SAM Orchestration Manager

Job description

MISSION

( Why the position exists )

The SAM Orchestration Manager will act as a Software Asset Management (SAM) ambassador to assigned region(s), while servicing and advising the software and license management needs of business users and internal consumers. Will help to evangelize and enable SAM policies, processes, standards, and other related policies across the regions, ensuring gaps or inconsistencies are tracked with the global team and remediated timely with support from cross-functional teams and consultants. Leads the region’s ongoing improvement efforts in SAM and Software Compliance methodologies, aligning to the goals and objectives of the Global Head of SAM.

Job Summary

The SAM Orchestration Manager is the key point of contact for enabling, advising, and advocating for business employees within assigned region(s) (e.g., International Operations, Europe, etc.), pertaining to software. This position will serve as a key liaison between regional business users and the centralized SAM operations team, helping to maximize ROI on technology spend, enhance the customer experience, and mitigate license compliance risks. Key components to this position are to advise or engage with employees on software lifecycle requests through the service desk workflow, help implement SAM initiatives or projects, and enforce as well as educate customers on SAM policies, processes, and standards to drive consistency across the enterprise.

Key Responsibilities

· Enforce and enable SAM policies, processes, and standards, both global and any region-specific to establish adherence and maintain compliance

· Operationalize global cost reduction and process efficiency initiatives, and proactively identify, track and report IT cost savings within assigned region(s)

· Serve as primary regional point of contact for software related requests through the service desk workflow (e.g., ServiceNow), starting with planning through retirement of IT assets

· Partner with global/regional Application and Capability Owners regarding software title ownership, certification, and other SAM lifecycle processes

· Participate in the continual update of global KPIs, while owning some of the local/regional data for regional KPIs

· Participate in regularly scheduled regional meetings led by the Global Head of SAM to review metrics around policy and standards enforcement, software planning initiatives, and track remediation of existing issues and raise new ones

· Review new software requests for accuracy and adherence to standards and policies, as well as re-harvest/redeployment opportunities

· Assign, reject or re-assign software request tickets, or work with requestors on alternative options, , and ensure the necessary data is captured for compliance, procurement, deployment, and customer satisfaction purposes

· Escalate potential compliance matters, standards or policy deviations, and other software related issues to the Global Head of SAM

· Drive process and system improvements to raise the quality of software asset data and application ownership within assigned region(s), and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of SAM processes

· Educate regional employees on SAM policies, standards, and processes for continuous improvement

· Monitor and track the quality of SAM data and program metrics, reporting any gaps or trends

· Coordinate the collection of trustworthy deployment and entitlement data, whether via automated means or manual collection effort, to calculate an effective licensing position for publishers in support of SAM lifecycle activities and vendor audits

· Educate regional IT administrators on proper data collection methods for supporting global vendor compliance and audit efforts

· Review software or renewal quotes to ensure they align with the requestor’s requirements as well global SAM standards and policies

· Review/Approve software or renewal quotes in accordance with global SAM standards and policies, documenting any regional exceptions, and ensure alignment to global enterprise-wide agreements, where such contracts exist

· Assist with any regional software vendor negotiations or sourcing engagements (e.g., acquisitions or renewals), as assigned by the Global Head of SAM or requested by Indirect Procurement

· Reconcile software licenses deployed against approved orders, and update the status of the corresponding software tickets or requests

· Approve and assign licenses for deployment, capturing the associated data for compliance and customer satisfaction purposes

· Review regional software vendor contracts for financial, functional and compliance risks, and escalate potential issues to Indirect Procurement and/or the Global Head of SAM

· Respond to cross-functional team escalations for all SAM operational activities, including the status of publisher deployments and entitlements within assigned region(s)

· Act as the main SAM operations point of contact for the region(s), communicating the status of any open software tickets and timely addressing any issues
· Support Governance on data collection efforts for vendor audits and software compliance efforts

· Create and implement the assigned region’s software audit remediation plan, partnering with Governance and cross-functional teams

· Provide the necessary data for the assigned region(s) around utilization and standards reporting, and recommend opportunities for more efficient use of IT software investments

· Engage SAM Process Manager on a regular basis to ensure policy and standards conformance across each region, identify and track issues, and develop region specific remediation plans for implementation and monitoring

· Build strong working relationships with cross-functional leads within assigned region(s) to help drive continuous validation and enhancement efforts for SAM lifecycle processes

· Stay up to date on SAM leading practices, industry standards (e.g., ISO) and vendor licensing models and/or metrics to ensure the effective enablement of the SAM program strategy

Desired profile

Qualifications :

Education:

· Bachelor's/College Degree in business or technical field (e.g., Computer Science, Management Information Systems, etc.)

· CSAM, CITAM, ITIL, PMP, MCSE and CompTIA A+ certifications are a plus

Job Related Experience:

· 5+ years of SAM and software licensing experience

· 5+ years of IT Business Relationship Management

· 3+ years of IT service or help desk experience

Others (e.g., language skills, technical skills) :

· Strong communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills

· Working knowledge of traditional on-premise, as well as cloud-based software licensing, for software vendors to include Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Salesforce, and others

· Ability to translate licensing terms and conditions in vendor contracts to license compliance or SAM data requirements

· Strong technical aptitude to understand the function, value, interdependencies, and alternative options of software items in the Enterprise Catalog

· Can interpret or evaluate publisher ELP (compliance) reports to help identify cost savings opportunities or support license compliance efforts

· Proactively identify cost savings opportunities relating to software and software maintenance

· Strong customer service, project and problem management skills

· Self-motivated, goal oriented, and an innovative thinker

· Maintain strong analytic, technical, and troubleshooting skills

· Working experience with IT Service Management tools (e.g., Remedy or ServiceNow)

· Strong proficiency Microsoft O365 or similar tools

· Continuous improvement attitude – ability to seek out and implement external leading SAM practices