Software licensing audit process

Software license management slm explained bmc blogs. Software license compliance audit fort worth, texas. In short, slm is a plan to help you monitor and maintain all your organizations various software licenses. You may need to contact software publishers andor resellers to obtain complete purchasing details. Tips for handling a microsoft software audit storagecraft. A software licensing audit or software compliance audit is an important subset of software asset management and component of corporate risk management. Heres a look at some of the steps a corporate it organization can take before the auditors arrive to maintain compliance and limit potential. Software vendors exercise their rights to conduct audits to counter a growing software piracy issue for perpetual and subscription software. Dec 31, 2015 software licensing audits can cause minor annoyance or excruciating pain, depending on their scope and how ready your enterprise is for the disruption and expense. A software audit is conducted when a software vendor believes that a company is in violation of their user agreement. Introduction a software license audit is a check of your usage of software licenses.

A software licensing audit or software compliance audit is an important subset of software. A periodically scheduled selfaudit process rooted in the same methodologies used by vendor auditors that allow you to address any over and under licensing. Six steps to completing a software audit and ensuring. How it departments can prepare for a software license audit cio. A software licensing audit can be specifically defined. May 11, 2012 they are in the best position to counsel on what legal steps there may be to lessen the impact of the audit process. Software license and audit policy columbia business school. Microsofts license verification is poorly executed and hurts their reputation for. Small to mediumsized firms are frequently the target of a microsoft audit initiated by a trade group such as the bsa.

A software license audit occurs when a software vendor decides to take a full inventory of the amount of licenses your company has purchased and compare them to the amount of licenses that are actually installed on your computers. Autodesk lawyers can use aggressive tactics towards suspected noncompliance with licensing agreements and an audit can be an intimidating process. We ask that you participate in this audit process by performing an inventory of your deployed autodesk software within the next 10 days. Bsa licensing audits following on from my post about microsoft licensing options, i thought it prudent to cover what may happen if your licensing isnt in order and you end up getting audited.

How it departments can prepare for a software license audit pick the right licensing structure. Attached is the city of west palm beachs internal audit ors office report on the software license audit. How to perform your annual microsoft software license audit december 8th, 2015. Microsofts license audit process is destroying their. How high tech plays hardball truing up licenses amounts to billions of dollars in revenue for the major software makers. Software license management is the tracking and management of software license agreements and software deployments across an organization to ensure legal, compliant use of software in onpremises, mobile, and cloud environments. Backgroundpurpose columbia business school cbs information technology group itg supports administrative, academic, and research software acquisition, licensing, and distribution. Welcome to autodesk s installation and licensing forums. A microsoft license compliance verification is a routine process of checking customers compliance with microsoft licensing agreements. Best practices for software license management techrepublic. Dear president preckwinkle and board of commissioners. Software audit control with selfaudits is a key component to managing software assets. Microsoft software licensing audit technology attorneys.

It is not, in my opinion, an objective of a software licensing audit for it audit to scan the network or otherwise confirm the number of software installations. How to perform your annual microsoft software license audit. No one looks forward to a software audit because its a nuance, and it takes valuable time away from value creation. Today, 97 percent of fortune 500 companies license at least some oraclebranded software. Software licensing audit is an element of it resource management that analyzes the condition of a companys software, organizing and replenishing the lacking licenses and implementing procedures to enhance software management process. For many, a software license audit spells business disruption, and the threat. Four best practices to reduce the pain of an oracle. 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. They are in the best position to counsel on what legal steps there may be to lessen the impact of the audit process. While an audit is something you should take seriously its not something you should be afraid of if youre prepared.

We have a number of microsoft licensing gurus at snow software. I had quoted a site license for sql but my admin never executed, we continued to use the free single user sql server license we had. This limited scope audit specifically addressed the following areas. Software license management, or slm, is part of overall software asset management sam capability and involves the process of reducing, documenting, and controlling total it costs. This topic has been locked by an administrator and is no longer open. Audit objectives should also correspond to goals as defined by the enterprise figure 3. Emerset helps enterprises like yours in software licensing, license. Customers who take licensing compliance seriously and have a robust internal software asset management sam process are likely to be better prepared for license compliance verifications.

In the first article we discussed the importance of being prepared for an audit and steps that may be taken to ensure your organization is ready if you receive notification that an audit is forthcoming. During the discovery process, we found we had implemented our production sharepoint environment on a sql server which was only single user license, not a site license. The key is to be welleducated on the oracle audit process, licensing concepts, and software asset management strategies to better prepare internal resources and mitigate the organizations risk. In the first article we discussed the importance of being prepared for an audit and steps. Gather invoices and organize them according to software manufacturer. The bsa business software alliance represent many vendors, not just microsoft so are the most likely ones to be involved with an audit. Share your knowledge, ask questions, and explore popular download, installation, and licensing topics. When a company is unaware of what software is installed and being used on its machines, it can result in multiple layers of exposure. Not surprisingly, software licensing audits have a strong revenuegenerating rationale, just as do, for instance, tax audits. The bsa business software alliance represent many vendors, not just microsoft so are the most likely ones to be involved with an audit regardless of how up to date your licensing is, its possible for the bsa to audit. Provide a full service approach to software acquisitions by simplifying the process for faculty. Fortunately, there are steps enterprises can take before and during an audit to ease compliance concerns and minimize unexpected license fees and penalties. A robust sam process and dedicated sam manager should help. January 25, 2016 toni preckwinkle the honorable toni.

