10+1 things to do when you get an email or a letter for software compliance ? 1. READ CAREFULLY Read the contents of the email or letter carefully and verify whether it is written by an authorised person of the software vendor. Consult your preferred software dealer and your legal team. 2. INTERNAL SOFTWARE AUDIT Do an internal software audit for the exact usage of the software vendors product (and other software products as well) in the computers and systems within your organisation. 3. REMOVE EXTRA OR UNUSED SOFTWARE If there are multiple installations of different versions of the same software in any computer or if there is any inadvertent installation of the software product which has never been used, you should uninstall these software products under the licence terms. 4. MAKE LIST OF EXISTING LICENCES AND CHECK FOR SHORTFALL Make a list of all the software licences in your organisation and check if all the installed software from the internal software audit can be covered the existing licences. If there is any shortfall, make a proper bill of materials. 5. PLACE ORDERS TO YOUR SOFTWARE PARTNER FOR ANY SHORTFALL If there is any shortfall in software licencing, place orders to your preferred software partner. 6. REPLY TO SOFTWARE AUDIT LETTER OR EMAIL. Send the reply to the software vendor with your software compliance report. If they agree with your software compliance report, the matter is closed. If the software vendor are not convinced of your software compliance, they may insist on a software audit by an reputed independent auditor under the licence terms. The Software licence terms normally only specifies for an internal audit and self declaration of software usage and does not allow for an external audit unless ordered by court (after due legal process). 7. PREPARE FOR THE SOFTWARE AUDIT Check the software licence terms of the software vendor for the terms of the software audit under the licence agreement. The Software licence terms normally only specifies for an internal audit and self declaration of software usage and does not allow for an external audit unless ordered by court (after due legal process). Request for the software vendors authorisation letter to the Audit firm to conduct software audits for the software vendor. Request for the names, photographs and profiles of the person/s authorised by the software vendor to conduct the software audit. Also instruct the software vendor and auditor to ensure that the software auditor should not have any active interest, direct or indirect investment in your business profile. 8. NON DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT FOR THE AUDITORS Send the Non Disclosure Agreement(NDA) to the authorised auditors to agree and sign. The NDA should specify that the information gathered during the software audit will be used specifically for purpose of the software audit report to be sent to the software vendor. No information gathered during the software audit can be passed to any competitor/s or be used for any commercial or non-commercial purpose. 9. THE SOFTWARE AUDIT After the NDA has been signed by the auditors, you should allow the auditors to physically check for the software vendors products installed in the computers in your organisation. You should disallow the use of any software audit tool unless the source code of the software tool has been provided to you in advance. You should insist on an independent software test report for the software audit tool and an indemnity bond from the software auditor for any damages that may be caused by the use of the software audit tool. 10. PLACE ORDERS TO SOFTWARE PARTNER FOR ANY SHORTFALL If there is any shortfall found during the software audit, place orders to your preferred software partner. + 1 more. DO INTERNAL SOFTWARE AUDITS EVERY MONTH Do monthly internal software audits for the exact usage of the all the software products in the computers and systems within your organisation. If there is any shortfall found during these monthly software audits, place orders to your preferred software partner. . . If you did not find this information useful, please share your feedback. If you found this information useful, please share your feedback...... If you like this post please share. (You can share on linkedin, facebook, google+ and twitter )
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 06:20:14 +0000