Tauseef Shaikh
Mumbai
Summary
Senior IT Asset Management (ITAM) and Software Asset Management (SAM) Consultant with 6+ years of experience in architecture, implementation, functional consulting, and development. Expert in Snow Software, ServiceNow SAM Pro, Flexera, and IBM ILMT. Highly skilled in both cloud and on-premises license optimization, delivering end-to-end SAM tool implementations, and creating customized architecture diagrams. 2x AWS Certified with a strong track record in driving IT visibility, ensuring software compliance, and maximizing cost savings. Experienced in ELP (Entitlement, License, and Product) creation for all major software publishers.
Overview
10
10
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Software Asset Manager
Ernst & Young
10.2023 - Current
- Led end-to-end implementation and operationalization of both Snow Software (SLM, Snow Inventory) and ServiceNow SAM Pro, building a robust and scalable SAM ecosystem that delivers full lifecycle software asset visibility and control.
- Orchestrated the integration of Snow License Manager, Snow Inventory, ILMT, and ServiceNow Discovery with enterprise systems such as SCCM, Active Directory, vCenter, and Oracle LMS, enabling unified inventory reconciliation, entitlement alignment, and license data accuracy.
- Designed and deployed automated license compliance reporting systems for high-value software vendors (e.g., Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Adobe) through customized dashboards in Snow License Manager, providing real-time insights into license usage, compliance statuses, and potential overages.
- Created and optimized license compliance reports, ensuring they align with corporate policy and provide actionable insights to key stakeholders. This also helped the organization remain audit-ready for internal and external audits, reducing the risk of costly non-compliance penalties.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams (Procurement, IT, Legal) to ensure software contracts and entitlements were properly aligned with actual usage, helping the organization avoid overspending on unnecessary licenses.
- Regularly reviewed and negotiated software contracts, working closely with legal teams to optimize agreements, reduce costs, and improve the organization’s software asset lifecycle management.
- Facilitated the creation and validation of Entitlement, License, and Product (ELP) data across major software vendors (Microsoft, Oracle, IBM), ensuring accurate mapping of entitlements to licenses, leading to more efficient license utilization and cost savings.
- Developed a license optimization strategy that resulted in significant cost savings through the identification of unused or underused licenses, enabling the organization to reallocate resources and better manage software costs.
- Coordinated training programs for junior SAM team members and other departments to enhance their understanding of SAM tools, license compliance processes, and reporting practices, fostering a culture of continuous learning.
- Led quarterly SAM reviews with senior leadership, providing insights into software consumption patterns, compliance status, and opportunities for further optimization or cost reduction.
- Implemented automated alerts to flag potential non-compliance issues, triggering timely corrective actions to prevent license violations.
- Worked with the IT security and infrastructure teams to ensure that Snow Inventory agents were properly deployed and managed, ensuring that all devices across the enterprise were accurately inventoried and tracked.
- Contributed to cross-departmental initiatives, driving automation of processes related to software procurement, software deployment, and entitlement management, significantly reducing manual intervention and improving operational efficiency.
- Supported cloud transformation projects by providing insights into software licenses needed for cloud-based services (AWS, Azure) and helping optimize the use of cloud licenses in line with the organization’s evolving cloud strategy.
Deputy Technical Specialist
Hexaware Technologies Limited
05.2022 - 09.2023
- Managed day-to-day operations of the Snow Software suite, ensuring smooth functioning of Snow License Manager (SLM), Snow Inventory Server, Snow Gateway, and Snow Integration Manager in both Production and UAT environments.
- Oversaw the integration of Snow Software with key enterprise systems including Active Directory (AD), SCCM, and vCenter, streamlining asset discovery and ensuring accurate mapping of virtual and physical machines for better license management and compliance tracking.
- Led the creation and validation of Entitlement, License, and Product (ELP) data for vendors like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and others, ensuring accurate license allocations and minimizing the risk of non-compliance.
- Optimized license usage by conducting detailed reviews of existing entitlements and comparing them with actual usage patterns. Provided actionable insights to the senior management to reduce over-provisioning and optimize license cost.
- Delivered custom reports for license position tracking, software usage optimization, and compliance reviews using Snow SQL, ensuring stakeholders were regularly updated with accurate and timely data.
- Supported integration efforts for ServiceNow SAM Pro, ensuring that Snow data seamlessly integrated with ServiceNow to enhance end-to-end license management workflows and automation.
