Software vendor audits are on the increase. According to a July 2009 report from Gartner, more than 50 per cent of organisations had been audited by at least one software vendor in the previous 12 months. Our experience in the Irish market is very similar.

And why not? When companies are cutting back on new hardware and software, vendors are turning to audits to mop up all unlicensed usage of their products in a bid to maintain revenue levels.
Companies like Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, Attachmate, and IBM have all greatly increased their audit activity.

Undergoing a software audit can be a very trying time for any company; it is a drain on resources and can result in significant additional software costs if a company is found to have a shortfall of licenses.
So what should you do if you’re notified of a software audit? Here are five golden rules to follow during any software audit.

1. Request that you are notified in advance

When agreeing to the terms of the software license you probably agreed to be audited by the provider and they have a right to see that you are in compliance. Sometimes software auditors have been known to turn up unannounced and request unfettered access to a company’s IT systems; this is very bad practice and should be resisted. You have a right to protect sensitive data and to be able to ensure that your operations are not unduly interrupted, such as in the middle of major project. It is, therefore, reasonable for you to be given sufficient notice. You should request that the auditors outline for you in advance a detailed plan of what is to be audited and how it will be undertaken. If you’re unsure of any aspect then seek specialist advice.

2. Carry out a pre-audit-audit

It is good practice to regularly undertake an audit of your systems to ensure you are: 1/ compliant, and 2/ not paying for any unnecessary software or licenses.

An audit will not assess if the software you have is actually being used, it will only assess whether you are paying the required licenses. We have found that 20% to 35% of business software is paid for, but never used. Obviously identifying such software would result in significant costs savings for a company.

3. Test the audit software

If, for their audit, the auditors want to use their own software on your IT system, then it is reasonable for you to be allowed to test their software first. You need to be clear the software is safe and will not adversely affect your system, no matter how many times it has run safely on other systems. Therefore, you have the right to use the program in ‘self-audit’ mode beforehand.

4. Don’t Volunteer Additional Information

The more information you provide to the auditors the more they have to check; don’t provide more than is requested as it slows down the audit. Some firms volunteer more information in a bid to demonstrate their compliance, but any additional details provided have to be verified by the auditors, which takes time and is all done at your expense. So stick to only providing information that is requested.

5. Don’t rush to buy additional licenses – always negotiate

If the audit concludes that you need to purchase additional licenses then don’t immediately rush to buy them as it can lead to further problems. Being too swift to buy additional licenses make the auditors think that you knew of non-compliance all along and could lead to prosecution.

Swift action to buy more licenses also removes any room you have to negotiate. In our experience an auditor will always outline an amount that is higher than you will have to pay. In these lean economic times the provider will want to keep you as customer, so it can pay to be patient and negotiate the final amount owed.

And finally…

Before you make any decisions on new licenses ensure they are necessary and you are using the most efficient model of software licensing. IT costs are a huge overhead so companies should ensure that all the software is a vital and necessary for the efficient running of the business.

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Nexala have offices in the New York, the City in London and the south of France, as well as Dun Laoghaire, with sales, project delivery and development personnel located in each. They are a leader provider of software to the international transport sector. Their solutions allow their clients to improve their operational efficiencies, manage their asset performance, improve service levels, increase resource utilisation and fundamentally to reduce their maintenance and operational costs.

Nexala invest a considerable amount of money on third party software applications in order to support their business. Nexala wanted to understand what software was most widely used within the company in order to standardise usage by their employees and give them a stronger bargaining position when it came to negotiating software purchase and maintenance contracts. They selected us to employ the LicenseMetrics as their software asset management tool for their company in September 2009.

LicenseMetrics delivered several key benefits to Nexala.

• Using the data delivered by LicenseMetrics, Nexala were able to standardise a single
software development model, use a standardised project management tool and move to a hosted
email service.

• In addition LicenseMetrics identified two specific software applications which were not as widely used
as previously thought. A speedy internal development led to the creation of a bespoke application
rendering these two applications redundant, thus saving on the significant renewal fees.

Paul Lowry, VP Business Development, Nexala, says:

“Like any business we need to be proactive when it comes to the cost of running our business. We liked LicenseMetrics immediately. We now have a very effective software asset management tool in place for a very small investment in both our time and money.

“We shaved 25% on our software maintenance costs through consolidations within our development environment, and the combination of email outsourcing and creating a bespoke project planning application took 20% off our software renewal costs.

“Add to that the fact that we have a tool which will alert us if we have any unauthorised software on our network.”

