This IDC study looks at the state of software license audit activity in the enterprise software market today.

"Unfortunately, many customers would rather risk an audit than invest in SAM processes and tools. Expense reduction efforts in recent years that have put SAM initiatives on the back burner have added to this challenge," says Amy Konary, research vice president for Software Licensing and Provisioning at IDC. "For those SAM professionals that are trying to convince senior management to make SAM a priority, the smartest approach is to be able to tie it to ROI and prioritize their efforts based on this. It may not make sense to invest in SAM across the board, but for certain high-value applications, it probably does."