Ultra consultants focuses exclusively on thought leadership for technology solutions for the manufacturing and distribution industries. A guide to prevent software audits for cloudbased software. Enterprise it organizations face software audits as a matter of doing business with large technology vendors. Software publishers audit businesses to make sure that the software is being used within its license terms and is appropriately paid. Software audits safeguard the interests of both vendors and users. Get help with multivendor cloud and hybrid software licensing through dxcs expertise, global vendor relationships and access to thousands of software titles. From a cost perspective, this means that an audit by ibm is a. The software license and compliance specialist is accountable for ensuring compliance with software publisher license agreements and law to avoid potentially significant penalties to olg. Jan 28, 2014 auditing used to be carried out primarily by the vendor funded business software alliance bsa, but thats changing, according to dawson stoops, a cofounder and vp of sales at express metrix. May 22, 2009 enterprise software audits can consume many staffmonths of time during which the it department collects the requested data. Software vendor audits is there such a thing as a winning team. Top 10 enterprise software vendors, 2016 market overview and.
When a company is unaware of what software is installed and being used on its machines, it can result in multiple layers of exposure. Software audit control with self audits is a key component to managing software assets. If not, the vendor will demand that the organization pay the difference between the purchased licenses and actual usage socalled trueup costs. What are your chances of being audited by one of the major vendors in the near. Although it is a timeconsuming process, it will save you in the time of an audit. Fortunately, there are steps enterprises can take before and during an audit to ease compliance concerns and minimize unexpected license fees and penalties. The auditor should check and appraise short shipments, invoice to and fro from the supplier. Software vendor audits block software market competition and. We enable our customers to address cloud and hybrid it software licensing complexity, optimize your license estate and reduce license costs. Barry sookman, senior partner with law firm mccarthy tetrault, represented a business in the midst of a software audit during which its vendor claimed that it was owed tens of millions of dollars. A practical guide to prevent software licensing audits. How to license cloud and hybrid software environments. The primary benefits a corporation receives from performing.
Jun 09, 2015 top three revisions to request in software license audit clauses. The bsa is still doing audits, but many vendors, because of their need to drive revenue, have taken on the task of doing audits themselves, stoops said. The technical elements of the virtual infrastructure that impact software licensing will be addressed in great detail. The deliveries should always be checked in order to keep the quality standards intact. Contractual audit vs court ordered audit clauses vary in scope audit by a software or data vendor to check if the licensee is using the software andor data within the boundaries of the license, e. Although self audits are far less onerous, its best to avoid software audits if possible. A software discovery methodtool for determining what is installed andor being used throughout the enterprise.
On january 27, 2012, the worlds leading information technology research and advisory company, gartner, released a survey showing that twothirds of all companies have been subject to software auditing during the past 12 months. Make sure the software and hardware inventory is up to date it asset visibility. Enterprises are undergoing vendorinitiated software license audits at an. Software license management a software license management tool can help you maintain and store the expiry details, proof of purchase, invoice and other important details associated with the licenses purchased. Vendors are from mars, customer are from venus by vic demarines, vp of product and strategy, revulytics audit clauses are a necessary part of enterprise software license agreements, but can often strain even the best customer relationships. At gartners it financial, procurement and asset management summits in september 2011, we asked 228 attendees about software vendor audits. Autodesks flagship is autocad, a family of products used, for example, in the animation engines for popular pc and console computer games. Vendor software and hardware audits have become so common in the enterprise it landscape that they are beginning to be accepted as business as usual. Among organizations with 10,000 or more employees, ibm took the numberfour spot, bumping oracle to number five, and moving sap off the topfive list. As part of their license management services lms, oracle does specify a.
