Software Asset Management - The benefits outweigh the consequences

1/03/2010

Whether you realise it or not, insufficient management of your software could be exposing your company to major financial risk. A number of companies world wide have had to learn this the hard way, liable for thousands of dollars in piracy fines, a damaged reputation and major job loss.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) website (http://www.bsa.org/country.aspx?sc_lang=en-AU - Australia) has a number of news items that demonstrate real instances of companies suffering the consequences of using unlicensed software. Here’s a couple of local examples:

Case 1 - Australian Architectural and Project Development firm Porter Davis Homes settles in $50,000 software copyright claim[1]
Case 2 - EMF Griffiths Engineers Pty Ltd and its director Warren Barfett have jointly agreed to pay AU$85,000 for damages, interest and costs arising out of unlicensed software use. [2]

Aside from the avoiding heavy costs associated with non compliance, implementing SAM can benefit your organisation in the following ways:

  • Ensure you know exactly what is on your computers and the numbers of licences you have for each software type. This can save your organisation money on purchasing licences that you may already have and also assists in managing how and when to purchase new software. This is particularly useful in the case of a merger, whereby there may be duplicate licences.
  • Increased accuracy in budgeting and planning for software requirements
  • Employee productivity is improved by removing the existence of illegal software and standardizing across all users. The Sixth Annual BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study in 2009 showed that 26% of all PC software used in Australia is pirated.[3] Jeffrey J. Hardee, BSA’s Vice President and Regional Director, Asia Pacific shared his concerns about the level of pirated software available on the internet “The availability of pirated software on the Internet, which ironically is facilitated by increasing broadband penetration in the region, is also a major concern. On top of this, it is surprising how often we find that managers fail to institute policies and procedures in their organisations to manage their software assets to prevent the use of unlicensed software in the workplace and to gain efficiencies by carefully integrating their software assets to maximise productivity.”[4]
  • Removing the instance of pirated software also reduces the need for and cost of software support requirements that can arise from illegally downloaded software.
  • Software documentation and compliancy records are kept up to date and are easy to access. This allows you to always be in a position of knowledge.
  • With software audits set to increase over the next few years, having effective SAM processes in place can give you peace of mind when you get audited. In a recent article in CIO Magazine[5], Robert J Scott stresses the importance of being prepared for inevitable software audits ‘Companies should strive to be in audit-ready mode…You need a systematic process for evaluating what’s on your computers and what you’ve purchased.’

    ProActive offers a number of difference options to help your organisation implement SAM:

    SAM Essentials Public Training:ProActive offers a 3 day SAM Essentials course designed for IT and Business Management staff that interface with or are responsible for the governance of software assets.

    Onsite courses: for groups of 8 or more. A cost-effective option for companies wanting to train staff in SAM.

    SAM Maturity Assessments: ProActive will identify those aspects of SAM processes that are functioning well, thus determining which best practices are currently in use and should be retained. The purpose of the process is to identify the maturity of the five discrete SAM processes, covered by the ITIL publication: Software Asset Management, as well as the characteristics within these processes.

    Coaching and Mentoring: Want some one-on-one guidance, or help progressing your SAM initiatives? Then why not consider some coaching and mentoring? A ProActive consultant can help you to put those ideas into actions and plan a path forward for implementing SAM in your organisation.


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    [1] ‘Australian Architectural and Project Development firm Porter Davis Homes settles in $50,000 software copyright claim’, Business Software Alliance, viewed 25th February 2010 <http://www.bsa.org/country/News%20and%20Events/News%20Archives/enAU/2008/enAU-02202008-barrettproperty.aspx>

    [2] 'BSA settles with Brisbane-based engineering firm for the use of unlicensed software’, Business Software Alliance , viewed 25th February 2010 <http://www.bsa.org/country/News%20and%20Events/News%20Archives/enAU/2009/enAU-09222009-emf.aspx>

    [3] 'Latest BSA-IDC study shows over a quarter of software installed on Australian PCs is pirated' , Business Software Alliance, viewed 1st March 2010 <http://www.bsa.org/country/News%20and%20Events/News%20Archives/global/05122009-idc-globalstudy.aspx>

    [4] 'Latest BSA-IDC study shows over a quarter of software installed on Australian PCs is pirated', Business Software Alliance, viewed 1st March 2010 <http://www.bsa.org/country/News%20and%20Events/News%20Archives/global/05122009-idc-globalstudy.aspx>

    [5] Kanaracus, C 2009, ‘License Audits: preparing now can ease the pain’, CIO Magazine, 21st September 2009