Software Audit Defense Services

Not currently experiencing a software audit, but want to get a handle on where you sit?

Your organization isn’t currently under an active audit by a software publisher, but you are concerned that one is coming or that you may be non-compliant, and you just want to get ahead of it. We can help you out.

Many of the leading companies in the world proactively conduct internal software audits, either to ensure they are compliant or to use that data to assist in Software Negotiations and contract renewals. This practice keeps costs low and negates surprise true up bills when it comes time to renegoitiate.

MetrixData 360 Offers a Self-Assessment service that mirrors the processes that are run by the vendors or the auditors themselves. We create Estimated License Positions (ELPs) that show you what the auditors will find and then teach you the legal licensing methods to decrease any license deltas that are found.

Don’t forget that auditors’ jobs are to be conservative, so if you are lacking data to create a position or cannot defend your position, they will apply the rules in favor of the software vendor & not you.

Our job is to teach you how to use your data to your advantage to decrease the number of licenses you require, while staying compliant with the terms and conditions of your contract. MetrixData 360 shines at taking complex software inventory data and making it into useful information for you.

The challenges of a software audit

It Is Possible For Companies to Manage Their own Software Assets & Defend Themselves – Often Without Over-Spending on Expensive Audit Settlements

Even so, there are opportunity costs (not to mention extreme frustration) to having your expensive internal resources focus on such an outward activity. All the hours they spend sorting, organizing, collecting data, and then painstakingly dealing with the auditors is time that they are not performing their primary job. Below is a small list of challenges that you may face in dealing with an audit:

The auditors do not understand the complex nature of your environment and will not spend any time trying to understand it
You have undocumented processes on how you count licenses that do not align to how the auditors want to collect data vs. how you report what you purchase
Data collection is incomplete and missing key elements – so the auditors will make assumptions that favor the software vendor, not you
The auditor will not review the specifics of your contract and will apply the standard rules to your data
You are missing multiple purchase records and can’t accurately account for all the licenses you believe you own
Auditors are asking for data to be provided without any explanation, creating confusion
The information provided from the data contains hundreds of thousands, if not millions of rows of data, and you don’t even know where to start to review it

This is just a small sample of the things that may prove challenging during a software audit.

What is included in a software audit defense or self-assessment

The following services are included in our engagements:

Vendor specific experts – our Audit team has either worked at the vendor or at a big auditing firm for many years auditing software from that vendor
Data collection done from your tools as much as possible
Industry leading tools for license calculation and normalization – whether developed in house or third party, we’ve vetted these tools in our practice to make data collection easier for you
Software license compliance services – Review of all software contracts related to that software publisher to make sure we have the full history and understand your contractual rights
Data experts – most companies have findings against them in software audits because they don’t’ have the right data – we love data and we make sure it’s ready for the auditors
Team Members – Our experts become part of your team – we don’t get paid by the software vendors or auditors – we become one of you and our goal is the same as yours, save you money
Training and back up documentation – everything we do is documented and we train you on what we did so that you can do it yourself the next time

Software Audit Support

Your time is valuable – we respect that. When scheduling a time to talk about how we can help you, we won’t bombard you with hundreds of needless emails and endless phone calls from aggressive sales reps you don’t want to talk to. Instead, one of our Software Licensing Experts, will listen to you about what challenges you are facing and confirm our understanding of what your goals are. We only move forward if you think we might be a good fit for you – that’s it. Our commitment is to zero high-pressure sales tactics from us, ever. With every client we’ve ever worked with ready and willing to do reference calls for us, we know the value in the results our services bring to our clients. We look forward to you learning and experiencing it for your yourself!

Software Asset Management Services