Software Asset Management (SAM) is a business practice that involves managing and optimizing the purchase, deployment, maintenance, utilization, and disposal of software applications within an organization. According to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), SAM is defined as "all of the infrastructure and processes necessary for the effective management, control and protection of the software assets throughout all stages of their lifecycle."

Fundamentally intended to be part of an organization's information technology business strategy, the goals of SAM are to reduce information technology (IT) costs and limit business and legal risk related to the ownership and use of software, while maximizing IT responsiveness and end-user productivity. SAM is one facet of a broader business discipline known as IT asset management, which includes overseeing both software and hardware that comprise an organization's computers and network.

With IT becoming more and more a business enabler IT needs to respond and deal with new technologies and demands. Focusing solely on software license compliance is no longer sufficient. IT organizations need to be prepared for business service management, servicing employee's that want to bring their own PC's and mobile devices to work, desktop virtualization and cloud computing.

Another need why SAM becomes more important is and should move up in the priority list for CIO's and CFO's is the increase in audits of software vendors due to the challenging economic times we're in. The number of customers that is targeted for a license review increased significantly in the last two years underpinning the need for proper Software Asset Management.