Technology licenses & agreements are killing your business.

Here's the thing: The technology agreements that legally bind your company are not merely onerous; they're downright deadly. And the most chilling factor is that most enterprises are not even aware that they're in trouble--frequently paying serious money for phantom value.

Don't believe me? Try this simple test: Look at the license for any item of software your company uses. Look under "Disclaimer of Warranty" for the phrase "fitness for use" and tell me what it says. Can't find it? Here's a hint...

The software publisher "...makes no warranty or representation, either express or implied, with respect to (the) software, its quality, performance, merchantibility, or fitness for a particular purpose...and you're assuming the entire risk of quality and performance..."

This clause is pretty much standard in nearly every operating system or software licensing agreement. It's meaning is clear:

This mission critical product doesn't have to do anything we said it was going to do. It can be completely defective and, when it fails to deliver value, it isn't our problem, it's yours.

Let me ask a simple question series. Maybe it will bring home the message.

• Would you purchase a car with this warranty?
• How about purchasing a ticket on a cross-country flight where the aircraft was covered under the same warranty?
• Any chance you'd accept the services of a hospital or surgeon with this one?
• Then why are you permitting the software industry players to force this clause on you?

I suggest you look over the Knowledge Briefings on the BizTechNet.org site covering Acquisition Criteria, Product Functionality, and/or Acceptance Testing. When you spend money--invest serious company revenue in a product that purports to deliver a specific value--you deserve to GET that value.

Is your enterprise in the business of financially supporting the technology industry vendors/suppliers? Or are you in business to deliver a specific product or service using the productivity tools provided by these vendors/suppliers? Are you working to improve your business, or theirs?

Reduce Business Technology Costs: Avoid Superceding Licenses

We should all know better--but, for some odd reason, we don't. According to some industry experts, we fail to negotiate as much as 75% of software license agreements. As a result, the typical enterprise is leaking serious cash from the technology budget.

Real World - We gain as little as $1 in actual business value from every $14 we spend on technologies.

Consider the following risk to your budget:

• You finally invest a little time negotiating a software license agreement. You get favorable terms and conditions as well as a decent price (decidedly NOT typical).
• Six months later an employee downloads an update to the product and you discover that your carefully negotiated license has been superceded by a conveniently stealthy click wrap license.
  

Yes, Virginia, it happens quite frequently. The software industry is very aware that your employees and technical consultants rarely take the time to read license agreements. The result is a distinct set of considerably onerous clauses slipped quietly into alternative licenses that legally supercede your existing agreements.

For examples of how these alternative licenses can cause serious financial damage to your business, check out the brief article covering shrink wrap and click wrap embedded in the title link. (Sign in is necessary but it costs you nothing.)

Is that Free Software Download a Deal?

I'm not so sure. Keep in mind that, in the average corporation, nearly ANY employee could easily bind you to the license coupled to the product I am going to discuss.

Last week I found a seriously useful "free download" product that enables you to manage the power consumption of your computer--great idea, right? As one of the world's more slightly pessimistic IT consumers, I carefully reviewed the web site for functionality details. Everything looked pretty good so I decided to try it out. I initiated the "free download" and we were immediately off to what I prefer to call the software licensing sharp practice races.

For those of you who may not be aware, a majority of those free software downloads from the Internet have a licensing process entitled "click wrap" as part of the download. Most of these licenses are acceptable (barely) but many of them are deadly when placed on an enterprise computer.

My first hint that this might be a problem download was when the pre-load license popped up in its tiny little box. You know the license box I mean? It usually measures about two inches high by four inches wide on your monitor and conveniently hides three to thirty pages of highly complex and legally binding license terms and conditions. (And, yes. It has been tested in court.)

The second hint was when I wasn't permitted to copy the license text out of the box so I could read it--printing was acceptable, NOT immediate reading. (The setting on this permission, in my experience, is one of the most significant flags that you do NOT want to place this product on your system.)

So... I printed the license out. (Remember, 99 out of 100 employees--even a majority of your techies--never bother to read this type of license.)

Guess what? One of the most blatant clauses in this license is that the software publisher could download information about your computer at any time and without notifying you. Don't get me wrong. Naturally, the license included clear statements of "Oh, we're not going to..." yadda-yadda. But, in reality, this free download opened your system up for inspection by both the original software publisher AND any secondary publishers who contributed code.

What's more, and it's also very typical of these licenses, the document was absolutely loaded with onerous terms and conditions. I immediately stopped the download and removed all trace of the product from my system. Maybe you would stop it, too, but how about other personnel in your company?

Might be something to consider...