Software asset management (SAM) tools are solutions that provide automation to support tasks required to produce and maintain compliance with independent software vendor (ISV) license use rights, while improving an organization’s ability to proactively identify and optimize software risk and spend. SAM tools provide in-depth software asset analysis through: - Conducting discovery - Analyzing software license entitlements - Automating the collection of software consumption data - Establishing ISV effective license position (ELP) - Governing software assets - Optimizing software value delivery - Sharing information with other tools and stakeholders