers... 

An ITAM Review reader writes: Reader: In my organization, I face a problem that may take sometime to solve, but something that you may have come across earlier. We have users who speak in ambiguous language yet the service desk forces us to understand requirements and provide something. It is my firm belief that the user should know exactly what he wants. Another problem I have is with the users requesting... 

This independent review of the Berlin release from ServiceNow is part of our 2012 SAM Tools Review. See all participants and terms of the review here. Executive Summary Elevator Pitch ITAM & ITSM repositories on a common platform Strengths One organically developed cloud platform for ITAM & ITSM Weaknesses No software recognition database Primary Market Focus Mid-market to Large enterprises,... 

Editor’s Note: News that an ITAM Review reader was fired due to a license shortfall attracted considerable interest and debate on the LinkedIn group. In this article the IT Asset Manager shares her story in her own words. If this situation arose in Europe my uneducated guess is very good grounds for unfair dismissal (Having seen the e-mail history and performance review documentation). Unfortunately...