Wisdom Australia 2019 Speaker Spotlight: SAM success across 80,000 devices

This is the second “speaker spotlight” article for Wisdom Australia 2019 – a chance for you to see some of the wonderful speakers and sessions we’ve got in store for you this November in Melbourne.

If you’ve not yet registered, go and do it now – https://marketplace.itassetmanagement.net/event/itam-review-annual-conference-2019-australia/ …then come back and read this article 😁

Alan Benger, Head of SAM, NAB

The second speaker I had a chance to talk to is Alan Benger, Head of SAM at National Australia Bank (NAB).

What is your Wisdom Australia 2019 session called?

A SAM Journey: Successes and pitfalls of covering 80k device and 20+ vendors in 8 months

What is your session about?

In Feb 19, NAB set out on an ambitious journey of rapidly implementing a new software asset management tool hosted in the cloud, capturing data from across 80,000 devices, covering 20+ vendors and building a team, all in the space of 8 months.
Having now realised these objectives, Alan invites you to share and gain insight on successes, pitfalls and mistakes made in this journey. This includes looking beyond the standard key success factors of funding and sponsorship.
The session will ideally be semi interactive where Alan will offer a view but is more than happy to be corrected by anyone with additional insights!

How did you get started in ITAM?

Three years ago, I was asked to perform some work on Software Contracts with Procurement. Foolishly I made some recommendations on some improvement that we could make that rapidly led to my appointment of the Head of the SAM Team.

How would you describe what your company does?

National Australia Bank is one of Australia’s leading 4 big banks.

What’s your favourite part of the job?

Working with people.

What topics should delegates ask you about in Melbourne?

I am happy to be asked any question, provide a view on anything, but also be have a two-way exchange of ideas.

What one thing would improve the ITAM industry?

Detailed technical knowledge sharing wherever possible.

What’s your favourite movie?

Gallipoli.

80,000 is a LOT of devices…and 8 months isn’t a lot of time! I’ll be very interested to hear Alan’s session around how this was managed – see you there at Wisdom Australia 2019.