itSMF UK recently held a member meet-up in association with the BCS IT Asset and Service Management group, the session entitled IT Asset Management (ITAM) and Leadership. Here Barry Corless offers his reflections on the content as both delegate and speaker, and Richard Horton, as event organiser, considers the next steps for ITAM meetings online and in-person.
BARRY CORLESS…
The event brought together a diverse group of professionals from across the IT service and asset management community, all keen to explore how leadership and ITAM can work hand-in-hand to deliver greater organisational value. This was the third time the event had been run at the University of Leeds, and the Leeds traffic doesn’t get any better!
Ann Wieland, Director and Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Research Delivery Network Coordinating Centre (RDNCC), opened with a smile, joking that she usually sticks to the acronyms (NIHR and RDNCC) because the full titles are such a mouthful. It was a light moment that set the tone before she shifted into some sharp insights on leadership.
Ann brought a refreshing C-level, non-expert lens to the ITAM conversation. What stood out was her clarity on what really matters at the top table: money and risk. These two drivers, she explained, provide a consistent yardstick for comparing sometimes conflicting priorities and deciding where to focus attention. She also stressed the importance of trust in her people. As a senior leader, she doesn’t need to know the ins and outs of every asset or process. Instead, she relies on her team to bring forward the right solutions, confident they’ve done the analysis and will guide her towards the best choice.
For me, this was a valuable reminder that effective ITAM isn’t just about the data or the tools; it’s about framing insights around cost, risk, and outcomes so that leaders can make confident, informed decisions.
Stuart Dicken, ITAM Lead for EMEA at Accenture and Chair of the Configuration Management Specialist Group at BCS, brought a mix of insight, humour (and more acronyms) to the session. He kicked things off with a stack of ITAM Gotcha Bingo cards, inviting the audience to share the pitfalls they’d faced in ITAM. It didn’t take long before heads were nodding and cards were filling.
For me, the standout was the rise of Shadow IT, it’s something I’m seeing more and more, and clearly I wasn’t alone, judging by the ripple of recognition across the room. Other familiar ‘gotchas’ included under-utilised tools and a variety of hidden headaches that most of us have probably tripped over at some point. What was really valued was Stuart’s balance of naming the problems and offering practical ways forward. Amongst his flurry of messages was a sharp “ITAM’s role is to provide the data to answer critical questions, but not to do other teams’ jobs for them by interpreting the data – no matter how tempting that may be when you’ve got the numbers at your fingertips.”
It was a session that blended honesty with action, and the bingo cards were a brilliant way to surface shared experience in a fun, engaging way.
Rory Canavan, owner of SAM Charter and a familiar voice in the ITAM community thanks to his online presence, brought his trademark blend of dry wit and deep process knowledge. He posed the question many of us have been wondering: how could the latest fever-dreams of AI and machine learning reasonably impact Software Asset Management (SAM)?
True to form, Rory quickly steered the discussion back to his comfort zone: processes. Could processes be applied to a neural network? Can it reference the ITAM standard (ISO 19770-1)?
He admitted that his attempt to wade through the maths of designing a neural network only lasted about 15 pages. But rather than bogging us down in equations, he cut straight to what matters: developing the right metrics and KPIs for AI to learn. In his view, this is the bridge to making AI genuinely useful in SAM, using it to refine processes, improve data quality, and ultimately deliver better asset management outcomes.
After lunch, it was the turn of Marida Lotz-Henning, Group Process Owner for Availability, Capacity, Change, IT Service Continuity, Release, Service Asset & Configuration Management, Digital Control, and Group Managed Services at Computacenter. Wow! That job title could rival Ann’s for acronym potential. Marida reminded us just how far-reaching asset management really is.
Her message was clear: without a reliable baseline of asset and configuration data, so many other IT functions struggle to operate effectively. Change enablement, build, release, patch & deployment, problem management, and even wider service management all depend on it. And if asset management is weak, the cyber security risks across an estate multiply rapidly. It’s a point I make regularly to organisations who have bursts of service improvement with base practices like change and incident but hit a brick wall once all the further improvements rely on solid asset and configuration data.
Particularly powerful were the case studies Marida shared, which brought the theory into real-life practice. She explored how different cultures from India to Germany to South Africa have shaped attitudes toward process. In some cases, culture amplified challenges, while in others it provided unexpected strengths.
