SAM, meet FinOps: it’s time to talk value

FinOps already talks business value. Software asset management is still mostly talking about audits. 

Joel Sanderi looks back on Heliview in Stockholm with Andrée Lundberg (FinOps Lead at H&M Group) and Mathias Kos (COO at Notrex), and the conversation quickly turns to what SAM has to change to earn a seat at the leadership table. Why do decision-makers rarely show up at SAM conferences? Why does leadership only remember SAM at renewals and big audits? What happens when AI spend goes from token maxing and FOMO to a hunt for real business value? And with Microsoft audits heading into cloud services, the pressure is coming from both sides. 

Should SAM stay in its lane of cost and compliance, or step into business value before someone else does? Not everyone in the room agrees. 

In this episode:

 → Frontier talk on stage vs. 70% tool coverage in real life 

 → Why leadership calls SAM at renewals and audits, and never in between 

 → Microsoft audits move into cloud services 

 → From token maxing to effectiveness: sorting AI use cases into “value areas” 

 → Should SAM stay in cost and compliance, or step into business value?