Why we believe USU is a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: SAM Solutions, Q1 2025

Rising software costs, audit risks, and inefficient usage make it more important than ever to manage your licenses wisely. Too often, businesses get hit with surprise charges from license audits. That’s where Software Asset Management (SAM) comes in.

With the right tool, you can see exactly what software you’re using, cut redundant licenses, stay compliant, and negotiate better deals with your vendors. The result? You save money and get more value from your IT investments.

That’s why we’re excited to share that we’ve been named a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Software Asset Management Solutions, Q1 2025. This report highlights the strengths and strategies of nine top solutions—and you can get your complimentary copy from us.

"To us, this recognition confirms our strategy of integrating Software Asset Management into a comprehensive IT Asset Management approach. With innovative AI and FinOps technologies, we help companies efficiently manage their software costs."

--- Dr. Benjamin Strehl, CEO of USU

When evaluating SAM providers, Forrester recommends looking for these capabilities

• SaaS management with FinOps features
  Modern tools should offer full SaaS visibility—tracking usage, controlling shadow IT and optimizing costs in real time. When combined with FinOps practices, you gain better financial accountability and smarter cloud spending.
• End-to-end software lifecycle management
  The best providers support the entire lifecycle—from request and approval to usage and retirement. This ensures smoother operations, better compliance and more control over your software investments.
• AI/ML in contract and license management
  Choose vendors that integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate contract analysis, monitor license agreements and forecast usage trends. This helps you stay compliant, reduce manual work and optimize your license allocations.

Here’s what the Analyst Firm States about our Profile

"USU… has evolved from a pure-play SAM tool into an IT Asset Management (ITAM) solution that offers visibility into and optimization across Hardware Asset Management (HAM), Software Asset Management (SAM), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). With Thoma Bravo as a major stakeholder, USU emphasizes innovation in ITAM/SAM."

Forrester’s notes regarding the USU strategy

"USU’s superior vision is to enable hybrid enterprise IT management with a strong ITAM/SAM that enhances the broader structure of ITSM and ESM. USU is expanding into full SaaS management and has comprehensive FinOps coverage. AI is integral to its innovation, improving both user-facing functions like SAM chatbots and knowledge tools and back-end operations like EULA and SaaS license recognition."

Findings by Forrester Analysts on the USU SAM offering

"USU supports agent-based and agentless discovery, retrieving usage data directly from sources like Microsoft 365. Its customizable normalization process tracks assets on-premises and in the cloud; product use rights streamline license entitlement tracking. Financial features such as cash flow management, amortization, and cost allocation provide a full view of software spending. USU identifies licensing optimization opportunities during procurement and operations."

Conclusion: The SAM landscape is more strategic than ever

Software Asset Management within an ITAM industry is continuously on the move with new tools emerging or new vendors building through consolidations, each promising innovative ways to meet important use cases like IT asset visibility, cost optimization, compliance and risk management, or lifecycle management. With so many options and requirements, it can be challenging to identify the right solution for your ITAM journey.

Take time to match each provider’s strengths to your needs. And if you’re ready to get more value from your software investments, we’re here to help.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch through our contact form to ask your questions and engage with the experts. Follow the USU Blog to stay up to date with our latest posts.

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Report

Forrester Wave™ Report on Software Asset Management in 2025

An independent benchmark analysis with a SAM vendor assessment to guide your investment decision.

Download now

Disclaimer

Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester’s objectivity here.