Jonathan Mulligan, Managing Director, Openplain, says:

“We were not at all surprised that Nexala were amongst the first to use LicenseMetrics. Nexala’s number one question is ‘how will this enable us service our clients better, quicker or in a more cost effective manner’. Through the combination of a tighter development environment and savings made on software spend, Nexala can continue to invest in moving their business forward”

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Irish companies can save thousands on software, OpenPlain
SMA software to tackle “silent drain” on SME resources

News | 25 Jan 2010 :

Irish producer of workplace analysis software, Openplain has launched LicenseMetrics, a new solution that can cut software costs by up to 25%.

LicenseMetrics allows organisations greater insight into their use of software and locates overlaps in how applications are used by staff. It can also determine the most efficient use of software licenses in order eliminate waste and reduce unnecessary spending.

While traditional software asset management systems report what software is installed throughout the organisation, LicenseMetrics immediately identifies whether that software is being used or not.

“Almost every organisation – from SMEs to multinational conglomerates – will have accumulated unnecessary licences for redundant and under-used applications,” said Jon Mulligan, MD at Openplain. “Whether it’s the upshot of acquisitions, mergers, business strategy shifts or simply the fallout from years of maintenance, these licences add little or no value to a business – and more often than not are a silent drain on finances.”

For more information on LicenseMetrics visit www.openplain.com

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The Irish Times – Friday, November 20, 2009
Tech Shorts

Savings in the office

Companies could save more than €40,000 a year by eliminating software they don’t need, a new survey has revealed. Research by Dublin-based software company Openplain found that companies don’t use 70 per cent of the software they have bought, and could save €420 per worker by removing it. In a medium-sized company, this could translate into savings of €42,000 a year.

A further €20,000 could be saved every year by ensuring employees switch off computers at night and weekends, Openplain said.

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1. Turn off your PC when you leave the office
2. Examine Teleworking
3. Consider the cloud
4. Don’t pay for software that you don’t use

There’s more detail on the main Openplain site

IT changes ‘save firms thousands’

Wednesday November 18 2009
Businesses could save tens of thousands of euro and stave off redundancies by making simple changes to IT systems, consultants have claimed.

Switching off machines at night and cutting back on software orders could cut costs by 62,000 euro a year.

A study of the IT usage in 10,000 firms revealed almost two-thirds of workers leave computers on all night, wasting enough energy over a year to power 13 ovens.

Jon Mulligan, managing director of software firm Openplain which monitored businesses, said there were huge opportunities for savings.

“When companies are attempting to reduce costs, instead of making sweeping cuts, such as staff redundancies, there are simple measures that can save businesses thousands of euro,” he said.

“Two of the biggest culprits are in relation to IT – companies need to turn off their computers and stop buying software they don’t use.”

In tracking IT usage Openplain found most companies only use 70% of the software they have bought.

The firm said removing unused software would save 42,000 euro a year for a company with 100 staff with a further 20,000 euro savings on electricity bills.

Press Association

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Do you remember years ago when the traffic in town was so bad that everyone came in early and went home late – just to miss the traffic.  As the work day stretched out productivity plummeted.  People would think nothing of chatting over coffee for 30 minutes here and there, as they knew that they had at least an extra 2 hours during the day to get work done.  In fact, in the ultimate irony, when leaving at 7pm, people could be heard working furiously at their desks trying to clear their work in a mad panic, after wasting so much time.

Then we heard about a concept called ‘work life balance’.  Now personally my ideal work life balance is 0% work, 100% pay, but all of a sudden it was fashionable to finish work early, and our employers, having had a sudden attack of conscience would strut through the office shouting “Go Home!” at 5.30.  Striding out of the office at 4pm was the ultimate show of success – “I’m so good I can finish work early and go home to spend quality time with the family!”.  I hate the phrase quality time.  What the hell is quality time anyway, and who gets the quality?  If I am in bad mood is that bad quality time?  Surely time is just that, time??

I digress.  So, there we were, all rushing through our work like mad things, with the ultimate race to see who could be out the door first, rushing home to attend to those loved ones who presumably were sitting pining at the door.  But now that’s all changed.  Back again are the longer hours.  It’s not traffic this time, traffic is down considerably, its nerves.  We are once again back at the stage where we need to show how ‘hard’ we are working by staying late.  Woe betide the brave one who seeks to leave at 6.30, “half day then”?  We are all terrified.  We reckon that our managers are so fickle that they will simply decide on who needs to be downsized in a moment of instant panic based on who is left in the office.  If you aren’t in work at that precise moment then its bye bye time.

Gone too are those lazy moments over coffee for the idle chat.  We are all far too ‘hard’ at work to get a lunch, let alone chat.

Who benefits from all this nonsense? eBay, Facebook, Bebo, and for the execs among you, LinkedIn.

