Software Asset Management (SAM) Blog

FAST Ltd (not to be confused with the Federation Against Software Theft not-for-profit organization) has released research findings that suggest there has been a 50 percent increase in software vendor audit activities in the UK over the last year. However, FAST’s figures differ greatly from official figures released recently by Gartner and IDC.

While FAST believes around 30 percent of UK organizations have faced one or more vendor audits (up from 20 percent in 2008), Gartner recently put the global figure at more than 50 percent, and IDC at 52 percent.

What is clear is that more vendors than ever have established audit practices. No longer are customer audits the preserve of the biggest 2-3 software vendors. A recent report stated that around 15 software vendors now have active audit campaigns into their customer bases. So perhaps equally important to the total volume of audits now taking place is the increased risk of receiving multiple audit requests from different vendors. Without established SAM processes and technologies in place, reacting to each audit will be a costly and time-consuming activity.

FAST Limited, the commercial spin-off from the Federation Against Software Theft, claims that 40 percent of organizations in the UK are over-licensed on portions of their software estate. According to managing director, Andy Pearce, too many companies focus on the compliance benefits of SAM, rather than looking at the real cost savings that can realized by reducing current over-expenditure on software procurement.

Pearce also urged businesses not to use the current economic climate as an excuse to diver focus away from SAM and Compliance, as this could lead to expensive fines or true-up costs when a vendor audit is performed.

More and more employees are coming under pressure from their employers to install unlicensed software on their network, says software licensing watchdog, the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST).

John Lovelock, chief executive at FAST commented: “We are hearing all too frequently from IT workers that employers are pressurising them into installing illegal software. It’s becoming increasingly common and easy for employers to save costs and even time, by putting software compliance in the ‘too difficult’ basket in these troubled economic times.”

FAST has called for employees who are co-erced into using illegal software to blow the whistle on their employers by contacting 01628 622 121 or visiting www.fastiis.org/our_services/enforcement/reportingPiracy. FAST is promising to champion the cause for employees who are put in a difficult position and provide expert guidance on how to deal with software piracy.

The Software Industry Research Board (SIRB), a group formed by leading software vendors including Microsoft, Oracle and FrontRange Solutions, has today announced “The UK Software Management and Licensing Conference“, a one-day event for executives, IT professionals and finance managers charged with managing their organizations’ software. The event will take place in Reading on 12th May 2009.

Among the sessions presented on the day will be a number of customer case studies, where end-user organizations will demonstrate how adopting Software Asset Management (SAM) best practices has aided their operations, reducing risk and expenditure. Leading software vendors and SAM specialists, including FrontRange Solutions, will also give best practice advice on managing software in a recession and how to reduce the cost of software licensing.

Early bird discounts are available online only until the 9th April 2009 at £295 for the first delegate and £225 for each additional delegate.