Unless properly managed, SAM engagements can be expensive and disruptive to organizations.
Reno, NV (PRWEB) September 24, 2014
When Bruce Liley launched Broomstick in January, he had just left a successful 13-year career at Microsoft where he managed the company’s licensing and contract compliance organization for the Americas' region, and developed a majority of Microsoft's customer and partners audit compliance programs.
Now he's using that knowledge and experience for his new start-up, which helps clients of all sizes and industries find the most cost-effective and optimal software licensing solutions for their businesses. Broomstick's staff has a combined 45 years of experience in Microsoft licensing and has completed over 4,000 software-licensing audits.
In addition to experience, the company features a unique hook. According to Liley, many of the software resellers who perform licensing reviews make commissioned sales or have a financial stake in a company deciding to buy certain licenses at the completion of their licensing review. Broomstick is uniquely independent of Microsoft and all other software resellers and does not benefit from customers purchasing software at the completion of a Broomstick licensing review. This means their focus is entirely on finding cost-effective licensing solutions for their clients with no conflict of interest.
“We don’t sell software, and we have no intention to sell software,” Liley said in an interview with Northern Nevada Business Weekly. “There is a market opportunity to help customers without trying to sell them.”
Broomstick helps companies evaluate and reconcile their software deployment with entitlement and remain in compliance with Microsoft software licensing arrangements, which is proving especially valuable since Microsoft is on its second year as the most aggressive software auditor. Broomstick also helps companies analyze their software agreements and identify cost saving opportunities.
“Having an independent and confidential assessment by an organization outside of the selling ecosystem and being ready for agreement negotiations is financially beneficial and ensures alignment with the organization’s goals of an optimized licensing environment, compliance with agreements, and importantly minimizing the cost of software ownership,” said Liley.
"Organizations often pay too much for software because they’re over-licensed or at legal and financial risks because they’re under-licensed," said Liley. "We save organizations money through optimized right licensing solutions, product configurations, licensing training programs, and pricing strategies that minimize software licensing costs and proactively mitigating agreement non-compliance risk."
Broomstick also manages a growing number of “Software Asset Management” (SAM) requests from Microsoft and software resellers, which involves Microsoft identifying companies and paying their resellers to complete license reconciliations and share them with Microsoft.
"Software resellers and Microsoft mutually benefit from SAM engagements given the virtual certainty the targeted company will have license gaps and be required to make additional and often unwanted software purchases," Liley said. "Unless properly managed, SAM engagements can be expensive and disruptive to organizations."
Rather than allowing all the benefits to go to big software companies, Liley's company levels the playing field. "Helping companies find the right licenses and evaluate optimal licensing solutions is a win-win for customers and Microsoft," Liley told Northern Nevada Business Weekly. "It’s wonderful to follow your passion and have a positive impact on customers."
About Broomstick, LLC
Serving as an independent software licensing advisor company, Broomstick, LLC helps organizations reconcile, analyze, and optimize their software solutions. To learn more about the team's unique approach to software licensing, visit broomstick.guru.