How a Mid-Sized Company Can Run SAM in Eight Weeks With MI One
An eight-week plan to implement software asset management with MI One: baseline, analysis, automation, optimization and governance, week by week.
By the MI Solutions SAM team10 min read4 exhibits
Software asset management does not have to be a year-long program. For a mid-sized company, a focused eight-week plan can produce a baseline, a first round of savings and the routine that keeps them. This is the plan we use in MI Solutions engagements, running on MI One.
The eight weeks
Exhibit 1
The five phases overlap, so the first savings arrive while the baseline is still being refined.
Exhibit 2
Weeks 1–2: Discover
Import contracts for the top 20 vendors. See contract import. Connect identity, device, cloud and SaaS sources, and import spreadsheets for the rest. Normalize vendors and assign owners.
Weeks 2–4: Analyze
Map entitlements to deployments, calculate utilization and find inactive users, overlapping tools and over-licensed tiers. See license mapping.
Weeks 3–6: Automate
Put every renewal on Renewal Radar with an owner, and set up MI Flow reminders. See automating renewal reminders.
Weeks 5–8: Optimize
Reclaim inactive licenses, right-size tiers, prepare upcoming renewals with evidence, and record a decision on each budget line. See reclaim lists and Planning Workbench.
Week 8 onward: Govern
Publish a short SAM policy, start a quarterly portfolio review and report savings against target. See SAM operating model.
Who does what
01Your coordinator
One person, a few hours a week: access to data sources, owners, decisions.
02Vendor owners
A short workshop each to confirm usage and renewal direction.
03Finance partner
Agrees how savings are measured, and joins the budget step.
04MI Solutions team
Runs the baseline, the analysis and the first optimization cycle on MI One.
Exhibit 3
What you have after eight weeks
Exhibit 4
Week-8 checklist
Run it yourself or with us
You can follow this plan with MI One on your own, or have our SAM team run it with you as a project or managed service.
Get started
Frequently asked questions
Is eight weeks realistic?
For the top vendors of a mid-sized company, yes. Larger or more complex estates take longer, but follow the same phases.
How much time does our team need to commit?
Typically a coordinator plus a few hours a week from vendor owners during discovery, then targeted workshops.
What happens after week 8?
The routine continues: monthly renewal reviews, quarterly reclaim cycles and the quarterly portfolio review, run by your team, by us, or together.
See where your software budget goes
Bring your five largest vendors to a 30-minute call. Our SAM experts will show you where the savings usually hide, and how fast MI One can surface them.
