ITAM Forum

Executives don’t buy inventories, they buy outcomes. Yet many SAM and ITAM programs still struggle to turn the data they generate into decisions that CFOs, CIOs, and CPOs will commit to. As ITAM converges with FinOps and Procurement, organizations need a unified, outcome‑driven approach that breaks silos and uses data to guide measurable change.

In this session, SHI introduces a practical, repeatable model for converting SAM insights into actionable, executive‑level decisions across ITAM, FinOps, and Procurement. We’ll explore the governance challenges that bury SAM in operations, the misalignment created by isolated tooling and reporting, and the increasing need for consistent metrics, shared language, and joined‑up accountability. Drawing on customer patterns, cross‑discipline program experience, and SHI’s ongoing work with both the ITAM Forum and FinOps Foundation, we outline a lightweight decision framework that elevates SAM from reporting to relevance, and from counting assets to driving commitments.

Participants will leave with a clear understanding of how to integrate SAM data into strategic decision cycles, improve cross-functional governance, and deliver measurable financial and risk outcomes that resonate at the executive level.

This event is brought to you by The ITAM Forum and SHI. When you register for this event, you are consenting to your data being supplied to all parties for the purposes of delivering the event and post-event follow up. More details about how we use your data can be found within our [*privacy policy.*](https://itamf.org/itam-forum-privacy-and-data-protection-policy/)


Elevating SAM Data for Executive Decisions

As organisations become more data-driven, the importance of reliable, high-quality information continues to grow — particularly within ITAM. When data about the technology estate can’t be trusted or aligned, even well-established IT practices find it difficult to deliver consistent value.

We’ll dive into how ITAM’s relationship with data quality is evolving, and whether ITAM is best placed to take on the role of trusted data steward across the organisation. Our panellists will discuss who benefits most from accurate IT asset data, how ITAM should prioritise its focus, and what effective collaboration with key stakeholders looks like in the real world.

**Why attend?:**

*   **The role of ITAM in data quality:** Examine whether ITAM’s future lies in becoming a data quality shepherd and what that responsibility entails.
*   **Understanding stakeholder impact:** Identify which IT and business stakeholders gain the most value from accurate, reliable estate data.
*   **Prioritisation strategies:** Learn how ITAM teams can decide where to focus their data quality efforts for maximum organisational impact.
*   **Collaboration in action:** Discover what effective prioritisation and partnership with key stakeholders actually looks like day-to-day.
*   **Stronger outcomes through better data:** See how improved data quality enables better decision-making, reduces risk, and elevates ITAM’s strategic value.

*This event is brought to you by The ITAM Forum. When you register for the event your data will be added to our Marketing communications for the purposes of delivering the event and following up after. More details about how we use your data can be found within our *[*privacy policy*](https://itamf.org/itam-forum-privacy-and-data-protection-policy/)* .*


ITAM Data - The IT Manager's Superpower

In hybrid and multi-cloud organizations, financial accountability and asset visibility often live in separate domains — leading to blind spots in spend, compliance, and operational risk. This session will explore how IT Asset Management (ITAM) and FinOps practitioners can break down silos and build integrated data models that deliver unified visibility across cloud, SaaS, and on-prem environments. Attendees will walk away with actionable frameworks for data unification, governance processes that support both cost optimization and compliance, and real examples of how collaboration between ITAM and FinOps drives measurable business value.In hybrid and multi-cloud organizations, financial accountability and asset visibility often live in separate domains — leading to blind spots in spend, compliance, and operational risk. This session will explore how IT Asset Management (ITAM) and FinOps practitioners can break down silos and build integrated data models that deliver unified visibility across cloud, SaaS, and on-prem environments. Attendees will walk away with actionable frameworks for data unification, governance processes that support both cost optimization and compliance, and real examples of how collaboration between ITAM and FinOps drives measurable business value.It’s 2026 and it’s time to make new friends.

Come along to this Online Summit and hear everything you need to know about fostering close ties between ITAM and FinOps, playing to your strengths, and managing your increasingly complex and essential IT estate.

