Kodit

Kodit and FAST Ltd - Regaining Control in Challenging Times

This article takes a detailed look at how organisations can take steps to regain control of their IT assets and reduce any risk through having greater knowledge of their asset base.

In the current market conditions, the CIO who runs a tight ship has more impact and relevance to an organisation than any one particular project or technology. The operation has to run reliably every day, and that means wasting nothing, allocating scarce funds with due care and attention and ruthlessly tracking budget spend, including money spent on hardware and software assets.

It means taking a cold, hard look at doing the essentials such as IT Asset Management (ITAM) in a more efficient way, undertaking some IT circuit-training followed by the equivalent of a cold shower.  

Challenging times for users mean challenging times for vendors too. The recession, while not wiping out IT budgets completely, has meant organisations having to revisit their budget plans, with a consequent knock-on effect to vendors. For example, in 2009, the Gartner research group had expected IT budgets to grow 3.3 percent. Now the most likely case is IT budget growth of 2.3 percent to 0 percent, and the worst case scenario is that IT budgets will be down 2.5 percent, with financial services customers, the public sector, retail and manufacturing all likely to curb spending.

In terms of software, this means that if users aren’t buying new programs, then software vendors must turn to their existing customers to maintain their licence revenues. And that means an increased risk for companies of unwelcome vendor-inspired software audits to check on licensing. Indeed, according to recent research carried out by IDC, 52 percent of all companies have been subject to a vendor audit or review in the past 12 months, whilst 23 percent have been subject to three or more audits or review during this timeframe, suggesting that software audits are on the increase. It seems that software publishers are leaving nothing to chance and taking every opportunity to try and recover any money they consider to be theirs.  

Make no mistake, a software audit for which an organisation is unprepared can be a catastrophic event, which can cost money, reputations, even careers. At one prominent company, the unexpected receipt of a compliance letter created havoc which tied up IT management for weeks chasing software assets and proof of licensing. The costs involved in such an occurrence can be significant. There is the opportunity cost of key staff or management’s time which could be put to better use, but which has had to be pulled off other IT and business projects to solve the software licensing headache. Then there is the cost of additional consultants, and finally the cost of true-ing up licences, which can run to thousands, even millions of pounds.  

Think it can’t happen to you? Think again. With the recession already leading to the loss of thousands of jobs, companies whose software assets are not up to date risk finding disaffected employees with nothing to lose and everything to gain tipping off enforcement bodies like the BSA (Business Software Alliance) or even software vendors directly that their ‘old’ company is extensively running unlicensed software. If you’re running heavily unlicensed programs, you’re at risk of whistleblowers who will trade their insider knowledge for rewards. In the US, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), announced that in March 2009 it paid nearly $90,000 to ten sources who reported cases of corporate end-user software piracy to SIIA. The BSA is currently running a two month campaign in London targeting 1000 companies. There has already been press coverage about one organisation that has been forced to pay an undisclosed sum for under licensing their Microsoft software.

On the other side of the balance-sheet, by being properly prepared, and proactively managing its IT Assets, there can be a silver lining to the changes organisations are undergoing in terms of headcount because although organisations usually follow specific leaver policies and procedures from a security perspective, they often forget to pay attention to the implications for their asset estate.

The firm may be paying for items such as Hardware Support, Warranties, Equipment Leases, Software licenses, etc. for users that are no longer with the organisation. This is where Kodit and its specially chosen partners, such as FAST ltd, can add real value to an organisation’s IT estate.

The reality is that organisations who fail to keep on top of their software assets often find themselves paying over and over again for software licences they already had and didn’t need to buy. But because they had no idea what they’d bought, what their software usage is or what they had available in a licence ‘pool’, they ended paying out again. In troubled times when every penny counts, that’s not such a smart move. Yet 41 percent of businesses are currently over-licensed. Indeed, in five companies alone, FAST Ltd discovered a £1.7m overspend which the organisations could claw back.

Through its Professional Services and Software products, Kodit is already assisting scores of organisations to regain control of their IT assets. To find out more information on how we can help you, or for information regarding FAST’s Compliance Programme, or Software Asset Management (SAM) services in general, please click here or send an email to info@kodit.com.

If contacting FAST Ltd directly please reference this article. www.fast-ltd.co.uk