Watch out: the licensing auditors are about

Software Asset Management (SAM)

We have recently seen changes in the behaviour of software vendors who are increasingly targeting organisations that are potentially under-licensed or do not have suffi cient maintenance cover. It’s easy to see the importance of this type of revenue, especially maintenance income, which accounted for 58% of Oracle’s software revenues last year and 74% of the profits.

There are already signs of an increase in activity:

• Gartner has stated that they expect vendors to double the number of audits they perform.

• Microsoft has sent questionnaires to a number of organisations that they suspect are under-licensed.

• Industry operators have reported that audit activity is at an all-time high.

In addition to the vendor focus, there is increased activity by organisations such as the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) and Business Software Alliance (BSA) who are identifying, investigating and prosecuting organisations without adequate license coverage.

PA has delivered several successful Software Asset Management related assignments, To speak to an expert at PA about Software Asset Managment, please click the 'contact us' button above.