17Nov
Settlement Structuring for IBM Audits
Software-compliance audits initiated by IBM can be extremely burdensome and time-consuming and can force companies to face challenges that are somewhat unique among major-publisher audits. For one example, a significant component of IBM’s business model...
7Oct
Don’t Short-Sheet the Internal Analysis in an IBM Audit
One of the most critical steps any business faces in any software audit is conducting an internal analysis of deployments to entitlements, preferably before any audit data is shared with the auditors. That internal review...
24Aug
What If I Discover Unlicensed IBM Software on My Servers?
Software license compliance is a task that typically requires constant vigilance. Despite a CIO’s best efforts, it is almost inevitable that software will be deployed on a company’s computers at some point without having the...
12Aug
For SPLA Audits, When Historical Data is Missing, Creativity May Be Required
Most software audits pertaining to products licensed under perpetual licenses (such as licenses acquired under a Microsoft Select Agreement, MPSA or (usually) Enterprise Agreement) incorporate a snapshot-in-time approach, where licenses owned generally are compared to...
4Aug
Can a Software Publisher Force You to Audit Your Customers?
Many software-solution vendors utilize third-party infrastructure or application programs as frameworks for embedded solutions that they sell to their customers and install on their customers’ computers. Licenses for those third-party products typically can be acquired...
13Apr
IBM Approves Limited Exceptions to ILMT Sub-Capacity Reporting
For more than a decade, IBM has allowed its end users to license IBM software products on a sub-capacity basis. For IBM licensing purposes, sub-capacity licensing required customers to accept the sub-capacity licensing terms (originally...
