Software Audits, Definition of

The Legal Definition: "A regular investigation of the software installed on all computers in an organisation to ensure that it is authorised or licensed."

Minimise the Risk of Prosecution for Software Theft

Benefits: Software audits minimise the risk of prosecution for software theft, minimise the risk of viruses through uncontrolled software copying, and ensure technical support is available to all users.

Systematic Software Audits and Planning

Systematic audits and the planning of software audits should be a regularly scheduled part of your ongoing software administration process. To help reduce the costs of software administration and improve employee productivity, consider these simple steps:

• Your software licensing audit will provide you with additional information to help you manage software costs and employee productivity.
• Look for old licenses and standardise on the most recent version.
• Is a new type of computer software becoming more popular throughout your organization? If so, you may wish to consider volume licensing programmes to simultaneously lower costs and improve employee productivity.
• Consider centralising software purchasing and record keeping, so you will always get the best price for your volume orders. Centralised software purchases make it much easier to track the status of software spending and because its centralised, your software audit will be much easier to carry out.

Effective employee communication on Software Audits

• To make people aware of the potential costs of software piracy to your organisation as well as the benefits of being in full compliance with intellectual property law, implement the following processes:
• Have all employees sign a copy of your organisation's policy regarding appropriate use of software.
• Ensure up-to-date information regarding your organisation's software licensing policies is readily available in hard copy form and on your organisation's intranet. Publicise the correct processes for adding new computers, new applications and new employees.
• Discourage individual software purchases, these make software audits so much harder and can cost the business money. Make employees aware of any existing volume pricing contracts for software so your organisation can achieve maximum discounts.
• Provide employees with easy access to straightforward guidelines that will help them avoid software theft and piracy.
• If your software audit employees are found to have pirated software, act in accordance with your organisation's software policy.
• Formally revisit these topics on a regular basis (for example, half yearly) to prevent any piracy problems.