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Why You Should Avoid a Software Audit Like the Plague

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Why You Should Avoid a Software Audit Like the Plague

September 17, 2015
By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

There’s never enough time in the day. As a result, most of us fail to build in enough “buffer” time for the miscellaneous and the unexpected; we overly optimistically assume that what’s on our to-do list is all we need to schedule, or we only give lip service to unaccounted time intended to address the unexpected.


Yet the unexpected does happen, and it can blow our schedule apart. One of those unexpected events that may befall us is a software licensing audit.

Major business software providers, especially Oracle and Microsoft (News - Alert), know that licensing compliance does not always happen. And this can cost them huge sums of lost licensing revenue, so these firms routinely audit to make sure businesses are in compliance.

The cost of an audit on a company can be huge and unexpected. Flexera Software, which offers software license optimization solutions, highlights the point by noting two recent software licensing audits by companies it knew in Japan. The audit cost the firm roughly 1000 hours to resolve—which of course comes at a huge cost for the firm.

Flexera noted that the firm with a software license optimization was able to resolve their audit in only 70 hours. Still a lot, but a lot less devastating.

The point of this example is twofold. Most important; plan for the unexpected. Things like software license audits are not on the radar for most businesses, but they can play havoc to business objectives. There needs to be buffer time built in to the schedule to allow for these unexpected events.

The second point is to have good insurance against the unexpected. One form of insurance that often goes overlooked is software license optimization solutions. With a license optimization solution, it is much easier to have a full picture of the licensing situation. This can not only prevent a license breach, but also dramatically reduce the time it takes to resolve an audit in the case that it does come to that.

The licensing schemes of many software solutions, most notably Microsoft, are complex and unwieldy. Unlike commercial software for home use, these complex licensing schemes can get businesses in trouble pretty quickly. So a little proactive management goes a long way.




Edited by Maurice Nagle

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