Hardly surprising when you understand that its a means of generating revenue for software vendors. Many of our clients contact us regarding notices they received from microsoft requesting an internal selfassessment of their license positions under their services provider license agreements splas. 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. No, its not an audit says customers wrongly equate asset management with a licensing audit. This is the second in a series of four articles addressing microsoft software licensing audits. Hopefully, they have experience in software licensing and can add that experience to the process. It is addressed to a wide range of companies and institutions. A repository for storing software license data contracts, purchase records, etc. How it departments can prepare for a software license audit. As you can tell, this document has a lot of different fields to complete, and agreeing to submit to the audit process can consumer valuable company time and resources, and can also inadvertently alert other employees that one of the big software publishers has your company under investigation. If youre anticipating a software license audit and, lets face it, you should be youre most likely concerned with noncompliance.

Our first article focused on preparing for an audit and the importance of being very well documented and organized. Total network inventory makes maintaining large software inventories easier and more transparent. Focuses on a sixstep method to overcome any software licensing challenges you may encounter. If it is legit, then get them to help you through the audit process and experience so that you come out the other end in better shape. A software license audit is when one of your software vendors wants to compare the number of software licenses your organization has purchased with the number currently installed on your computers. Jan 27, 2020 introduction a software license audit is a check of your usage of software licenses. For many, this is the most difficult step in the software audit process. We thank the management and staff of the information technology department for their time, information, and cooperation during this audit. The next question youll need to answer when conducting a software audit is what software licenses does my organization own. How to handle a software license audit license dashboard. Typically, when the audit letter arrives from your software vendor, youll be given a notice period for an oracle software license audit, this is typically around 45 days, for example, and for a microsoft audit, its just 30 days notice not nearly enough time to completely prepare for a full audit. We had kpmg lead a software audit for microsoft products.

What to expect from a software audit softwareone the. We take a look at trends in software licensing audits and the ways they impact your it organization and your business. Microsofts license audit process is destroying their reputation and any good will i had for them summary. A software licensing audit can be specifically defined as follows. The office of the cook county auditor has conducted an audit in regards to software licenses. It may be the case that youve never conducted an internal audit before, so talk to your it staff and senior management highlighting why you want to create an internal software audit process. Document the process you use for internal software audits and promote the process to the users.

Backgroundpurpose columbia business school cbs information technology group itg supports administrative, academic, and research software acquisition. For those who may be unaware, spla is the principal licensing. Software license management is the process that ensures that the legal agreements that come with procured software licenses are adhered to. How to survive a software licensing audit informationweek. Jan 01, 2016 audits can be useful, especially as confusing as licensing can be. Software license audit or software compliance audit is an important subset of software asset management, and an important component of corporate risk management. How to handle a software license audit november 22nd, 2017. Sample software license audit worksheet vondran legal. Microsofts license audit process is destroying their reputation and any good will i had for them. An external audit can consume a lot of time and resources, so its important that it organizations take proactive steps to ensure software license compliance and avoid an external audit disaster. If your company is facing a software audit, you need experienced counsel to protect your business. Six steps to completing a software audit and ensuring compliancewhile saving money.

Apr 14, 2015 a software license audit occurs when a software vendor decides to take a full inventory of the amount of licenses your company has purchased and compare them to the amount of licenses that are actually installed on your computers. We have conducted a countywide software licenses audit. Feb 25, 2016 sample software audit excel worksheet. Autodesk licensing audit disputes an autodesk licensing audit can be an intimidating process for organizations that do not know what to expect and have not prepared adequately for the procedure.

Four best practices to reduce the pain of an oracle license audit. A vendor will typically do this if it has reason to believe your organization may not be using their software. This is the fourth and final installment in our series on software licensing audit preparedness and software asset management sam. License compliance verification faq microsoft volume. When responding to adobe audit requests, you should work with experienced counsel to thoroughly investigate the software usage on your computers, protect yourself by requesting an agreement from adobe regarding the use of the materials that will be produced in the audit, and negotiate a resolution geared toward ensuring future compliance. Following on from my post about microsoft licensing options, i thought it prudent to cover what may happen if your licensing isnt in order and you end up getting audited. Ideally, youll need to have started proceedings much earlier in anticipation. Software licensing audit how to mitigate the results. Microsoft tends to dominate the conversation when it comes to software audits given their breadth of products and various licensing models which can overwhelm even the most seasoned msp or it professional. Jan 22, 2020 software vendors exercise their rights to conduct audits to counter a growing software piracy issue for perpetual and subscription software. Small to mediumsized firms are frequently the target of a microsoft audit initiated by. Software license audit or software compliance audit is an important subset of software asset management and an important component of corporate risk.

Microsoft audits its customers using a variety of strategies. Answering this question requires collecting software licensing information for the software inventoried in step one. License compliance verification faq microsoft volume licensing. We performed a limited scope audit of the it software licensing process. Software asset management is an organisation process, which is outlined in isoiec 197701. Software license compliance audits it asset knowledgebase. What is a microsoft spla selfassessment software audit. Issuing software licenses to employees is another one of those routine it tasks that you may not think twice about. A good place to begin is with your purchasing records. Naturally, many of those clients have questions about that process and the ramifications of cooperating with microsoft. If microsoft doesnt think an audit will pay off, they dont do it. Unusually, for an audit, it is also worth considering what is not an objective.