- Resolved Snow-related data discrepancies raised by clients and internal teams by troubleshooting agent communication failures, outdated inventory data, and software bundling issues, ensuring accurate reporting and compliance.
- Played a key role in the deployment and management of Snow agents across various environments, ensuring comprehensive asset discovery and accurate inventory data, including proper configuration of agent settings and forced scans.
- Provided technical leadership and guidance to junior team members, facilitating knowledge transfer sessions on best practices for using Snow Software, troubleshooting techniques, and license compliance methodologies.
- Maintained dashboards and trackers to capture operational tasks, issue statuses, and compliance insights, ensuring that ongoing operational activities were aligned with business goals and compliance requirements.
- Regularly evaluated new Snow Software releases, conducting testing and reviewing feature enhancements, ensuring that the latest versions were applied to improve internal processes and operational efficiency.
- Played a key role in troubleshooting and resolving technical issues related to Snow infrastructure, such as CPU utilization problems, disk space alerts, and server reboots, collaborating with the infrastructure team for timely resolution.
- Led efforts to automate various SAM processes, reducing manual intervention in license tracking, software deployments, and compliance reporting, significantly improving operational efficiency and reducing human error.
- Conducted internal audits and ensured data integrity, regularly reviewing systems to ensure compliance with software entitlements and detecting any unreported systems or non-compliant software installations.
SAM Analyst
Silverleaf Solutions Pvt Ltd
08.2020 - 04.2022
- Led the end-to-end implementation of SAM tools, including Snow License Manager (SLM) and Snow Inventory, focusing on ensuring accurate data ingestion, software inventory, and license compliance across diverse environments.
- Conducted comprehensive ELP creation for major software publishers such as Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM, aligning entitlements and licenses with actual software deployments and usage patterns, thereby improving compliance and cost optimization.
- Managed the procurement process for software licenses, providing recommendations on cost-effective licensing options and ensuring proper entitlement allocation to mitigate licensing risks.
- Performed software discovery and inventory analysis, identifying unlicensed or over-provisioned software installations, and suggested optimization strategies to reduce waste and ensure cost-effective license management.
- Regularly created and presented customized reports and dashboards to stakeholders, providing insights into license optimization opportunities, compliance status, and potential cost savings, enhancing executive decision-making.
- Collaborated closely with cross-functional teams such as Procurement, IT, and Finance to track license usage, reconcile entitlements, and ensure alignment with organizational needs and contractual terms.
- Streamlined manual SAM processes by automating routine tasks, such as data reconciliation and reporting, using scripts and tools, significantly improving operational efficiency and reducing the margin for human error.
- Led vendor management activities, including analyzing software usage data and negotiating favorable licensing agreements with key vendors to reduce software costs.
- Supported compliance audits by gathering, validating, and presenting required documentation, ensuring readiness for internal and external audits, and minimizing the risk of compliance penalties.
- Provided training and mentorship to junior analysts, helping them understand SAM best practices, tool usage, compliance methodologies, and reporting standards to strengthen the team’s capabilities.
- Worked on license position tracking and ensured accurate reporting of installed vs. licensed software, providing regular updates to management and offering insights on potential audit risks.
- Implemented software optimization strategies, identifying underutilized software and recommending alternative licensing models or reallocating unused licenses to reduce unnecessary software spend.
- Contributed to process improvement initiatives by identifying gaps in current SAM processes and proposing streamlined workflows that resulted in better resource utilization and smoother operations.
SAM Technical Specialist
Chemrols InfoTech Pvt Ltd
05.2018 - 08.2020
- Implemented and managed Snow Software environments, including Snow License Manager (SLM), Snow Inventory, and Snow Gateway, ensuring seamless software asset management across multiple locations and environments.
- Led the deployment of Snow agents across various operating systems (Windows, Linux), ensuring accurate software discovery and inventory data collection, and resolving issues related to agent communication and performance.
- Monitored and maintained the health of SAM tools (Snow License Manager, Snow Inventory Server, Snow Gateway) to ensure smooth functionality, proper data ingestion, and minimal downtime across environments.
- Performed ELP (Entitlement, License, and Product) creation for major publishers such as Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM, ensuring correct alignment between software entitlements and deployed software, while providing actionable insights to optimize software usage and compliance.
- Conducted license position tracking and optimization, leveraging Snow License Manager and custom reporting tools to identify areas of over-licensing and under-licensing, leading to significant cost savings and improved compliance.
