Notifications
Clear all
Topic starter
08/07/2026 6:59 pm
TL;DR: Software Asset & License Management is shifting from administrative control to a strategic governance layer as Matrix42’s PUR 2026 results show 3,390 IT professionals rewarding platform breadth, innovation and operational usefulness, according to Matrix42 and techconsult. The practical lesson is that SAM now lives or dies on integration, transparency and lifecycle control rather than isolated license administration.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Efecte: Von Anwendern bewertet, als Champion ausgezeichnet, was der PUR 2026 für Matrix42 wirklich bedeutet
By the numbers:
- Matrix42 was rated by more than 3,390 IT professionals in the techconsult Professional User Rating IT Operations 2026.
- 29 providers reached the PUR diamond in the 2026 benchmark.
- Matrix42 was placed in the Champion category in, the PUR 2026 benchmark.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should organisations evaluate software asset management platforms for governance use?
A: Focus on whether the platform connects entitlements, usage, service workflows and reporting in one operating model.
Q: Why does platform integration matter more than standalone SAM features?
A: Standalone features can count assets, but they cannot reliably close the loop between demand, ownership, policy and retirement.
Q: What do teams get wrong when they treat SAM as an audit project?
A: They optimise for evidence at the end of the cycle instead of control throughout the cycle.
Practitioner guidance
- Map SAM to the software lifecycle end to end Define ownership for request, approval, assignment, renewal, recertification and retirement so software governance is measured as a closed loop rather than a point-in-time report.
- Test platform integration before feature comparison Check whether the SAM tool can correlate service management, endpoint telemetry and entitlement records without manual reconciliation, because disconnected data creates audit gaps.
- Use user evidence in procurement scoring Weight operational feedback on support quality, workflow fit and adoption friction alongside market positioning so implementation risk is visible before rollout.
What's in the full article
Matrix42's full blog post covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- How the PUR Company Rating and Solution Rating dimensions are scored in practice
- The specific way the PUR diamond separates balanced platforms from uneven ones
- Matrix42's own customer-facing examples of platform integration across service management, asset management and automation
- The analyst quote and market context that explain why user ratings are shaping SAM evaluation
👉 Read Efecte's analysis of Matrix42's PUR 2026 Champion result →
Software asset management and compliance: what changed in 2026?
Explore further
08/07/2026 7:22 pm
SAM is now a governance discipline, not a tooling category. The article shows that organisations are rewarding platforms that connect software management to service management, automation and operational transparency. That is the same structural shift identity teams have already seen in lifecycle governance: control quality depends on workflow integration, not on the presence of a standalone console. Practitioners should evaluate SAM as part of a broader governance operating model.
A few things that frame the scale:
- The average estimated time to remediate a leaked secret is 27 days, despite 75% of organisations expressing strong confidence in their secrets management capabilities, according to The State of Secrets in AppSec.
- Only 44% of developers are reported to follow security best practices for secrets management, exposing a significant developer behaviour gap.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Who should own software asset governance in a mature IT programme?
A: Ownership usually belongs at the intersection of IT operations, security, procurement and governance. If one team controls the data but another team controls the workflow, accountability breaks down. Mature programmes assign ownership to the process, not just the tool.
👉 Read our full editorial: Software asset management is becoming a governance discipline
