Licensing Management: Leave nothing to chance An often neglected activity, managing licenses is essential for any company to avoid legal and financial liabilities. Making sure the proper licenses are in place also serves to protect information systems.

With emergencies to resolve, users to train, and software to implement, IT department employees have very little time left to think about the business as a whole. As a result, the macro-level management of a company's computer system is often left as a secondary concern, although it includes a very crucial activity – managing software licenses. According to a study conducted by the Ashdown group, most European companies rarely or never carry out audits of their company's computer systems (58% in France, 52% in England, 50% in Germany), thereby neglecting licensing management. However, outside the legal and financial benefits of doing so, managing licenses is essential for the protection of the company's information system.

A. Managing Licenses: Why is it necessary?
Including operating systems, office applications, antivirus software, project software, applications designed specifically for various departments (accounting, human resources, and marketing, for example): even a small company's software catalog can be quite complex, without even realizing it. As companies grow, they may need to acquire additional assets, open subsidiaries, or hire remote employees, all of which make it difficult to control the software license of every program that gets installed on every computer.

1. Eliminate the risk of hacking
   Some software programs have a specified lifespan and offer only limited user capabilities, meaning that they may work only for certain tasks (such as software reserved for non-commercial use or for OEM versions), for only a certain length of time, or even for only a limited number of users. Over time, companies may fall out of compliance with these criteria. In the absence of a real policy on software licensing, they may continue to use software whose license has expired, or install software on more computers than specified in the license.
   Such actions are considered hacking and are severely sanctioned by law, with convicted offenders facing prison sentences, fines, company closures, or confiscation of assets, depending on the country in question. To avoid these risks, companies must take their software catalog under control.
2. Update software
   Knowing the company's computer landscape is also necessary for keeping it up-to-date. Software companies frequently publish security patches as well as updates to improve performance. Some of these updates have associated costs or require a subscription. Managing software licenses helps companies determine their needs in this area.
3. Evaluate the cost of owning software
   The price of software is not limited to the cost of purchasing it. Installation, training employees, maintenance, and updates should also be figured into the initial cost. Certain complex applications, such as ERP, are only profitable in the long term or used on a large scale. Managing licenses helps determine the real cost of owning software and define any resources that are underused or lacking. Such an audit can lead IT managers to decide to uninstall underused software (thereby cutting the associated licensing expenses) or to fill a need in other areas.
4. Cut down on rogue software installations
   Enforcing a licensing management policy can help companies control the software that employees may install on their own, which may threaten the security of their information systems.

B. Tools that facilitate licensing management
In order to manage software licenses, IT managers must maintain a high level of awareness of their company's computer systems. Maintaining an inventory of all equipment and installed applications is imperative. Manually conducting inventory can be a long process, but the process can be automated with the help of specific software programs. These programs maintain a running inventory of all the applications installed in a company's computers by installing agents on each computer that communicate with a server. The acquisition date and the conditions of the license agreement are also recorded in the software database. Some tools also automatically manage these licenses by alerting the IT department by email when the expiration date or the maximum number of users has been surpassed, or when the need for an update is detected. The tool can also block software that is not used in conformity with the license agreement or that has been installed without authorization. Some programs can even display software's conditions for use and calculate the cost of ownership.