Software Asset Management (SAM) Blog

In association with the International Business Software Managers Association (IBSMA), Centennial is pleased to present a new document investigating the ISO 19770-1 SAM standard and the key requirements organization’s need to meet.

The document includes helpful insights into the history of the SAM standard as well as thoughts on its current and future adoption by organizations in the piublic and private sectors.

You can download the new document here.

The Cost of Noncompliance
Being found to be in noncompliance for sofware in use in an organisation by a third party i.e. a software vendor or industry body such as The Business Software Alliance (BSA) will be far more expensive than undertaking this exercise as an internal project. Noncompliance can be costly. Organisations that are out of compliance not only have to settle up with the manufacturers, but they may also have to pay fines that can total in the region of £100,000 per infraction.

Organisations that do not focus on software compliance risk even more-costly audits from other software vendors, which tend to follow one another in auditing organisations that don’t have a handle on compliance.
The good news is that periodic audits are easy to do, are relatively inexpensive-and can offer major cost benefits. Have a look at the case study at:

http://www.centennial-software.com/images/upload/Telegraph_%20Centennial.pdf

which clearly demonstrates the potential cost savings to taking control of compliance rather than wait to be audited.

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The Business Software Alliance has raised the reward offered to whistle blowers who report software piracy to $1 million (£500,0o0). The increase in rewards (up from the normal $200,000) ties-in with a new radio and internet advertising campaign initially targeting companies in the US, but expected to be expanded internationally.

According to the BSA’s Jenny Blank: “Businesses often have a million excuses for having unlicensed software on office computers. BSA is now offering up to a million dollars for employees who turn them in.”

Businesses caught with unlicensed software can pay up to $150,000 per violation.