Read our guide to managing a software license compliance audit: www.anglepoint...
I’d like to share some further best practice elements of a good software publisher audit response process.
1. Execute confidentiality agreement(s) with the Software Publisher.
You do not want to share any confidential data without an NDA in place with the Software Publisher. Try to limit 3rd party involvement here as well, but if there are 3rd parties involved you will need NDAs with them too. This can be leveraged as an opportunity to include further advantageous language-make sure that your Legal Department supports the SAM team in drafting this agreement.
2. Take a stepwise approach to Entitlement Baselining.
By this I mean follow a logical progression. First you’ll want to agree on the Legal Entities being reviewed by the software publisher. Then, the software product lines, specific products, and any applicable contracts. Make sure this is done BEFORE any purchase transactions are discussed and certainly before any calculations are agreed.
3. License Consumption and Deployment recognition should FOLLOW entitlement baseline.
This is always hard to pull off-the Software Publisher will push to collect license consumption data either up front or at least along side the collection of Entitlement data. Make sure you have a calm and logical approach here-that until you understand the scope and baseline of license entitlements, you can’t collect any license consumption data.
4. Baselining and Draft reporting.
Try to remain in control of the tempo of the overall audit. Delaying for the sake of delaying will not result in a positive outcome-in fact the auditor will think you are hiding a non-compliance or not prepared to respond. However-do not rush to confirm license consumption or license entitlement baselines until you are ready to do so.
Once you confirm a figure on either the license entitlement or license consumption baseline, it will be hard to walk back. So ensure you have enough time to analyze and confirm any logic, calculations, or conclusions that the Software Publisher’s audit team is making before you agree to any baselines.
These are a handful of best practice steps that you should be considering in your Audit Response process. The Anglepoint Audit Response Framework has all of these elements and more.
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