License Audits – Software Vendors Go Trick-Or-Treating
Its Halloween time, so we’re all cowering in our homes
dreading the knock on our doors that signals another bunch of costumed kids or behoodied
hooligans demanding money with menaces. Now IT departments face a similar danger, and they’ll need more than candle-lit pumpkins in their windows to keep these guys at bay. Perhaps it’s the
economic downturn hindering normal sales efforts, but, judging by the volume of
client inquiries on the subject, software vendors are increasingly active in the
area of license compliance audits.
Most software vendors subcontract compliance audit work
to specialist teams from the major accounting firms. The vendor starts the
process with a nice letter that explains this is just part of its standard
process, yada yada, nothing to worry about yada yada. Unfortunately, some of our
clients have been taken in by this approach and have only come to Forrester for
help after the audit team has been in, by which time it may be too late.
Some software companies focus on deliberate IP
infringement and take a sympathetic view of accidental non-compliance, but
others seem to be like traffic cops hiding with a radar gun in the bushes at the
bottom of a hill. Vendor managers who receive the notice-of-audit letter should
do their own thorough assessment and fix any problems before the vendor’s team
is allowed in – it will be much easier to do this proactively than after the
vendor has found them and converted them into a revenue
forecast.
Have you fallen foul of a software compliance audit in
the last twelve months? Forrester would like to hear from you, so that we can
include any lessons learned in a research report. Please contact my research associate Antonin
Shanahan on ashanahan@forrester.co.uk if you
would be willing to participate in a 30 minute discussion with me, Duncan Jones, on this
topic.

