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Issues with Mobile Software Licenses Could Lead to Legal Challenges

By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor

Issues with mobile software licenses could lead to legal challenges. Already, software licenses for mobile users could cause issues for enterprises unless a compromise can be reached with vendors, a top Forrester Research (News - Alert) analyst announced recently in London.

Duncan Jones told the Forrester Forum for Technology Management Leaders that more prevalence of mobile users is making it less clear of how to define separate user licenses, according to ComputerWorld UK.

This comes as Oracle (News - Alert), SAP and other software vendors “attempt to capture revenue from businesses' new mobile projects,” the report adds.

"Companies like SAP (News - Alert), for example, will have gone to clients that have a mobile application developed in-house for sales or field workers,” Jones explained at the conference. “Those mobile applications integrate with the backend system, sending information about the next call they have to make or relevant customer information. SAP comes along and says 'oh well you need to buy new user licenses as all those individuals are using SAP' and the customer says 'no they are not, they are using the mobile application we have developed.'”

Litigation is not the ideal way to resolve the differences and instead parties may try to negotiate and the winner could be “whoever has the most leverage," Jones said.

Jones added that tech companies are seeing lower maintenance budgets, compared to more demands for tech to improve customer service. CIOs "must better align spending," Jones suggested. In the meantime, software vendors predict “spoils from maintenance support will grow,” ComputerWorld UK reported.

In addition, long-term customers of bigger vendors such as like Microsoft (News - Alert), SAP and Oracle may find some flexibility on the part of the vendors. It takes time build trust between the parties, the report said.

Jones also cautioned about software "cost escalators" apparently in use by CIOs. "Software providers are licensing by core or by RAM (News - Alert) of memory - putting you at the bottom of a cost escalator, and data inflation is increasing,” Jones said. “Unlike hardware vendors, the providers won't put any cap on what they charge. You buy millions of dollars’ worth of SAP Hana and you are committing your organization to buying one hundred million dollars’ worth in three or four years' time, which I don't think people realize."