This summit will cover:

*   What is FinOps and why is it important for ITAM teams
*   Practical strategies for engaging with FinOps teams
*   Understanding how your strengths in ITAM are vital to FinOps’ continuing success – and to ensuring your IT estate delivers business value and competitive advantage
*   The role you will play in managing the coming wave of AI solutions – measuring ROI, measuring business value, and ensuring governance which enables innovation
*   Best practices and case studies provided by our patrons

## **Agenda:**

**14:00 - 14:05: Welcome & Introduction, AJ Witt**

**14:05 - 14:35: Executive Reality Check: Your AI Spend Isn’t Special—Apply FinOps Unit Costs + ITAM Controls Before You Scale, Kevin Wade, SHI**

AI promises transformation—but without financial discipline, it can quickly become a margin-killer. AI workloads don’t just consume resources—they magnify bad financial habits. Boards are asking tough questions: What’s the true cost per inference, per customer, or per model run? Traditional chargeback models can’t answer—and that’s where risk begins. This session shows how FinOps unit economics and ITAM governance deliver the clarity leaders need to turn AI from an uncontrolled experiment into a strategic advantage. Learn how to enforce tagging standards for model IDs and GPU pools, apply lifecycle controls for AI licenses, and calculate cost per inference or training epoch. By mastering these practices, FinOps and ITAM become strategic catalysts for innovation—helping CFOs, CIOs, and CTOs scale AI responsibly, make smarter investment decisions, and deliver measurable ROI. Don’t let AI derail your forecasts—govern it for growth.

**14:35 - 15:05:** **Maximising ESR: Win at cloud cost optimisation with this playbook for ROI, Jeremy Chaplin, Flexera**

We’re all making significant investments in technology to power our businesses, whether it’s on AI, containers, on-premises, or IaaS and PaaS services from the hyperscalers. Measuring and achieving a return on this investment can be challenging, but when done well, FinOps can help improve margins, deliver better value, and drive growth. Hear how Flexera’s FinOps portfolio can help you achieve market-leading Effective Savings Rates (ESR), a key FinOps metric for ROI.

**15:05 - 15:35: Java, AI, and FinOps: Intelligent Control at the Intersection of ITAM and Cloud Spend, Simon Taylor, Azul**

As AI adoption accelerates, Java continues to underpin enterprise AI platforms, data pipelines, and cloud-native services. These Java-based AI workloads introduce highly dynamic consumption patterns that challenge traditional IT Asset Management (ITAM) and drive unpredictable cloud spend. FinOps is essential to restoring visibility and accountability—but without application-level intelligence, cost optimization remains reactive. By combining AI-powered in-use intelligence with Java runtime data, organizations can converge ITAM and FinOps into a unified decision framework. Machine learning enables teams to correlate Java activity with AI workload demand, cloud consumption, and licensing exposure—transforming raw telemetry into actionable insight. The result is smarter forecasting, optimized licensing strategies, reduced cloud waste, and proactive risk management. This session explores how Java, AI, ITAM, and FinOps together enable intelligent governance of modern AI-driven cloud environments.

**15:35 - 16:05: Bridging ITAM and FinOps for a Unified Cloud & Asset Strategy, Beau Nelford, Anglepoint**

In hybrid and multi-cloud organizations, financial accountability and asset visibility often live in separate domains — leading to blind spots in spend, compliance, and operational risk. This session will explore how IT Asset Management (ITAM) and FinOps practitioners can break down silos and build integrated data models that deliver unified visibility across cloud, SaaS, and on-prem environments. Attendees will walk away with actionable frameworks for data unification, governance processes that support both cost optimization and compliance, and real examples of how collaboration between ITAM and FinOps drives measurable business value.

**16:05 - 16:35: 3 ways to apply FinOps practices to your SaaS Management Strategy. Ben Kamper, Calero**

As perpetual licenses age into obsolescence (or become an intolerable security risk), successful ITAM practices must identify models accommodating increasingly complex SaaS license and pricing scenarios. The FinOps framework offers a compelling solution by emphasizing shared ownership, continuous optimization, and event-based management. Attendees of this session will get practical tips for transitioning to a SaaS-first environment, including how to balance cost avoidance, accountability, and business agility in a dynamic software landscape.

**16:35 - 17:00 Q\&A & Close**

This event is brought to you by The ITAM Forum and our sponsors. When you register for this event, you are consenting to your data being supplied to all parties for the purposes of delivering the event and post-event follow up. More details about how we use your data can be found within our [*privacy policy.*](https://itamf.org/itam-forum-privacy-and-data-protection-policy/)


Online Summit: FinOps

Join us to explore how the right ITAM tool can transform the way your organisation tackles today's FinOps challenges. Whether you are struggling to get visibility into cloud spend, frustrated with your current solution, or simply curious about what else is out there, this event offers a unique chance to see the latest tools in action, with no hard sell, no pressure.

