The Software Audit Balancing Act

Recently, I've been working with a number of clients who are struggling to balance how much they should prepare for software vendor audits when the likelihood of being audited seems low - until they are hit with a large, unplanned software compliance invoice.

Identifying Assets

The challenge facing most large organizations is identifying which software assets amongst the hundreds to thousands within their organization might be creating exposure for the organization. Balanced against other priorities, the task of identifying these assets and developing a strategy for managing them can seem daunting and unrewarding. Being overly prepared certainly doesn't give an asset manager any credibility with the business when other priorities are pressing and being audited seems like a remote possibility.

The reality, however, is that audits are increasing and many well-known vendors are becoming increasingly aggressive in this space.

Accenture's Example

I was recently educated on a practical approach to balancing the need for preparedness against the likelihood of audit in working with Accenture's software asset management team. Accenture advocates creating a managed software list that is composed of software vendors and titles that are either high value, represent an audit risk, or are both high value and an audit risk.

This practical approach can often get the list of hundreds of applications and vendors down to 25-50, representing a solid scope of work for a phase I solution. Asset management and enterprise license optimization consultants can assist in identifying the top vendors, key practices and pitfalls, and readily help large enterprises pragmatically prepare for audits.

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