By John Emmitt
A recent blog by UpperEdge on Navigating an Oracle Software Audit – Here’s What to Expect, is a good reminder that managing your key software vendor relationships requires more than just good negotiating skills. With the right software asset management (SAM) processes and tools in place, you can have the information at your fingertips that allows you to proactively maintain software license compliance and be prepared for contract negotiations, renewals, and other important tasks. Ideally, those processes and tools will allow your organization to avoid software audits altogether. And this means you will be in a much better position during contract negotiations.
For example, with a Software License Optimization solution installed and in use in your IT environment, you always have visibility into your software license position for vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. (See sample screenshot below). You can quickly remediate any license compliance issues that are exposed and you know where and how your enterprise software is installed and being used, including Oracle database products and the associated options and management packs.
Figure 1: Software Publisher Summary—Showing License Compliance Status
In the unlikely event that your organization is targeted for a software audit after you have achieved this level of visibility and control over your software estate, the tools can generate the required reports, such as the Oracle Server Worksheet mentioned in the UpperEdge blog.
Figure 2: Oracle Server Worksheet Report from FlexNet Manager for Oracle
The right tools can also allow you to avoid having to run the vendor’s scripts in your environment—FlexNet Manager for Oracle is one a several products that have been verified by Oracle LMS and the Oracle database inventory data from the tool will be accepted during a license review or audit.
By providing extensive automation, Software License Optimization solutions can dramatically reduce the time and effort required to defend your organization against software audits, not to mention the time needed to perform all of the other IT asset management functions. A recent data point from our office in Japan illustrates the point—a third party conducted software audits of two similar sized companies; the one without a license optimization solution in place took more than 1000 hours, while the one with the license optimization solution in place took about 70 hours! That’s 930 hours of IT staff time that the first company could have spent on more strategic IT projects.
To learn more, attend our Webinar:Building Win-Win Relationships with Oracle
Join Flexera Software and R “Ray” Wang, Constellation’s CEO and enterprise software contracts guru in an exclusive webinar on building your Oracle relationships. Key topics to be covered include:
- Oracle License Management
- Contract Negotiation Tips
- Software Audit Defense
- Oracle Cloud Programs
- Understanding the Oracle ULA
To have an effective relationship, you need to have visibility and control of your Oracle software estate, know your Oracle license position, and understand how to negotiate with Oracle for new contracts, renewals and cloud migrations.
Available Dates:
- Thursday, 24th September - 10:00 am CT (US) Show in my time zone
- Tuesday, 29th September - 10:00 am (Sydney, Australia) Show in my time zone
- Tuesday, 29th September - 10:00 am (UK) Show in my time zone