Achieving software compliance is tough, but undoubtedly is a necessary process. Companies prepared for a software audit mitigate risk and save significant costs. Companies that aren’t prepared must face the wrath of the software vendors.

To be fully optimised and compliant, organisations must consider:

1. Data

To be compliant one must first find the correct data, calculate compliance and determine the work required to meet compliance needs. With the inefficient tools currently available, this is not an easy process.

2. Expertise

There are experts in every corner of the licensing and audit worlds, but how many of them are not tied to a vendor or reseller? How many of them are truly impartial and not targeted to sell more licences? What an organisation needs is breadth of experience with many vendors, independence from software companies, a consultative approach and expertise in the audit market.

3. Collaboration and Buy-In

Getting buy-in from nontechnical management teams can be tough. It is essential that everyone in the organisation understands, the importance of a rigorous and comprehensive software audit.

4. Maintenance

An audit is just step one. Software asset management (SAM) is a lifelong commitment to keep costs down and compliance at as close to 100% as possible.