Over the last few months weve seen great team work with the olympic and paralympic games in rio. Dec 03, 20 software licensing audits are a big challenge for it departments. The potential for noncompliance fines, reputation risk, in addition to the costs to manage the audit process that may require several resources for months certainly makes the reality of a software audit daunting. In the best of circumstances, large software vendor audits are arduous and costly to the enterprise. Maintain continuous software license compliance and license audit with network inventory advisor to be ready for any vendor software audits. There is no escape 8 out the top 10, or out of the top 20 software vendors by revenue have active licence compliance audit. In fact, almost twothirds 61 percent of enterprises received a vendor audit request in the last 18 months, and 17 percent of those companies were audited three or more times in that. How it departments can prepare for a software license audit as revenue for new software licenses is down, software vendors are focusing more on licensing audits to recover some of that lost income.
This fascinating kpmg survey reveals the software license. The software vendors offer a variety of licensing and pricing. Software license management software license audit tool. Software license management has become a critical issue for many it organizations in light of increased pressure from software vendors and industry watchdogs, as well as recent government regulations, such as the sarbanesoxley act of 2002 sox and the health insurance portability and accountability act hipaa. Software vendors make use of this insight by performing software licensing audits to spot check how customers use their software. In self audits, the customer runs a report and provides it to the vendor, as in saps case. Anyone whos been involved with a license compliance audit from one of their major software vendors. When software vendor auditors push too far, enterprise technology leaders. Software license audit with network inventory advisor. Theres not only more software available and in use at enterprises, but more software vendors are auditing for compliance. In the case of vendor audits, your company is both the audit sponsor and the auditing organization.
If youre anticipating a software license audit and, lets face it, you should be youre most likely concerned with noncompliance. Oracles skills of implying noncontractual practices to the audit results. Unlicensed oracle software on your dtap environment. This publication explains a number of suggestions that can help organisations how to best deal with an impending software licensing audit initiated by a software vendor. A 2012 gartner report reveals that the likelihood of going a whole year without receiving at least one such audit request by a software vendor is only 35%. They require time and human resources that are already stretched thin. Are you ready to be audited by your enterprise software vendors. The department of internal auditconcluded that its conducts annual enterprise software audits to ensure software license compliance, and has an action plan in place to remove illegal software from city it assets. While many software vendors run software license audits on customers, there. Software licence audits facts survival benefits slideshare.
How to prepare for an it vendors software license audit techrepublic. May 11, 2012 software asset management best practices. Despite the overall increase, the top vendors microsoft, oracle and ibm experienced declining revenues in the enterprise software market last year, the first time ever that all three moved into the. Vendor evaluation and audit, vendor assessment process. A cios perspective during a business continuity event. Surviving software license audits enterprise systems. At npi, we look at every audit from two perspectives options for remediating current.
It applies only to oracle enterprise edition databases and, since the. Established policies and processes for how software is used, distributed and managed within the enterprise. This includes developing olg software policies and processes, licensing templateschecklists. Software vendors use license audits to make sure customers stay in compliance with contracts they signed. Risks that arise during audits which typically result in conflicts and penalties are. Dxc technology is a global microsoft licensing solutions provider and cloud solution provider, multivendor valueadded reseller and sam partner. A software discovery methodtool for determining what is installed and or being used throughout the enterprise. Top three revisions to request in software license audit clauses. Autodesk is a large software vendor that provides over two hundred different software titles to many different industry segments including architecture, engineering, and media and entertainment. Why software audits will be a thing of the past flexera blog.
The pace of software vendor audits is not something to be blamed on vendors. A software audit can be either internal or external. Nov 15, 2016 vendor software and hardware audits have become so common in the enterprise it landscape that they are beginning to be accepted as business as usual. The answer is yes if you have a large enterprise agreement up for. The software vendors that are auditing now and what to do. A repository for storing software license data contracts, purchase records, etc. Because software vendors actively lookout and monitor for contractual.
This is the world of the enterprise driven software license audit. Symantec white paper never fear another software audit. The fourth type of audit is conducted by an organization like the business software alliance bsa, which has the vendor s approval to conduct an audit on behalf of the vendor. How it departments can prepare for a software license audit.
