How Are YOU Managing License Compliance?

In a recent King Research survey, approximately two-thirds of the more than 340 IT professionals from mid-market companies polled claimed they were not properly addressing license compliance, with unlicensed software existing somewhere within their organization. An even higher number – more than 70 percent – state that they are unprepared for a vendor audit and the potential fines that could result from lack of license compliance.

These results demonstrate the enormous risk that IT departments at small and mid-sized business face when it comes to license compliance. Gartner claims that as many as 70 percent of mid-sized businesses and larger enterprises have already faced an external software audit over the past few years. And many other industry pundits expect the number of audits to increase in the coming months, as the struggling economy forces software vendors to scrounge for revenues as more and more customers scale back their licensing agreements or cancel their maintenance plans.

But, ensuring license compliance presents many challenges. For example, as businesses purchase more and more applications from different vendors, and deploy a growing number of desktops, licenses become much harder to keep track of.

Experts agree that software asset management (SAM) and software license management solutions are among the most effective ways to ensure adherence to existing licensing agreements. With the right technologies in place, companies can more accurately log and monitor their software inventory. This makes it easier to gain insight into license allocation, immediately detect the presence of illegally-installed or unauthorized applications, and promote license compliance across the enterprise.

With solutions from SAManage, license compliance is made easy. Businesses have all the tools they need to:

Uncover and minimize the risk associated with license non-compliance
Track adherence to software installation guidelines
Easily manage licenses and terms in a comprehensive, readily accessible repository
Automate and accelerate internal audits, and document license compliance results
Implement and enforce formal software usage policies