Software Asset Management (SAM) Discussion

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has fined six US companies for using unlicensed software.  Three financial services firms have paid the industry watchdog nearly half a million dollars between them.   Three more firms, all based in the New York area, were also caught using illegal software, and have paid a further $269,000 in fines.

As part of the settlement, all six firms have had to promise to improve their software management processes in order to avoid future mis-use.

Microsoft UK recently launch their Microsoft Software Asset Management Program, details for which can be found here.

It is a structured approach to implementing software asset managment with the assistance of on of Microsoft’s approved SAM Partners, a list of which can be also be found on their site.

At the end of the process the customer will get a certificate which will be valid for 12 months recognizing they have gone through the program and established their base line compliance position and should not expect to be contacted to undertake a Microsoft led audit over the next 12 months.

Be warned that any short fall of licences identified by this process will have to be addressed.

Microsoft’s new Get Genuine Windows Agreement (GGWA see http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/) allows big companies that are discovered to be intentionally or accidentally pirating Windows XP Professional to quickly purchases copies via a reseller.
GGWA is part of a recent wave of antipiracy and license compliance efforts that Microsoft is targeting at big corporations, its most profitable segment.

Organisations have largely been exempt from past antipiracy efforts, which focused on software crackers and pirates distributing stolen license keys, resellers trying to save money by reusing the same licence key with multiple customers and consumers.

Read the rest of this entry »

An unnamed UK company has agreed to pay a record fine of £250,000  for running unlicensed software.

The company (which operates in the infrastructure and public services sector) was running unlicensed copies of Adobe, Autodesk, and Microsoft software on hundreds of PCs across several UK locations.

The BSA is highly active and is said to be investigating a number of large UK companies who are believe to be running un-licensed Software.

The BSA is not the only organsiation actively auditing customers. A recent Gartner study showed that major software vendors such as Adobe, IBM, BEA Systems, Microsoft, Oracle and Attachmate are aggressively auditing customers where they believe there is unlicensed copies of their software in use.

Companies should be protecting themselves against such activity but how?

By implementing good Software Asset Management processes to adequately manage an organisation’s software assets. This will involve technology, people and processes.

Deploy an autodiscovery/inventory such as Centennial Discovery so the organisation has an understanding of what assets are deployed across the organisation. Combine this with licence management technology such as Centennial License Manager 2.0 which will launch September 2007 and the organisation will be on the road to gaining control of their software assets.

Implement good SAM processes such as those recommended in ITIL guide to Software Asset mangement. http://www.best-management-practice.com/ or in the ISO/IEC 19770-1 Standard for Software Asset Management and the organisation should avoid the risk of a vendor audit and associated.

If an audit is requested by a vendor these processes should make it a relatively straightforward process as it will be easy to demonstrate what the compliance position is and the organisation will be on the front foot of any negotiations with vendors.