So register now, bring your questions, and get ready for some insightful and interactive demonstrations.

Why attend:

*   **Learn from the experts**: Hear from the ITAM Forum and leading ITAM tool and service providers about the latest trends, challenges and best practices for aligning ITAM with FinOps in 2026.
*   **Discover new solutions:** See live demos of tools that help you optimise cloud costs, improve forecasting, and leverage asset data for financial accountability and better decision making.
*   **Get your questions answered:** Participate in a live Q\&A session with the speakers to explore how ITAM tools can support your FinOps journey.
*   **Stay ahead of the curve**: Gain insights on what's important, what's new and what's next for ITAM and FinOps in 2026 and beyond. 

## **Agenda:**

**14:00 - 14:05: Welcome & Introduction, Kelly Yip**

14:05 - 14:35: How to bring cloud software licensing into your ITAM practice, **Mark Bradley, Flexera**

Cloud software licensing in AWS/Azure is a growing problem for ITAM. You have to deal with siloed visibility, difficult manual tracking and AWS and Azure tools that aren’t designed to help. We’ll show you how to get hours of time back every week and recognize immediate hard-cost savings. Flexera’s Cloud License Management surfaces daily software spend/usage from cloud bills, maps it to entitlements and cost centers, flags over/underprovisioned BYOL(s), and recommends the most cost efficient license type per instance. You’ll walk away ready to collaborate with FinOps and tighten compliance while cutting costs.

14:35 - 15:05: ITAM + FinOps: Unlocking Cloud Savings with Better Data, Not Bigger Dashboards, **Robbie Plourde, USU**

In 2026, organizations struggle with incomplete or inaccurate asset data, shadow IT and misaligned ownership—all of which undermine FinOps efforts before they begin.

This session explores how modern ITAM practices provide the data accuracy, lifecycle context, contract intelligence, and software usage visibility required to operationalize FinOps at scale.

Attendees will learn:

-Why inaccurate inventories and entitlement data inflate cloud + software spend

-How ITAM data eliminates rework in allocation, forecasting, and optimization

-Where FinOps and ITAM processes naturally intersect (e.g., cloud usage, license compliance and financial accountability)

-KPIs that evaluate the effectiveness of joint FinOps and ITAM processes

-Practical examples of how enterprises unlocked 6–7 figure savings through ITAM-driven FinOps

-What “good FinOps data” looks like in 2026 and how to build it

**15:05 - 16:00 Q\&A & Close**

This event is brought to you by ITAM Forum and our sponsors. When you register for this event, you are consenting to your data being supplied to all parties for the purposes of delivering the event and post-event follow up. More details about how we use your data can be found within our [*privacy policy.*](https://itamf.org/itam-forum-privacy-and-data-protection-policy/)


Online Tools and Services Day

As enterprises accelerate cloud and SaaS adoption, traditional silos between ITAM, SaaS Management, and FinOps are breaking down. Each discipline holds part of the cost, risk, and value picture — but only together do they form the unified control plane modern organizations need.

In this session, we’ll explore the forces driving convergence, including hybrid IT complexity, rising SaaS waste, multi-cloud commitment pressures, and the governance gaps created by fragmented tooling. You’ll learn how leading organizations are connecting discovery, usage, entitlement, and spend data to create a single system of intelligence for technology value.

**Key Takeaways**

*   A practical model for building a converged ITAM, SaaS, and FinOps practice
*   Real-world examples of successful cross-team collaboration
*   Proven approaches to improving cost control and reducing risk
*   Clear steps to elevate your team’s strategic impact within the organisation

This event is brought to you by ITAM Forum and our sponsors. When you register for this event, you are consenting to your data being supplied to all parties for the purposes of delivering the event and post-event follow up. More details about how we use your data can be found within our [*privacy policy.*](https://itamf.org/itam-forum-privacy-and-data-protection-policy/)


The Convergence Blueprint: Why ITAM, SaaS & FinOps Must Unite in 2026

Speakers

AJ Witt

ITAM Industry Analyst

Gary McAllister

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Flexera

Replays

Elevating SAM Data for Executive Decisions

ITAM Data - The IT Manager's Superpower