Software Purchasers Can Change the Software World!

Tired of the software identification mess? Software purchasers can make a difference today!

Anyone who tells you that they know exactly what software they have installed, and that they have it all under control, is deceiving someone – themselves or you – or they are spending far too much money doing what they are doing. Software discovery tools have to make educated guesses and generalizations about much of what they find. The tools are much better than nothing – like a horse and cart are better than walking. But they are imperfect, because the publishers do not make it easy to determine exactly what is installed and needs to be paid for. So what happens when you get audited by the software publishers? They find copies, and versions, and violations of licensing terms and conditions which you did not expect, and you have to pay the price of not being able to control the software you have purchased when the publishers have not given you the necessary means for control.

There is no single magic bullet to this problem. But the biggest advance in software management ever is now possible, through the use of software identification (SWID) tags as specified by ISO/IEC 19770-2:2009. Several software publishers and software management tool vendors have started to implement these tags. However, the market has not reached critical mass. But it is very close to the tipping point. Customers are starting to ask both publishers and tool vendors to provide and use SWID tags. You may think your voice is too small to matter – the big publishers will never listen to customers for something like this – small or large. Try it! They are hearing the message, and just need to hear it loud enough and long enough, to start providing SWID tags, where they are not already doing so.

What can you demand? How about:

We will not accept the audit clause, starting in 2 years, for any software released (including new versions and patches) for which the publisher does not provide software identification tags
We will not select any new software management tool, starting now, which does not already support or commit to supporting software identification tags, and we will migrate from any existing tools, starting in 2 years, if they do not by then support software identification tags.

Who should say it? How about:

Procurement and IT personnel, as part of any contractual negotiations
Senior management (CxOs) of companies with large IT spends, directly to the senior management of their main software suppliers

This document also contains sample RFP requirements for software identification with a link to more on the web.

Documents to Reference

Download this paper to understand the issues involving software identification, some review details of existing software identificaiton tools and what others are saying about the importantance of ISO/IEC 19770-2:2009 SWID tags.
Download the contracting support document from the International SAM Standards User Association

Additional Sites to Reference