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Campaign for Clear Licensing Sets its Sights on IBM, SAP

By Casey Houser, Contributing Writer

The latest news surrounding IBM and SAP concerns their relationships with their respective customers. According to the Campaign for Clear Licensing (CCL (News - Alert)), a not-for-profit group that campaigns on behalf of customers for clear and manageable software licensing programs, the two computing giants may have been less than forthcoming with their clients about their license terms and conditions.

Before this story proceeds any further, however, it is important to know where this latest spat got its start. It was back in November 2014, TMC (News - Alert) reported, that the CCL confronted Oracle (News - Alert) about its own practices. After completing a survey of 100 Oracle customers, the CCL sent a letter to Oracle about its concerns -- namely that 92 percent of that survey's respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed that Oracle was clear about it licensing practices.

According to Cloud Tech News, the CCL has IBM and SAP (News - Alert) in its sights for its next round of reprimands that, the news brief says, will be presented with the two computing giants at a roundtable come Feb. 2. Cloud Tech says the heat that will come through at the roundtable will arise as a result of licensing complexity, changing terms and conditions, and a lack of clarity on the part of IBM (News - Alert) and SAP regarding those issues. Mark Flynn, the chief executive of CCL, commented on the growing problem of customer-vendor licensing relationships.

“After Oracle, our members overwhelmingly called out IBM and SAP as the next most prolific auditors and vendors commonly associated with testing vendor-customer relationships,” Flynn said. “The issues raised by customers of IBM and SAP are not too dissimilar to those raised with other vendors.”

Martin Thompson, the chairman of CCL, continued by stating that the present focus on IBM and SAP does not mean that there is now a decreased focus on Oracle. A single report cannot change, in a matter of months, how any company handles its licensing practices. The CCL will reportedly continue working with Oracle to help change its current state of affairs and will also begin working with IBM and SAP to change things for the better.

Like many companies, IBM and SAP are shifting their combined focus toward cloud computing. This could present unique challenges with regard to licensing, but it may also allow the companies to have a fresh start after examining their current practices. Referencing TMC's report from November, it appears that Oracle can change things around, in large part, by streamlining the methods in which it conducts its audits. Its customers reported frustration with such audits, and if that is the case with IBM and SAP, smoothing over that one issue could lead to many more satisfied customers.