First, so that the company could begin to gain greater leverage in purchasing negotiations, and second, to be able to fairly but aggressively hold its own during audits by software vendors.

"In so many countries where we operate, the tradition has been that budgets are managed locally, making it impossible to see the global aggregate in detail," Warrington said. "We simply did not have the ability to get a global view. The old tools we used gave us something of a snapshot, but didn't let us have enough insight to be able to manage the situation.

"At the same time, the IT vendors are getting very aggressive with audits, and without offering a specific number I can tell you that millions and millions of dollars are at stake—and before our engagement with PS'Soft, no matter how hard we tried with the old toolset, we were just not able to achieve those potential cost savings from vendors."

Over time, Warrington said, AstraZeneca gained that necessarly level of control and knowledge: "Now AstraZeneca is in a position to enter negotiations from a position of strength, confidence, and knowledge."

And that achievement has given the company a new perspective on the realm of IT-asset management, Warrington said: "Too many companies just look on IT asset management as nothing more than beancounting, versus looking deeper and understanding the ROI and ROA that can be achieved.

"But we learned first-hand that there is a huge opportunity to get control over what you have, to satisfy even the most rigorous audit, and to negotiate better contracts. And that's a lot more than beancounting."

RECOMMENDED READING: Global CIO: The Top 10 CIO Issues For 2010 Global CIO: Do CIOs Still Matter? Bob Evans is senior VP and director of InformationWeek's Global CIO unit.

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