Many businesses expend far too little effort in securing appropriate non-disclosure agreements during software audits. Some businesses even wholly overlook NDAs during the audit process, believing that they have no leverage to demand reasonable protections for the information that the auditors will ask them to provide. This is a mistake that can cost a company…
Most software audits eventually reach a point after all the deployment and license data has been collected when the auditors – often employees of an accounting firm like Deloitte or KPMG, though sometimes the publishers’ own internal audit teams – present their draft audit findings to the audited business. At that stage, the auditors then…
Obvious though it may sound, in almost every software audit the most crucial element contributing to a positive outcome is an accurate inventory of what software is deployed. Unfortunately, far too many businesses faced with an audit end up receiving grossly over-inflated compliance-purchase demands, because the inventory data received by the auditors and used to…
Software audits are significant legal and financial risks for all companies. With more and more software publishers utilizing intrusive audits and other information-gathering exercises as the basis for licensing transactions and – more troublingly – as sources of revenue through compliance-enforcement actions, more of our clients are implementing detailed policies to define whether and how…
One of the tasks with which Scott & Scott’s clients most commonly request our assistance is how to conduct a software audit. While almost all companies, large and small, use software in order to conduct their business operations, many of those companies lack mature or even nascent software asset management practices. Consequently, when asked to…
Software publishers utilize myriad different license metrics to determine what kind and quantity of particular licenses their customers are required to purchase. Some are relatively straightforward, such as “one license per server” or “one license per user.” Others can be more complex, such as “one license per each virtual processor core…Subject to a four-core minimum…With…
In the universe of software-copyright enforcement programs, Autodesk’s may be the most active and vigorous. All businesses – even those not running Autodesk software – should take steps early and regularly to identify and eliminate any software-compliance gaps associated with Autodesk and other software installations. It is common for businesses owners to be surprised by…
There are many good reasons that businesses often cite in seeking to transition their IT operations to a vendor-delivered Cloud environment. It’s scalable. It’s more reliable and secure than what the business may be able to deliver for itself. It’s (often) cheaper than keeping the environment in-house. Then there’s this one: “All I have to…
Many of our clients contact us regarding notices they received from Microsoft requesting an internal self-assessment of their license positions under their Services Provider License Agreements (SPLAs). Naturally, many of those clients have questions about that process and the ramifications of cooperating with Microsoft. For those who may be unaware, SPLA is the principal licensing…
Microsoft does not make licensing SQL Server easy, either under SPLA or under volume licensing agreements. Here are the three most significant problems that our clients face when trying to license that product: Four-Core Minimum – Microsoft allows SQL Server to be licensed based either on physical core counts (for physical servers or virtualization hosts)…