For me, her most practical takeaway was the idea of role-based tool training. By giving people training focused on their specific responsibilities rather than generic process overviews, she’s seen real traction and engagement. It was a reminder that success in ITAM isn’t just about technology and data; it’s about people, culture, and the way we help teams work with the tools they have.
I became ‘tail gunner’ for the day leaving aside my role as Director Consulting Expert (DCE) at Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique (CGI). Oh yes, more acronyms to add to the growing list. I ran an interactive research session. The aim was to start collecting insights for a forthcoming itSMF UK whitepaper on IT Asset and Configuration Management.
I asked the room to shared their experiences and views across a range of hot topics:
- The biggest challenges organisations face in ITAM, SAM, and HAM
- The attitudes of management and colleagues toward ITAM as a practice
- And several more areas we’ll be unpacking in the whitepaper.
The discussion was lively, and some key themes emerged. Data ownership surfaced as a recurring pain point, with lots of nods and stories of the difficulties in pinning down accountability. Another fascinating issue was cost or, more specifically, the way cost savings and cost avoidance are treated very differently on a balance sheet. For example, avoiding the purchase of unnecessary licences doesn’t show up in ROI in the same way as cutting an existing spend does, even though the business value is clear. That sparked a lot of debate and is definitely something we’ll be exploring further.
This session was about listening as much as leading. The insights from the audience will be critical in shaping the whitepaper, and hopefully, the end result will provide the whole community with something practical and provocative to reflect on.
Events like this don’t come together by accident, and I’d like to extend a big thank you to everyone at Leeds Universityfor hosting and to the other speakers who gave so generously of their time and insights. A special mention goes to Deborah Allon and Richard Horton from the RDNCC, whose efforts behind the scenes helped make the day run so smoothly. From logistics to atmosphere, it was a gathering that encouraged both learning and connection.
Reflecting on the meetup, it is always pleasing to see just how much energy and openness there is in the ITAM community. From Ann’s senior leadership perspective on risk and trust, to Stuart’s playful but pointed Gotcha Bingo, to Rory’s witty take on AI and processes and Marida’s deep dive into culture and baseline data, each session offered something unique. Finally, itSMF UK’s own research session confirmed that the challenges and opportunities we face are real, complex, and worth talking about openly.
As we move toward the upcoming itSMF UK whitepaper on IT Asset and Configuration Management, it is exciting to see how these conversations shape practical guidance for the future. For anyone working in ITAM, SAM, or HAM, the message was clear: success depends not only on tools and processes but also on people, culture, and leadership.
We all left inspired, better informed, and very much looking forward to the next gathering.
RICHARD HORTON…
Organising any event, but particularly a free to attend event like this requires a leap of faith – will the number of people who turn up justify the effort of putting the day on ? We’ve run this partnership event like this in Leeds because the evidence has been that there is sufficient interest to make this work. The buzz of conversation throughout the day justified this, and we’re already thinking about next year.
One comment I picked out was about there being particular value in this day from combining Ann’s senior management perspective with the detailed focus of ITAM practitioners. With industry, universities, the NHS, vendors, consultants, and international standards all represented in some capacity there was a sense of a holistic perspective.
Some of the dynamics that worked particularly well were ones that are hard to replicate in virtual events, and on a personal level I’d say the things I got out of it would be unlikely to have become apparent if I’d set this up as a virtual day. I’m not against virtual events, indeed I help to organise and run them. But I prefer “in person”. For this to work you need an engaged audience of appropriate experience.
While I’m really pleased with the traction we’ve gained around ITAM in Leeds I’m interested in how we can take this further in 2026. We have momentum for something that is working and people are finding helpful. Who else would like to be part of this and can we continue the conversations so we are developing themes and improving our understanding ?
Barry in his session asked what thing we might wish to be sorted if we could wave a magic wand. There was a stunned silence in which you could almost hear the cogs churning. “Where do I start?” seemed to be the unspoken response. “Everything” was the first response. Would you like to be more specific? After a number of offerings “clean data that stays up to date” was offered. And that did seem like “everything”. You will struggle to achieve that without addressing the myriad other perspectives we had discussed throughout the day.
Barry Corless and Richard Horton
Barry Corless is Director Consulting Expert at CGI and a former Chair of itSMF UK.
Richard Horton is Head of IT Service Management at NIHR RDNCC. He is a former itSMF UK Director and is the current Chair of itSMF International.
