Licensing 7

[cammy]

Hi

Firstly, I don't know into which area this query falls.

I have recently taken over IT Support in a small company (~20 people) and I am trying to make a log of licences which we currently have for various software packages. As noone has been in charge of this area previously, the software has been installed and licenced on an ad hoc basis.

When someone requested that Powerpoint be installed on their machine, I was faced with the fact that I would have to remove Office XP Small Business and install Office XP Pro, but I have no way of knowing if we have sufficient licences for this to happen.

Basically, is there any way of finding out the licencing situation from Microsoft or from the machines.

Thanks

Cam

 

[toptown]

Do they have any documentation at all or maybe a location were they put all the computer stuff alot of companys will do that. You might have to inventory everything.

S.B
A+, MCP
Admin

http://www.top-town.com

 

[cammy]

I was thinking that I would have to dig around for old invoices which might detail licences etc or perhaps contact the company who supplied the PC's and software to see if they have a record. Other than that, I can see myself going round taking a note of all the software on each machine.

Cheers

Cam

 

[mrdenny]

The vendor(s) that the company purchased directly from should be able to send you an invoice of everything that was purchased over the years.

Unfornitually, you will probally still need to go to every machine to count what is installed, and what isn't installed. Often CD's get passed around, or brought in from home and installed of office pc's. Which can cause a problem for your inventory.

Denny

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

 

[SemperFiDownUnda]

I'll take it that you are not a member of Microsoft Select etc. Things you'll have to do.

1) Full audit of all your PC's
2) Find out where the software has been purchased.
If it is not via the hardware provider then you might have to search through you own company invoices to find purchases of software.

Once you find out how many legal copies you have you'll be faced with a decision. Most likely you are far short of the needed licenses. Depending on the size of your company the Microsoft Select agreement may be the best for you. You basically get all the software then just have to track licenses. When you need a new one just phone them up. The good thing here is when new products come out you get them and can evaluate them. Draw back is that with those agreements Microsoft may audit you so you have to be on your toes and keep everything on track.

If, when you find out how many you are short, management above you is hesitant to pay for the licenses then you might want to do some research and show the penalties that they could incure by not staying legal.

 

[mrdenny]

I agree with Semper. Once management sees just how much license violations can cost they are usually willing to pay up. When I started at my current company, we were about 80% out of compliance. Once I gave examples of what Microsoft and others charge in fines, with specific examples of what happened to companies that friends worked for, the license fees looked a lot better. We are now less then 5% out of compliance, and working at quickly as possible to 100% compliance.

If you want me to give the example that I used, let me know.


Denny

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

 

[harebrain]

I agree with Semper and mrdenny:

1. Do the research.
2. Pitch software license compliance to management.
3. Bring the company under control.

Under no circumstances should your first action be to invite an audit from a software vendor. Unless maybe you have a death wish.

 

[mrdenny]

Also, make sure that you have all software CD's locked up nice and tight. Also might want to make sure that people can't just use installers which are on network shares to install software as they wish. This is a major way things can get out of control. Also make sure that people understand, that they can't just bring in there software cd's from home, and install the software on there work pc as well.

It makes people mad, but if they need software it needs to be purchased. Usually explaining the violation costs to people will stop the complaining.


Denny

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

 

[chiph]

I found this site with a bunch of software auditing tools:

http://www.soft411.com/software/network-audit.html

Chip H.


If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ222-2244 first

 

[Dollie]

A good auditing tool I've used in the past is the Belarc Advisor (

http://www.belarc.com).

I had a similar problem, and after taking a full inventory of software that was in our files, and comparing it to the audit, I found we weren't as out of compliance as I thought.

Taking the inventory was time consuming, but I created a database so the next inventory (now scheduled annually) will be much easier.

And, as mrdenny said, don't ever let people install personal software from home on their workstation. It's cheaper to buy another copy than to pay fines.

 

[jrbarnett]

You can use the network version of Aida32 (

http://www.aida32.hu)

to produce a database log of installed apps and system specifications. This is free software, but you will need to get it to be run on each machine.

John

 

[cammy]

As an additional question - the only copy of Office XP Professional in the office has a crack in the CD. Is it ok to take my own copy (ahem!), into the office to use given that I would be using the licence key from the office and it would be licenced?

Cheers Folks

 

[mrdenny]

Yeah, you should be fine. As long as you use the correct cdkey, and license that's what matters.

You can actually copy the cd to a server for installation purposes, as long as it only gets installed the same machines that have a license to install the software.

Denny

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

 

[BlckJckFrnk]

I'm in the same process and that I'm trying to inventory all my licences as well, so thanks for all the good advice.
However, I've run into my own problem and that I have software, but do not know who which licences are install on which computer. Well some of the mention audit tools display who has what???? If not, what would be my best approch...
Thanks

 

[finbib]

I've used Sitekeeper in demo mode, and it will give you information about licensing and it can also give you a hardware inventory. It's been a while since I've used it, but I think the demo version allows you to inventory 10 systems at a time.

http://www.diskeeper.com/sitekeeper/sitekeeper.asp

The full versions of this software are not free, but it seems pretty robust, and gives pretty good information.

Hope this helps.

Bob

 

[AnanthaP]

Good idea. The company has obviously got a policy for licenses (take it easy policy). Phone up M$ and close down the operations. What happens to you.

That the ethics question?

My suggestion, is to start with internal awareness and budgeting (and to hedge your bets, try to get a communication from the management instructing you to install software till such time as things are regularized).

End

 

[chrysw]

A few months ago, our IT guys switched us to Novell GroupWise 6.5. They gave us 2 burned copies of the software because it wasn't release for public use yet. They downloaded it from a site that had it available. Then they told me our licenses would be mailed to us but I have yet to see them. Is this as big of a problem as I think it is? Someone mentioned to me that with Novell it doesn't matter because auditing doesn't happen with them just Microsoft. True?
I did shoot my IT guy and email today though asking him where the licenses were and to contact someone to find out.
Anyone have any suggestions of what I should do or is this something I shouldn't worry too much about?

 

[Kruppcon]

Ive been through something similar to this before and it seems like the burden of proof falls on those who have the software. If there were an audit the company would be responsible for proving that they had purchased all their licenses.

This can be tough if they were purchased from multiple vendors through the years with poor record keeping.

Ive seen companies that can afford it err on the side of caution.

Bryan
--------------------------------------------------
Krupp Consulting -

http://www.Kruppcon.com

 

[dilettante]

I don't know about that chrysw, one of my clients met with Novell about two months ago and I got brought in to help answer a couple of questions. Much of the meeting was spent on license audit topics. But it's a large organization too with a lot of MS Networking and Exchange as well as Netware and GroupWise.

I suspect a smaller, all-Novell shop might have faced more license audit pressure. The folks from Provo wanted things counted, but they also wanted to keep this customer happy. I think they know how the $$ are against them if this outfit ever looks closely at dropping Novell products. The MS bundling makes them work hard to be competitive on other things (the very tangible so-called intangibles) in addition to price. But they sure did bring along their own license inventory for this customer.

It sounds like you've asked the question. What (if anything) you do next depends on the answer. Hopefully you're covered, but just receiving CD-R media instead of Red "pressed" CDs shouldn't be any problem. Come to think of it are they red anymore? I haven't touched any Novell media myself in a long time.

 

[Stevehewitt]

Hey,

Just one thing about your Office CD with a crack in it.

If its a Volume Licence CD then a home user CD won't work with the code and your home user CD requires activation. Your licening reseller can sell you a MVLS CD kit for about £20.

Steve.