Gartner reports strong rise in software audits

September 11th, 2009 by Matt Fisher

According to a recent report from Gartner (”Gartner Polls & Surveys Show an Increase in Software License Audits”, 31 July 2009), more than 50 percent of organizations it talked to say they have been audited by at least one software vendor in the last 12 months. In research undertaken between February and June 2009, 56 percent of respondents said they had been audited, compared with 30-35 percent for the same study in 2008.

When filtering the results to show only EMEA-based organizations, the result is even higher, with 63 percent of respondents reporting at least one audit request.

According to a variety of sources from both the software vendor and Software Asset Management (SAM) communities, the overall rise in audits is largely not due to an increased level of activity from vendors that already had active compliance programs in place, but instead due to a number of other vendors introducing compliance programs for the first time.

While Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle and IBM were cited as the most ‘prolific’ auditors, survey respondents also reported audit requests from no fewer than 18 other software vendors, including BMC, CA, HP, SAP and Symantec.

As the report states, “On-site audits aren’t pleasant”, and Gartner strongly advises that end user organizations adopt Software Asset Management and License Management practices and technologies well in advance of any audit, so that the company is better prepared to react in a timely fashion and without causing major disruption to normal business activities.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Software Audit, Vendor Audit.