Enterprise Opinions

Welcome to ITAMantics, where our experts unpack the headlines shaking up the ITAM world. In this May 2025 episode AJ Witt, Martin Thompson, and Kelly Yip explore the stories making waves across cybersecurity, licensing, and sustainability. Stories discussed this month: Cybersecurity breaches hit UK retailers M&S and the Co-op — what ITAM can learn from the fallout Social engineering tactics and the growing risk to asset and security management Broadcom’s aggressive VMware licensing audits — what they mean for your estate The rise of the secondary software market and what’s driving its momentum How ITAM and FinOps collaboration can strengthen organisational resilience and efficiency

In this episode, we’ll delve into the opportunities and challenges that AI presents for sustainable IT. While AI technologies offer significant potential for optimizing operations and improving energy efficiency, they also come with increased resource demands, such as substantial data center requirements, cooling systems, and the raw materials needed for hardware. We’ll explore whether the energy savings from AI initiatives are sufficient to offset these resource consumption impacts and how organizations can effectively navigate this balance. Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on the role of IT Asset Management (ITAM) in leveraging AI for sustainability while considering the broader environmental implications.

FinOps has long focused on managing cloud spend—but that's beginning to change. In this episode, AJ Witt speaks with Jennifer Kuvlesky at Flexera about the March 2025 FinOps scope expansions and what they mean for SaaS and data center environments. They explore why FinOps is broadening its horizons, how this shift impacts ITAM professionals, and what organisations should expect next. "With cloud data, you can't do your job without understanding where and how things are being used—it's essential for managing spend and securing value." - Jennifer Kuvlesky at Flexera. Download Flexera's State of Cloud Report: https://info.flexera.com/CM-REPORT-State-of-the-Cloud?lead_source=Organic%20Search

Sustainability in IT is no longer just a buzzword—it’s a necessity. But how can ITAM play a role in making organisations greener and more responsible? Is the business world truly aware of the scale of the challenge ahead? AJ Witt and Megan Barradell from SHI share their insights on the topic. "We’ve got the vision, and the willingness is there—but the real question is, how do we actually make it happen?" – Megan Baradell

More companies are turning to refurbished and second-source equipment, but what’s driving the shift? And how has the industry evolved over the years? AJ Witt speaks with Neil Peters-Michaud (Cascade Asset Management), to talk about the changing landscape of ITAD, how COVID-19 reshaped supply chains, and why reuse and refurbishment are becoming the new normal. "COVID forced the industry to focus more on repair and refurbishment—because when new devices weren’t available, reuse became essential." – Neil Peters-Michaud Listeners can request our Benchmarking Report here: https://cascade-assets.com/cascade-benchmarking-report/

In this episode, Kelly Yip speaks with Fulvio Inserra from The Mastermind Group (TMG) about the perception of ITAM within organisations. What is this perception and does it hinder ITAM? Does it keep ITAM within a 'box'? What do you think? Do we need a rebrand? Fulvio always keeps us on our toes with his fresh insights. Here's one of our favourite quotes from this episode: “We all have a role to play. It's all of us collectively. We need to be better at putting shining examples into the spotlight to get others to understand the value ITAM delivers.”

Do you know of any alternative, maybe lesser-known, software suppliers that can save you money while not compromising on quality? Well, here's one. Meet Nitro. It offers PDF and eSign tools. Here's one of our favourite soundbites: "If you're fed up with a particular vendor, go and seek alternatives - vote with your feet and spend your money somewhere else."

Join AJ Witt and Dr. Mike Corey and Dean Bolton from LicenseFortress as they discuss the dos, don'ts, pitfalls to avoid, and more, when it comes to navigating software renewals. Here’s one of our favourite soundbites: “You have to know what you’re consuming. What are you using, and what software or products aren’t you using? If you don’t understand what your use is, you’re in no position to determine what licenses you should get rid of, what licenses you should keep, what licenses you should purchase more of so when the next audit comes, you're not under licensed. It really does comes back to those basics if you want to understand if you’re paying a fair price.”

In this episode, AJ Witt speaks with Robbie Plourde from USU about what's new in SaaS Management, moving from cost to value, and the influence of AI.

