Posted by Maria Dimitrova

Guest post by Kieron Casey

Read this if: You want to avoid huge criminal and civil charges

Gain: Staving off potential fines; free upgrades or programmes, within a business’s existing technology; saving money from cutting use of seldom utilized programs.

When running a business it is imperative to keep expenditures to a minimum and, as such, many companies look at ways of cutting costs. One area where this often applies is in the use of technology across a business and, in particular, software.

Why counterfeit versions of products aren’t an option

As specialist software often costs an incendiary amount it can be tempting to utilize counterfeit versions of products or illegal copies to save on this fee; an act which is of course illegal. Another breach of the law for software users can occur much more innocuously; many individuals do not realize that when software is purchased the buyer is actually paying for a license agreement which allows only one user per license bought.

By breaching these laws, intentionally or otherwise, an individual or business can open themselves up to both civil and criminal charges and find large fines levied against them.

The odds of getting caught for using illegal software or for breaching license agreements can be quite high as the body who are in charge of locating guilty parties is one of the strongest regulatory watchdogs in operation today.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) are made up from a number of members including Apple, Microsoft and IBM and take any actions that would result in fiscal losses of their members incredibly seriously. The BSA regularly perform audits on businesses and individuals who they believe are breaking the law and administer fines on them and, on occasion, chase up criminal proceedings.

The consequences of being caught by the Business Software Alliance
Occasionally the BSA will show clemency and will allow businesses to purchase
retrospective license agreements or similar acts of atonement.  However, this is the exception rather than the norm and if the BSA do decide to inflict fines the fees can be humungous; businesses will also be liable to suffer greater losses too through damages that legal actions brought against them can inflict on reputation. A way of sidestepping this issue is through software asset management.

The solution
The process of software asset management usually revolves around the hiring of a technology specialist to commit an audit on a business’s equipment to find whether all of it is utilized in a correct and legal fashion. As a specialist, the individual performing the audit would be familiar with all the aspects that the BSA would be looking for and can recommend to a business any changes that need to be made in regards software deployment.

Due to the knowledge required of the practitioner, and the time it would take to scan all of a business’s machinery and the software deployed on each one, a software asset management service can prove highly expensive. This, however, pales into insignificance when compared to the total cost of fines and criminal proceedings that could stem from a challenge by the BSA.

What the software asset management involves

The software asset management process involves looking at the licence agreements and deployment of all software owned by an individual or company; the data, such as licencing fees and warranty expiry date, is collated and examined to see if the software’s warranty or license needs renewing to avoid fines or if there are further opportunities to save money. This procedure is incredibly thorough and each piece of software on each and every computer, whether it is used or not, is itemized in the software asset management procedure.

Once every piece of software has been examined, the individual performing the audit will highlight both the software which requires new warranties and also the software which may require one but is not being used enough to fiscally justify its purchase.

Once an audit has been completed the software asset management practitioner can also further advise the individual or business on effective purchasing decisions to for extra software the individual or business may deem necessary.

Further benefits of software asset management
The benefits of software asset management also extend beyond the benefits of staving off potential fines; a successful software asset management procedure can result in the hired specialist locating license agreements with entitlements, such as free upgrades or programmes, within a business’s existing technology.

Similarly software asset management can figure whether all software constitutes value for money; oftentimes software will be paid for but barely, if ever, used and can constitute a drain on resources – software asset management can highlight these findings and a company can save money from cutting use of seldom utilised programs.

The importance of finding a good auditor

Before a company considers going through with this procedure it is essential they find a good auditor; this means locating a company or individual who has both experience and knowledge of technology and software compliance regulations. Many IT service providers will offer to perform audits but it is best to check they have sufficient accreditation. Amongst the very best accreditations a practitioner can achieve are ITIL, SAM and MCP qualifications and it is possible to check with them whether they hold these.

Author Bio

Kieron Casey is a BA (Hons) Journalism graduate who blogs regularly on a number of topics including business advice, technology and software asset management.