Violation of Software Licensing Compliance (knowingly or unknowingly) can hamper the overall progress of a company. Such violations (i.e. SOX Compliance) can have devastating consequences because of which a company can face a civil suit. In such cases, burden of proof fells on the organization to prove the charges wrong or it would have to pay up for the damages. It is also a fact that the Administrators cannot see the validity of each and every computer. Additionally, the hidden policies of the software companies remain another half of the compliance problem. We will discuss some measures and software's (Sox Compliance Software or HIPAA compliance) which can help an organization in adhering to the Software Licensing Compliance.
A simple breach of Software Licensing Compliance is circulation of single licensed software thought the company. This is one of those reckless breaches because of which the companies are frequently handed over the bill of unauthorized usage - as single purchase authorizes only a single usage. These are some steps which can be employed for adhering to the Software Licensing Compliance.
Get familiar with the software licensing policy of the organization
The cumbersome legal language is very hard to understand and if the reader is from non legal background then he will take some more time in understanding the terminologies. The organization should chart out legal policies in an understandable language. Diversified licensing types are available like:
Open licensing
Volume licensing
Concurrent licensing
Non-concurrent licensing
OEM, upgrade licensing
Subscription licensing
Competitive upgrade licensing
An organization should analyze its needs and should adopt the best suited licensing policy accordingly. Before performing this daunting task the caucus of licensing experts and software professionals shall be fixed. This will help the organization in accurately understanding the minute clauses associated with a legal policy. With this an organization can track the installed software and segregate it as licensed or not.
Maintaining software inventory and conducting internal software audits
It is a must for the large scale organizations to maintain proper inventory of the software deployed inside and outside its premises. With a good inventory record the organizations can keep track on the software's and check their licensing compliances.
To make this task easy, an organization can refer Software Licensing Compliance tool (or SOX Compliance Software) which generates inventory data on the software's installed. It quickly presents a clear picture that which software's have been used, does they comply with the software compliances and how much is their usage.
Organizations should also conduct software audits on regular intervals. Audits help in evaluating the software metrics and verifying the loopholes in its policies. Audits also help in optimizing the software budget and available it infrastructure.
Deploy strict software usage and installation policies
Deploying stringent software utilization policy it the key to get software license compliance. A fearsome policy would certainly deter the employees in violating the software compliances. Such policies clearly define what is legal and what is not legal. A good software policy should encompass all the IT operations like software installation, software registration, software license usage, etc. Lepide Software Asset Management is one such efficient software that enables the administrator to utilize software licenses in the most beneficial manner though deployment of effective software policies.
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