Well, this is quite a thought-provoking question! In this episode, ex-Gartner Analysts Ryan Stefani and Ken Gonzalez discuss the future of ITAM and ITSM. As Ryan says, ITAM isn't really dead...it just needs to evolve, and there are new technologies enabling and preparing ITAM and ITSM to let go of the past.

In this episode, Ryan Stefani speaks with Tamara Lajara, FinOps Team Lead at Crayon about the similarities and differences between ITAM and FinOps. Spoiler alert - there are more similarities than differences. And, forget the ongoing debate...should FinOps report to ITAM?...should ITAM report to FinOps?...Isn't FinOps really just ITAM? It doesn't matter. What matters is the answer to this key question: what is the organisation's goal? Yes, ITAM and FinOps may look the same and share common goals, but you wouldn't use a hammer to cut a piece of wood. The answer to the question above will tell you which tool you need.

The Dutch Police became the 4th organisation (ever!) to gain ISO 19770-1 certification for its ITAM management system. In this episode, we speak to the people inside the organisation who made this happen. We hear about their certification journey and the benefits certification brings to their team and to the Dutch Police.

Welcome to ITAMantics, our monthly news podcast where we discuss the biggest ITAM stories from the last month. George is joined for this April 2024 edition by AJ Witt and Ryan Stefani. Stories discussed this month: 1. Flexera is first SAM tool vendor verified for Oracle E-Business Suite applications 2. Software Vendor Insights: What do the numbers tell us about the opportunities for ITAM negotiations? 3. Broadcom is removing expired VMware licences from its portal - take action now! 4. Who Loses When Broadcom Wins?

We sit down with Arthur Lozinski, CEO and Co-Founder of Oomnitza, to talk about the changing face of asset management within a modern business. We look at how all technology is connected within an organisation - i.e. managing SaaS and cloud shouldn't be separated from managing software and hardware on-premises - and the fact that a holistic approach is needed. The need for real-time data and actions means that automation becomes ever more important and adopting true Enterprise Technology Management (ETM) can be a competitive advantage to your business. Join Rich and Arthur to learn more and discover how ITAM professionals can grow and expand along with the future of asset management.

March 2024 edition of ITAMantics, where George, Rich and Ryan discuss the month's ITAM news. Up for discussion this month are: 1 - a survey from Oomnitza which suggests poor inventory data is to blame for increased audit costs 2 - Can you run Oracle on Microsoft Azure, and what are the pitfalls to avoid? 3 - Is HAM the Comeback King?

In this joint ITAM Review / ITAM Forum podcast, George Wright and Jennifer Carr join forces to interview Sarah Marriott, director at Anglepoint. Sarah is the Consultant of the Year 2023 at the annual ITAM Review Excellence Awards.

As hybrid environments become the norm within organisations, considering what you can run where is a key component of system architecture and IT Asset Management. In this episode, Rich talks to Dean (LicenseFortress) and Tim (Bridgeton Data) about the dos and don'ts of running Oracle software in the Microsoft Azure cloud - from both a licensing and a technical perspective. If you have Oracle software and Microsoft Azure in your environment, this episode will help you define what can (and can't) be done as they come together.

In this month's edition of ITAMantics George and Rich discuss another Quest audit ending up in court, a Slack customer falling foul of Slack's broken data migration tool (and facing the threat of their data being deleted), Flexera completing its acquisition of Snow Software, and "Chatbot Turbulence" - Air Canada's misguided AI which gave a customer incorrect advice.

Martin Thompson speaks with James Hatcher from Lansweeper about the value ITAM brings to infosecurity, as well as discussing Lansweeper's contribution to the Safehouse Initiative, a collaborative organization that brings together vendors to help educate companies of all sizes in order to improve overall cyber resilience.

In this joint ITAM Review / ITAM Forum episode, George Wright and Jennifer Carr join forces to interview Mihai Ciupala, Software Asset Management Specialist at _VOIS (Vodafone Intelligent Solutions). Mihai is the 2023 winner of the Rising Star Award, sponsored by SHI, at the 2023 ITAM Review Excellence Awards. This is one of a series of interviews with the reigning winners of the Excellence Awards. Because this is a collaboration between the ITAM Review and the ITAM Forum, this is both an ITAM Review Fireside Chat AND an ITAM Forum Change Makers podcast. We hope you enjoy the mashup format!