Software vendors utilize license agreements that are highly complex with lots of compliance landmines such as virtualization, enterprise licenses, and hardware dependent licenses. Selecting the right license strategy for your software. Reclaiming it budgets through software license optimization. Being underlicensed can bring with it hefty costs as well as even. Auditing used to be carried out primarily by the vendor funded business software alliance bsa, but thats changing, according to dawson stoops, a cofounder and vp of sales at express metrix. Software compliance xpertlync information security and. Number type of units userscpu siteenterprisepartners.
How to survive a software licensing audit informationweek. Beware the vendor certification game snow software. With these licenses, lets say you also purchased software assurance sa coverage. This latest survey reveals that 65% of respondents reported at least one software vendor audit in the previous 12 months, up from 61% the year before. License dashboard and its skilled partners help organizations of all sizes overcome their software licensing and optimization challenges, including software vendor audits, by providing the levels of licensing expertise not often found inhouse. Everything you need to know about software audits aberdeen. Total network inventory makes maintaining large software inventories easier and more transparent.
A projected 67% of enterprise it infrastructure will include cloud solutions by 2020. Virtual environments present new challenges for software license management. Nov 24, 2016 software vendor audits block software market competition and hinder customer innovation research conducted by the campaign for clear licensing has found that audits conducted by software vendors such as microsoft, oracle, sap, microfocus and ibm are blocking competition and hindering innovation in the it department. Nov 25, 20 software license audits how to prepare, how to react software license audits are on the rise. The five vendors mostly likely to audit corporate software licenses are microsoft, adobe, autodesk, oracle, and sap, in that order. Without understanding, the details regarding purchased licenses and those actually being used by employees creates risk for an organisation that can lead. Heres an example of particularly aggressive language in a suppliers software license agreement. The content below does not express the views or opinions of spend matters. Six steps to completing a software audit and ensuring. How to survive an ibm software license audit computerworld.
The current state of server virtualization licensing and support will be discussed. A software audit is the practice of analyzing and observing a piece of software. A recent survey conducted by gartner research revealed that 35% of companies had experienced an onsite audit from a major software vendor. Moving up the software license ite paper optimization. Furthermore, the number of license audits being conducted by leading software vendors is increasing. Nov 17, 2010 software audits however are far more onerous on the host organization, with little risk for the title provider. You authorize the audit and will determine the audit standard the basis for the audit. In this section, we have organized available software vendors around functional solutions for these industries. And, when going headtohead with vendors auditing teams, companies typically find themselves unable to defend their license position. How to handle a software license audit november 22nd, 2017. Heres a look at what you should and shouldnt do when you get that software licensing audit notice. Some types of software audits involve looking at software for licensing compliance. Additional services for your software vendor audit sam consultancy. Past usage of oracle database enterprise management pack past usage of oracle database options.
Apr 05, 2016 in 2015, the top 10 enterprise software vendors rose 4. Software license audit or software compliance audit is an important subset of software asset management, and an important component of corporate risk management. When the vendor sells one of these robots, he has to pay a royalty to the original software vendor. We work solely in the interests of our customers and are not tied to any incentives from software vendors.
Aug 15, 2017 software vendors have developed an array of strategies and tactics to extract revenue from customers beyond an initial transaction. Study shows a spike in software license audits and violations. Software licensing and management solutions dxc technology. For any company facing a software vendor audit, it is a tempting thought. Software license audits how to prepare, how to react. Moving up the software license optimization maturity curve to drive business value 3 for enterprise it, managing software assets is a challenging task due to the complexity of licensing models, terms and conditions offered by software vendors, the it environment e. Fda regulations, customer contracts, published standards e. Consequently, major software vendors are increasing their software license audit efforts to drive revenue from existing customers.
Jan 01, 2016 no one looks forward to a software audit because its a nuance, and it takes valuable time away from value creation. A software license audit is a key component of software asset management. How to handle a software license audit license dashboard. In these special cases it can make sense to license software with royalties, because there are only a limited amount of items sold which are highly specialized and expensive. Software license audits come in different forms, expert says.
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