Software License Consolidation and Management for BSA Compliance

Managing software licenses and staying in compliance with the “software police” can be a challenge for IT managers and network administrators everywhere. The tracking of users to licenses can quickly get out of hand and pull the responsible party into a virtual vortex of logins, passwords, licenses, headcounts and the numerous spreadsheets to try and manage it all.

When I got the call from a client in the industry he was in the middle of just such a dizzying situation. He is the IT manager for a large organization that had just grown exponentially as a result of several independent companies merging into one. He was trying to get a handle on the aftermath of combining all of the disparate companies’ IT systems. And sorting out the company’s hundreds of VMware licenses was proving to be a nightmare.

He needed help. He knew that if they were audited by the Business Software Alliance and found to be out of compliance they could be hit with stiff fines. The BSA is the organization for the commercial software industry, whose charter it is to protect software companies against copyright infringement and piracy. Run afoul of the BSA and you could be fined as much as $100,000. That’ll get one’s attention.

We discussed his needs and I contacted VMware. I worked diligently, shuttling between our client and VMware to clarify the contracts they now possessed. We made our way through all of the different companies’ licenses with the login and password each one possessed. It was an enormous undertaking, but the hard work paid off. After a few months we had the tangle of licenses and access codes consolidated down to just one VMware contract with one login and one password.

As a result of the contract consolidation this IT manager now has peace of mind. He knows he has nothing to worry about should the BSA want to conduct an audit of his software licensing. And if that weren’t satisfaction enough, he has been able to reduce the 300 or so servers he inherited with the merger down to just 16, but that’s another story.

This is definitely an example of when sometimes less is more. Please contact me to see how I can simplify your software licensing.
http://www.microage.com/solutions/software-license-consolidation-and-management-for-bsa-compliance