I’ve had enough, I’m going home.  I’ll just wait for someone else to leave first though….

With more and more companies turning to instant messaging to help speed communication, the question has to be asked : help or hindrance?

When I first started working in sales and visiting offices, they were much noisier, people talking, interacting on a person to person, desk to desk level. Over the last couple of years the chatter is being replaced by tapping on keyboards often followed by a sporadic, out-of-place laugh. Instant messaging is already taking over the office environment.

In OfficeMetrics we see this more acutely than anyone. In delivering workplace analytics we see office trends explode then wane and fall. However in the case of IM it grows and grows, and with good reason. One of the most common drains on time we see in the office is that of internal email. In almost every organisation we see hours wasted on internal mail. Emails CC’d to groups,line managers and senior management and forwarded again in a growing wave of email. All of which is written, read, replied to and forwarded, creating an enormous drain on time and productivity.

IM stands like a shining beacon of hope amongst this tide of email. It offers instant streamlined communication, negating the problem of lag times in email response. You can get instant answers from people. No more having to wait for a response from an email you sent. It is in a sense turbo charged email. No huge inbox of mail to store and sort and search through everyday.

Companies are seeing the benefit of this, rolling out enterprise solutions to improve communication, internal and with suppliers, vendors and clients.

Many companies are allowing employees to use free IM software, like MSN, AIM, Yahoo to name a few, and controlling these IM clients with a solution on the gateway. When it comes to improving communication, IM works.

Gartner suggest that 90% of business users are already using IM and that email usage should drop 40% in the next two years because of the uptake of IM.

However, therein lies the problem. Of all those millions of people who use IM in the workplace, 40% are doing so without the authorisation or knowledge of their IT department. This unmonitored IM access creates huge problems for companies.

• Excessive personal use is a sure fire way to drive down productivity
• Sensitive and confidential company information can be broadcast with no safeguards
• The standard policies around appropriate content in the workplace are not imposed
• IT security protocols are circumvented allowing the network to be exposed to malware
• In regulated companies, compliance rules and procedures are bypassed and ignored

IM will be implemented in every business, of that there is no doubt. In order to be effective companies will need to be ahead of the curve, implementing policies and solutions which best suit their needs and are aligned to their goals.

Just as we implemented a new set of rules when the automobile replaced the horse and cart, new workplace procedures are required to embrace IM. But like the car it will revolutionise everything.

Moral of the story, let the IM genie out of the bottle, just be sure to lock it up!

Working from home (or Flexible Work Arrangements for those of you who are technically minded) is fantastic!  I can get up at 8.59am, no worries about hair, makeup or even a shower, and I am in work for 9am on the dot.
Free from the constant personal life updates (gossip) that hamper my office day, I get through so much it makes me wonder what I actually do with my time when I am in the office.

With video chat I can see my office friends and comment on their hair as appropriate.  Instant messaging is gossip in private and I can even share my PC screen with the IT techie when I need him to show me how to fix my PC (who knew that del *.* was such a bad thing?).

But.  And there is a But.  A fairly serious But.

Flirting.

Flirting in the office is a KEY ingredient of every workers day.  Be it cheerful office banter, a little bit of teasing here and there, or simply the moment when all of a sudden the usual calm of the office is interrupted by a chorus of “Oh My God!” as the latest Michael Jackson joke hits the email, this form of human interaction is essential to your daily well being.
We are pack animals.  We weren’t meant to be alone.  We need the interaction.

Working from home is the ultimate win-win situation.  I work harder, I work better, I spend less time in the car, everybody is a winner.  But we still need the office flirting, which is why I am showered and on the way into town right now.  This has nothing what so ever to do with the fact that Peter in Finance is going to the pub tonight…

The reality is when working in a corporate environment, our productivity is almost always stifled by decisions about which applications are acceptable and which aren’t, what sites are accessible and what ones aren’t. The result is a bureaucratic lock-down of machines and in many cases access to the internet itself, today’s most essential business tool. Most businesses today rely on the creativity and ingenuity of their staff to grow and succeed.  By restricting their access to the most creative tools, we restrict their ability to achieve.

There seems to be a disconnect between the goals of the business and the goals of the IT department. Rather than act as an enabler seeking to aid the productivity and efficiency of staff, it seems the modern IT department has tasked itself with being the company sheriff,  heading off any perceived threat at the pass, fictional, improbable or otherwise.

Farhad Manjoo of Slate has outlined the downside of this restrictive IT culture and its lack of grounding in facts about security and productivity. I think it’s a must read for everyone who still has to go into the office. Read it here before Farhad has his network privileges revoked!