A Belfast-based architecture firm has become the latest to fall foul of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in its on-going crack down on those firms using unlicensed applications.
Coogan & Co Limited were caught using unlicensed versions of Microsoft, Autodesk and Adobe software and had to cough up £15,000 in damages and then fork out a further £18,000 to get the correct licenses.
The case will be used by the BSA as a further warning to users of the risks of not paying attention to licenses.
"The case of Coogan & Co highlights the financial penalties that have to be paid if a business does not have correctly licensed software installed," said Philippe Briere, chair of the BSA UK committee.
"A lot of businesses do not realise that when they purchase software they are actually purchasing a license to use it, not the actual software itself. If a user makes more copies of the software than the license permits, they are acting illegally," he added.
This is yet another example of the need to pay close attention to your software license estate. As Coogan & Co have now discovered, being under-licensed can be very costly indeed. But license management shouldn’t be viewed as just a tool for ensuring compliance and avoiding hefty fines, but as a means of ensuring you get the best value from the licenses you own and even ensure your software can be more reactive to business change.
With effective SAM in place, you can not only avoid fines, but will always know which of your licenses are in use and which ones aren’t, so you can decide whether re-deploy or retire them. Used to its full potential, SAM can also help your business be more dynamic to change, by allowing users themselves to amend their license entitlements to the specific task at hand. Say you require a particular piece of software for a 3-month project; where previously the license would stay unused with the user at the end of the project, preventing others from using it, with effective SAM in place, the license can be automatically returned to stock at the end of the project, ready for someone else to use it.
By using SAM to its full potential, organisations can not only avoid the costs of being under-licensed, but have their licenses working for them. This is the true potential of SAM.