- Integrated Snow Software with other enterprise systems like Active Directory (AD), SCCM, and vCenter to automate software discovery and reconcile installations with license entitlements, ensuring complete visibility across the IT infrastructure.
- Delivered regular compliance and optimization reports to key stakeholders, focusing on potential audit risks, software usage trends, and compliance status across various software publishers.
- Provided technical support and troubleshooting for Snow Software tools, including resolving issues related to inventory discrepancies, agent failures, and licensing errors, and collaborating with the infrastructure team for root cause analysis and remediation.
- Developed custom reports and dashboards using Snow SQL and Snow Commander to provide real-time insights into license consumption, software inventory, and optimization opportunities.
- Played a key role in the preparation for vendor audits, ensuring that all software entitlements were accurately recorded and available for audit, reducing the risk of compliance penalties and fines.
- Acted as a subject matter expert (SME) for Snow Software, offering technical guidance to the team, troubleshooting issues, and conducting knowledge-sharing sessions to upskill colleagues on best practices in SAM.
- Collaborated with the procurement team to align software purchases with existing entitlements, optimizing spend and ensuring compliance with vendor agreements.
- Implemented process improvements in SAM operations, automating manual tasks and enhancing workflows to reduce overhead and improve the efficiency of software asset management practices.
Sr Technical Engineer
Piramal Glass Pvt Ltd
04.2017 - 05.2018
Technical Engineer
UPL India Pvt Ltd
07.2016 - 04.2017
Sr Desktop Engineer
IBM India Pvt Ltd
07.2015 - 07.2016
Education
Bachelor of Science - Science
Skills
- SAM Tools: Snow License Manager, ServiceNow SAM Pro, Flexera, ILMT
- Cloud Platforms: AWS, Azure
- Languages/Scripting: JavaScript, PowerShell, SQL
- Databases & Platforms: Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Windows Server, VMware
- Others: Active Directory, SCCM, BigFix, MID Servers, Discovery Agents
Certification
- Snow Certified Implementation Specialist – Software Asset Management (PT201AS-2)
- Snow License Manager SPE Installation & New Customer Onboarding (PT101AS-2)
- Snow Inventory Server Installation & Administration
- Snow Commander Cloud Management - Azure
- Snow Inventory Administrator Certificate Number: C2324
- Microsoft Licensing Fundamentals
- FlexNet Manager Suite Operations
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (K4Z7YEVKQ1Q1QD95)
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (9ECK4JEKVBQ1QLG2)
Core Competencies
- Software Asset Management (SAM) Strategy & Governance
- IT Asset Lifecycle Management (ITAM)
- SAM Tool Architecture & Implementations (Snow, ServiceNow SAM Pro, Flexera, ILMT)
- ELP Creation for Publishers (Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Adobe, SAP, etc.)
- Cloud & On-Prem License Optimization (AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM)
- License Compliance & Audit Readiness
- SAM Reporting & Dashboards (Compliance, Optimization, Inventory)
- SAM Integration & Automation (MID Server, SCCM, AD, vCenter, Oracle LMS)
- Custom Architecture Diagrams & SOPs
- Stakeholder Communication & Client Workshops
Tools Knowledge
- ServiceNow (Operations)
- ServiceNow SAM Pro (Software Asset Management)
- Flexera (Software Asset Management)
- Snow License Manager (Software Asset Management)
Additional Skills
- Audit and Compliance
- Process Improvement
- Software Asset Management
- Software Licensing Compliance
- Software Inventory Management
- Contract Negotiation
- Vendor Management
- Cost Optimization
- Cross-functional Collaboration
- Strong Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills
- Excellent Communication and Presentation
- Regulatory Knowledge
Timeline
Software Asset Manager
Ernst & Young
10.2023 - Current
Deputy Technical Specialist
Hexaware Technologies Limited
05.2022 - 09.2023
SAM Analyst
Silverleaf Solutions Pvt Ltd
08.2020 - 04.2022
SAM Technical Specialist
Chemrols InfoTech Pvt Ltd
05.2018 - 08.2020
Sr Technical Engineer
Piramal Glass Pvt Ltd
04.2017 - 05.2018
Technical Engineer
UPL India Pvt Ltd
07.2016 - 04.2017
Sr Desktop Engineer
IBM India Pvt Ltd
07.2015 - 07.2016
Bachelor of Science - Science
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