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Software Audit Support (3)

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SAM Tooling

If you use ServiceNow, SAM Pro LDS can help you in range of areas.

You are in an audit

You Are In Audit

It does not matter where you are in the audit process. Maybe all you did was to respond to the publisher or the audit firm’s request. Maybe you are at the end of the audit process where you have received a settlement letter and don’t agree with the findings. Remember they do this type of work every day. You should find help to even out the sides. LDS can help anywhere along the process.

The Biggest Mistake You Can Make

Do not assume that the licensing position is correct. Auditors typically use the approach of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what will sticks. At best, they interpret all the data in the way that servers them best. They know with experience that most of the customers are not going to review the license position report, rather they will accept the report and then focus on the settlement numbers.

The Second Mistake We Often See

The second biggest error customers fall into is often to negotiate a lower cost settlement before knowing if the license position is correct. Settling before knowing the true license deployment without evaluating the actual position can be costly. This mistake usually ends up with a higher initial settlement cost then what is required, and also higher on-going costs for licenses or products that are not truly required.

Understand You Have Rights

You should not be controlled by the rulings of the auditors or by their time schedule. You have the right to review their findings and to correct mistakes that have been made. You should review all the findings and thoroughly challenge what you believe is not correct. Only then, should you start to discuss a settlement. Ideally you can negotiate a settlement that gives your company some business value and try to avoid a settlement that is punitive and where you end up with products you do not want.

Received Audit Letter

It is not always what is true, it is often what can be proven and seen from the data that wins. Generally the best data wins.

Build The Core Cross Functional Team

Seek Specialized External Help

Perform An Internal Health Check To Understand & Optimize Your Risk

Before sending any data to the customer you should get a through understanding of your software deployments and entitlements. Perform an internal health check on your SAM tools because they might be incomplete or reporting false positives. There are many avenues available to you to optimize your real estate before receiving the bill from the software vendor. Determine your risk and where allowed to make remediation before submitting the data to the auditors.

LDS Can Help!

Software Audit-Negotiation Support

If you have received an audit letter or inquiry from a software publisher, let us help you.

Salesforce Licensing Review

For organizations wishing to reduce the overall cost and risk associated with their software estate, this service delivers a complete license position plus recommendations for improvements and to future-proof licensing. It offers particular value if you are looking to make changes to your current on premise infrastructure, or move to a cloud environment.

Other Publishers

LDS helps clients inventory their software investments using a combination of our own proprietary scripts, system generated reports, data collection methodologies, and any available SAM tools. Our analyst (former software auditors) then calculate consumption and compare that against license entitlement to give clients true auditor-level accuracy in their compliance positions. Our analysis identifies cost savings via unused software, recommends alternate cost effective ways of licensing the same product, and suggests architectural changes that can substantially reduce footprints/cost. We have deep expertise with many publishers lets get on a call where we explore your concerns with our vendor specific licensing manager.

Who Will Benefit?

Our Licensing Review Service is aimed at organizations who wish to manage and reduce the overall expenditure and risk associated with their software estate.

Key Review Subjects

Service Outline: Output

Case Study

Microsoft Licensing Review

For organizations wishing to reduce the overall cost and risk associated with their software estate, this service delivers a complete license position plus recommendations for improvements and to future-proof licensing. It offers particular value if you are looking to submit your yearly true up, make changes to your current on-premise infrastructure, or move to a SaaS/Cloud environment.

Who Will Benefit?

Our Microsoft Licensing Review Service is aimed at organizations who wish to manage and reduce the overall expenditure and risk associated with their Microsoft portfolio of key products. It is particularly suited to those looking to renew their Enterprise Agreement, submit yearly true up, make changes within their current infrastructure, or just looking to ensure maximum return on investment.

Key Review Subjects

Service Outline: Output

Following the review, you will receive an in-depth report summarizing our findings and recommendations including:

Current ‘Microsoft Effective Licensing Position’
Current ' Microsoft Licensing Optimization Report'
Current ' Office 365 Optimization Report'
Independent recommendations for licensing and process maturity improvements
Road map for recommended licensing strategy and optimization
Best practices to negotiate a good deal with Microsoft

Testimonial

VMWare Licensing Review

Citrix Licensing Review

SAP Licensing Review

For organizations wishing to reduce the overall SAP licensing/support cost, Indirect Access risk associated with their SAP software estate. This service delivers a complete license position plus recommendations for improvements. It offers particular value if you are looking to submit your yearly SLAW declaration or want to quantify and price out your Indirect Digital Access risk proactively.

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Red Hat Licensing Review

Who Will Benefit?

Our Red Hat Licensing Review Service is aimed at organizations who wish to manage and reduce the overall expenditure and risk associated with their Red Hat portfolio of key products. It is particularly suited to those looking to renew their software contract, make changes within their current infrastructure, move to a cloud environment like Azure or AWS, or just looking to ensure maximum return on investment.

Key Review Subjects

Service Outline: Output

Case Study

Quest and Microfocus Licensing Review

For organizations wishing to reduce the overall cost and risk associated with their software assets, this service delivers a complete license position plus recommendations for improvements.

LDS helps clients inventory their software investments using a combination of our own proprietary scripts, system generated reports, data collection methodologies, and available SAM tools. Our analysts (former software auditors) then calculate consumption and compare that against license entitlement to give clients true auditor-level accuracy in their compliance positions. Our analysis identifies potential cost savings via removing unused software, recommends alternate cost-effective ways of licensing the same product, and suggests architectural changes that can substantially reduce software footprints and costs.

Most common Quest products for which we find right-sizing opportunities are Quest for Toad, Active Roles, Change Auditor, Fog light, Lightspeed, KACE and Recovery Manager. For Micro Focus, its important to note that they now own Hewlett Packard Enterprise Software (HPE).

Who Will Benefit?

Our Quest & Micro Focus Licensing Review Service is aimed at organizations that wish to manage and reduce the overall expenditure and risk associated with their Quest & Micro Focus software assets. It is tailored for those looking to evaluate the risk of over-deployment specific to Quest & Micro Focus agreements, make changes within their current infrastructure, and/or ensure maximum return on investment.

Key Review Subjects