IT Asset Management

FinOps and traditional IT governance functions have grown up in very different cultural environments. Disciplines such as IT asset management have historically followed structured, process-led and ITIL-influenced models, while FinOps has emerged from agile and DevOps cultures that favour rapid iteration, decentralised ownership and fast agile business led decision-making based on live usage data.

When these cultures meet, the challenge is rarely technical. It sits in expectations, behaviours and the ways teams approach accountability, control and optimisation. This session explores the tensions and opportunities that arise when structured and agile mindsets interact, and considers how much convergence between these disciplines is genuinely useful.

Rather than assuming a single model, the talk looks at different forms of collaboration that organisations are experimenting with: from light-touch alignment through to shared governance frameworks or deeper integration where it suits the operating model. The session reflects on the human dynamics that shape success, the assumptions each discipline brings, and how organisations navigate the space between stability and responsiveness in pursuit of better decisions and long-term value. 

A lot has changed in the VMware world over the last 2 years and you will be aware of much of it. 

In fact, the one constant with Broadcom IS change, as the vendor has developed a habit of changing things so frequently and so rapidly that it can be a real struggle to keep up.

Join Barry as he walks you through a synopsis of the big changes and their implications for you, as a VMware customer, including agreements and licensing, and what to do if you are going through the renewal process or are hit with an audit letter.

The big questions will be answered in this session:

• What has changed?

• Why has it changed?

• How will it affect you? 

Microsoft now bundles AI into almost everything it sells: Copilot in Microsoft 365, embedded intelligence in Power Platform, consumption-based AI services in Azure.

Some of these costs appear as per-user subscriptions in your Enterprise Agreement or CSP deal. Others show up as Azure consumption, which is harder to forecast and easier to overlook.

This session focuses on getting better terms when AI is part of the deal.

We'll cover what's actually negotiable, what isn't, and how to approach conversations with Microsoft or your reseller.

We'll also look at how Microsoft prices and bundles AI, where spend hides, and what incentives drive their proposals, all feeding into one goal: leverage.

Attendees will leave with a practical checklist for renewals and in-year changes involving Copilot and Azure AI workloads. 

Licenses, SaaS, cloud, AI - they all cost money, and without careful management, value is lost in the gaps between siloed teams and misaligned KPIs.

The explosive growth of SaaS and cloud services, accelerated by software publishers’ “everything must have AI” strategies, makes coordinated management essential to control budgets and optimise spend in 2026 and beyond.

In this session, Rich will share real-world examples and practical scenarios showing how to align ITAM, SaaS, and AI investments with business value, providing actionable insights you can take straight back to your organisation.

As CEO of Licenseware, Alex has spent a lot of his time working out real use cases where AI can help IT Asset Managers work more effectively and efficiently and support high quality decision making.

Alex is keen to share with us the insights from his AI journey, walking us through areas where he believes AI can make a real difference for ITAM practitioners, as well as discussing the potential pitfalls.

In his talk, he will discuss the potential for leveraging AI across a number of different areas including:

• Software & hardware recognition and enrichment

• Software & hardware catalogues

• Contract analysis

• Purchasing comparisons & recommendations

• Supporting governance and building ITAM maturity

He will also touch on how IT Asset Managers can enable their own professional development and upskilling to allow them to take advantage of the AI revolution.