But these SAM processes also need to dovetail with the software lifecycle. "It is important to have a process in place that begins with asking for the business case for acquiring a piece of software," says Phil Heap of FAST Corporate Services, a subsidiary of FAST that is aimed at educating firms on SAM. "The next question is whether the organisation already has the software that is needed and whether it is tested and approved. The final question is whether you have a licence for it."

The software industry, through FAST and the BSA, is pushing hard to raise awareness of the need for properly licensed software. Earlier this year, the BSA, which claims that 26 per cent of business software in the UK is illegal, launched a campaign in Manchester that involved contacting 5000 businesses in the city.

Persuading a cost-conscious board of directors who see SAM as merely an extra expense to take action is an essential first step to software compliance. Companies should be spending between three and five per cent of the value of software they own on managing its use, according to analyst firm Gartner.

John Brown Group, a contract publisher- that produces company magazines, is one software user that received a knock on the door from a supplier. About a year ago, Microsoft contacted IT director Richard Sacre about anomalies in the publisher's account. "We knew we were a bit short but didn't know by how much," he recalls.

Sacre admits that if the £60m (US$89 million) turn-over company had tried to reconcile its software assets on its own, John Brown Group would probably have failed to meet the deadline set by Microsoft and would have ended up buying too many licences in order to be certain it was compliant. In the event, Sacre hired an asset management consultancy called SAM Practice and avoided having to buy any more licences.