Manufacturing industry is worst for software licensing
According to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the Manufacturing industry is the worst sector in the US economy for effectively managing its software assets. The BSA investigated confidential reports of software piracy across the US to determine the top-ten market sectors for software mis-management. The top five industries emerged as Manufacturing, Sales/Distribution, Service, Financial Services and (perhaps somewhat ironically!) Software Development.
The inclusion of Financial Services in the top five will surprise many, as this industry is no stranger to codes of practice and strict regulations. However, it is the ease with which an organization can find itself in breach of compliance laws that is perhaps the key consideration here - it is all to easy to install unlicensed software on the network or to purchase appliations through illegitimate means.
This highlights the need for effective SAM within end user organizations - not only to check the volume of licenses held against the number of applications discovered on the network, but also to ensure that software is being purchased through the correct channels and that organisations are not over-paying for software they don’t need, or is no longer in use.
