Software Asset Managers need to be able to distinguish which versions, editions, etc. of software are installed on the enterprise's computers. Without the ability to distinguish between the editions, they may be forced to pay for higher cost licenses (enterprise versus standard) to cover all of the software that is installed.

As software vendors come to support the ISO 19770 standard for SWID Tags, this should provide another means of correctly identifying the products that are used for the installation of software. E.g. if MS Word is the only component of Microsoft Office that is installed, was it installed from Office Pro Plus, or Office Standard, etc.? By supporting SWID Tags we would be able to use the vendor provided tags to identify the installed product.