Effective Software Asset Management (SAM) begins with the collection of data – data on your IT hardware and software assets as well as specific attributes about them. Ideally, this raw data is collected via an automated discovery tool and then fed into a normalization engine that transforms the data into software license titles. The normalization process can be done through a SAM tool or manually…regardless of how it is accomplished, the discovery data needs to be complete and accurate in order to gain the most value from your SAM program.