Software Audits: Dos and Don‘ts

There’s about a 60% chance that your company’s software will be audited in the foreseeable future. Only 1 in 10 companies, however, feel adequately prepared for such an event. As a result software audits often feel as if there’s an enemy team creating havoc in your business. Abide by our list of dos and don’ts to prevent your team from crumbling under pressure

Software license management has become a huge responsibility for one person or department. Technological trends today make it harder than ever to see the forest through the trees:

• Do your licenses run on a per-user or a per-device basis?
• Do your servers have multiple processors or is your data stored in the cloud?
• Do your employees like working on the road, on their own device?
• Do you need additional licenses for virtual environments?

All these factors are making software licensing contracts more and more complicated. The solution? A comprehensive Software Asset Management (SAM) strategy. Backed up by the right SAM solutions, of course.

Is your business 100% compliant? Fine, but don’t assume your software licensing is in top shape. Keep in mind that:

• 19% of all business software is unlicensed.
• 57% of users admit to pirating software.
• Software piracy is costing our economy more than $63 billion worldwide.

To put those numbers into perspective: reducing software piracy by just 10% worldwide would add more than 25,000 jobs, about $38 billion in new economic activity and $6.1 billion in tax revenue over four years.

When the inevitable happens, don’t panic. Find out what the scope is, assign an audit response team and fall back on pre-assigned roles and responsibilities. Remember: even if you already have a specialized SAM software solution, you still need the right person(s) to manage licenses day-to-day and guide your business through a software audit.

Contact your legal representation to guide you through the audit process without making costly mistakes. Those include denying incompliance, confessing incompliance, and foregoing an NDA. Even though compliance might strictly be Purchasing’s responsibility, the Legal department should be highly involved in any audit. Oh, and don’t start frantically buying licenses when you find out a software audit is on the way.They’ll find out.

Survived the software audit without suffering major financial penalties? Congratulations! Now it’s time to learn from your mistakes and prepare for the next match-up. No time to implement all of our dos and don’ts on your own? Contact our licensing experts to form a coherent and custom SAM strategy for your business.