Kylie Fowler: ITAM for strategic decision making

26 August 2016
4 minute read
ITAM News & Analysis

Kylie Fowler: ITAM for strategic decision making

26 August 2016
4 minute read

In this video Kylie Fowler of ITAM intelligence, speaker at our UK Conference speaks about where IT asset management is going and what is changing in the market by referring to an article we published back in May ( You can find the article here.) She also speaks about the role of a strategic procurement professional and what part they have to play when negotiating with software vendors.

Kylie will be speaking at day one and two of our UK Conference covering Microsoft Audit Defence in her Plenary session and Microsoft Negotiation in the cloud era in her workshop.

Plenary: Microsoft Audit Defence

We all know that large software vendors such as Microsoft, Autodesk and Oracle, use an audit checklist to decide who they should potentially target – M&A? Check; Federated organisation? Check; transactional buying? Check; Audit? Check!

But there is another checklist that you may not recognise – it goes something like this: Ageing estate? Check; Government clients? Check; Relatively new senior management team? Check; potential software non-compliance? Check!

This checklist is one the sales people, not the compliance team, use to decide which of their clients might be ready to make a major software investment. They will start engaging at senior executive level within the business and then, depending on the response, they may kick off a software ‘review’ with the IT Department to identify software non-compliance. But an audit is not really what they want – rather than taking you to the cleaners, the goal is to understanding your business requirements (and help you and the business understand them too!) and, if there is a business case, negotiating a strategic software investment.

This scenario is a compliance driven Strategic Software Negotiation. When you find yourself in this situation, you need to draw on different skills from the ones you need to run a successful audit. What are these skills? And how do you turn around a potentially damaging, confrontational situation into one that is indeed a ‘win-win’ for both parties?

Kylie Fowler, Principle Consultant at ITAM Intelligence, will present a blended case study which brings together elements from several different compliance driven strategic software negotiations to draw out the key aspects of the process and explain the important role a software asset manager must play in helping build a business case that turns a potentially nasty compliance audit into a strategic software investment which will benefit the business for years to come.

Workshop: Microsoft Negotiation in the cloud era

Software is a funny beast – with limited choice of products and vendors in any given market niche, along with the fact that the costs associated with changing vendors and applications can be prohibitive, trying to negotiate with the big players of the software world can be a frustrating experience. One of the biggest and most complex of the software vendor beasts is Microsoft. Microsoft can be a tough negotiator, but if you understand what it is THEY want out of the deal, as well as being clear about your own goals, you will find that a successful negotiation is possible, even in the most difficult of circumstances.


Come and meet Kylie and attend her expert sessions at Twickenham Stadium, UK on 4th & 5th October 2016.

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