An audit? A chance (to smile)!

smileAs you must feel completely paranoid by all those SAM and License experts and SAM tooling vendors on how many threats are coming your way, I guess it’s time to give you some good feelings for your companies’ and your own peace of mind.

Embrace….,yes, I say let’s embrace all the software creator’s pressure they bestow upon you by having frequent audits and telling you what kind of mess you apparently made of your software environment. This is the moment to pick up the battle axe and show them that, although you might have made some honest mistakes, you know what your rights and responsibilities are. You will show every auditor that you know that he has to follow your procedure when it comes to how the audit is performed and what kind of data/information is handed over or shown. You have the opportunity to start out with the first steps towards a reliable License administration and software asset management (SAM) process. And yes, that will take some effort and budget. And no tool can bring you a silver bullet solution on its own. So build a plan, hire some experts and be able to ignore all the disturbing pressure of the software creators in the future. Follow the standard ISO 19770 (why?: because they’re being rapidly adopted by more and more software creators) for IT&SAM and make this investment worth a multitude of all the future unbudgeted (or even budgeted!!!) incompliance fees and fines. And I’m not even mentioning the internal personnel costs.

The audit threat is the perfect moment to change your negotiation position. First you make sure that the next audit will be orchestrated according your protocol and risks are minimalized. And second you start out with building a reliable, effective administration. Where to start? Discover what is in your environment. Make use of a discovery/inventory tool that fits your needs. Based on the results of this action you know where you need to start improving and building.

Please don’t be afraid to ask for expertise, although you think you don’t need it the past show otherwise (sorry for my bluntness). There are a few models that have proved their success already and if you want to know which one fits you best don’t hesitate to call me to help you out.

And if you want to know how to build an effective audit protocol and how to be the boss of every software audit? The solution for that is here and is way cheaper than your next audit without it would be!

So I hope I brought back a little positive feeling around your software. You can be in the drivers’ seat. You just need a little bit of help. And that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Smile when the next warning or announcement comes at your table, you know what to do.

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Nico Blokland

SAM evangelist and implementer.

In his long lasting career he helped out (and still does) numerous organizations before , during and after software audits to get the best result possible against the minimal costs. Currently he’s sharing his knowledge and expertise to help organizations in being ready for each software audit. In2SAM has a portfolio and experts that can help you with nearly all issues on IT & Software Asset management. Challenge them, you’ll be surprised.

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