Software Compliance

With software estimated to be worth, on average, up to 25 per cent of an organisation's IT budget, it is prudent to keep a close watch on how, where and what licenses are bought. With careful software management policies in place excessive spending can be avoided and license compliance can be maintained.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) are organisations working in the UK on behalf of software developers and publishers to protect their intellectual property rights and interests as legislated in the copyright laws. FAST is unique in that it is the only association in the world that also represents end users, helping those who are actually responsible for managing software.

FAST and BSA are very active in identifying offenders and law suits are not uncommon. There have already been a number of widely published cases of organisations being prosecuted and fined, and the number is set to rise. With the estimated 'cost' of software piracy at around £204m in the UK last year, application developers and publishers are now trying to address the issue by becoming increasingly proactive in seeking out offenders. There is even a phone-line where individuals can report organisations who they think are breaking the law. It only takes one disgruntled ex-employee to expose non-compliance.

Benefits of Themis at a glance:
o Ensures company wide compliance on email use, files and data being stored and that the information is secure, protected and available when required. Including conformity to Sarbanes Oxley/Basel2.

o Ensures corporate policy adherence by proactively monitoring and managing assets. o Specifically facilitates software license compliance.

o Facilitates against the risk of software overspend.

o Assists and manages in the event of a software audit by FAST or BSA.

o Minimises risk of manual & unauthorised installations of software.

o Manages and protects against the download to either locally or centrally stored unauthorised or unsuitable material.

o Discovers all hardware and software assets for accurate financial reporting.