The Federation Against Software Theft and Investors in Software (FAST IiS) and FAST Ltd, the independent authority on Software Asset Management and IT Compliance are two independent trading entities with no formal commercial or financial links outside the licensing of the FAST brand name.

John Lovelock, Chief Executive of FAST IiS, stated: “FAST Limited was acquired initially by the CS Group in May 2007, which was in turn acquired by the IRIS Group in July 2007 and since that time there has been confusion in the market. I would like to clarify the position. We are not the same, nor are we part of the same or related organisation.”

Matt Barnes, Operations Director, FAST Ltd, added: “FAST Ltd and FAST IiS operate as completely independent organisations. What we do have in common is a desire to educate the market, helping UK businesses achieve IT compliance through effective software licence management (SLM) and software asset management (SAM). There is a licence agreement between the two organisations that allows FAST Ltd to use the FAST brand in our operational and marketing activities.

“Organisations need to commit to implementing, managing and measuring effective licence management processes, policies and procedures. They also need to make the necessary investment in the resources and tools to enable and facilitate effective software management programmes,” he continued.

FAST IiS works with organisations of all sizes, across all industry sectors. Focusing on education, it promotes the effective and legal use of software.

John Lovelock continued: “Our own research indicates that the overwhelming majority of businesses believe that the Government has lost the battle against software piracy. When we polled companies in 2009 some 67% said that it was easy to secure unlicensed software via the Internet or peer-to-peer file-sharing. What was more shocking was that a third of the sample – some 32% – admitted that they would even download illegal software themselves!” he continued.

A key fact that came out of the research, conducted by FAST IiS at a recent IT trade show, was that a staggering 68% of company directors believed that companies would try and cut costs by under-licensing their software estate as a direct result of an economic downturn.

FAST Ltd proactively engages with corporate UK to encourage organisations to achieve effective licence management and realise business benefits, mitigate risks and extract optimum efficiency from their IT investment. By working with a wide range of industry bodies and software vendors, including FAST IiS, FAST Ltd focuses on providing its customers with vendor-independent support, advice and processes.

FAST Ltd’s education programmes on SLM and SAM also address a significant proportion of the requirements of the International Standard for Software Asset Management ISO/IEC 19770-1. The Federation Against Software Theft and Investors in Software (FAST IiS), whose aim is to reduce software misuse, encourage SLM/SAM adoption, endorses FAST Ltd’s programmes and encourages all end user organisations to use the skills and experience of FAST IiS members which are all listed on its website www.fastiis.org.