Negotiating with Hitler - A Software Asset Manager's Reality

Recently, a practicing software asset manager (SAM) emailed me with a very typical question:

How can we get better software license terms when the software publisher refuses to permit us to negotiate the license terms?

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME???"

My answer was fairly comprehensive, but the bottom line was this:

As long as we permit the software industry players to play contract management games, we are as much at fault for onerous license terms & conditions as they are.

After multiple decades of negotiating with software industry players & their friends, I can give you one key issue that leads to a majority of costly problems for the business technology consumer:

The root cause of nearly every problem you will have with the software publisher, as long as you use their product (and well beyond) will be the terms & conditions of the license.

Learn to negotiate licenses. Learn to push back against onerous terms & conditions. Quit accepting software industry bullying as your only reality. You have as much right as the software publisher to gain mutual benefit in all contractual agreements.

The business technology consumers did not declare licensing & economic war on the software industry players. They declared war on us.

And, YES, you can quote me!

To download the full PDF document covering my observations on how the business tech consumer needs to change our approach to contract negotiations in general, and software license negotiations specifically, follow the link  HERE

It isn't going to be easy. We have to overcome nearly four decades of letting the software industry have its way with us, BUT we CAN become the initial agents for IT asset management change.

The Corporate Approaches to Software Piracy & Copyright / License Compliance Need to Move to the Next Generation of Leadership.

This post is in response to an article in ComputerWeekly noted HERE.

The original article discusses how the software piracy landscape hasn't changed much in the past few years. Licensors continue to use unnecessarily complicated licensing schemes & licensees continue to fail to understand as well as fail to manage licenses & licensed products. We CAN, however, change this distressing software piracy trend, but we have to wake up & smell the decaying business processes that expose us to punitive software industry players & their predatory compliance enforcement auditing friends.

It's time to move our outdated software asset management mentalities out of the dark ages & into the next generation of software life cycle management, systems life cycle management, & over-all IT life cycle management.

• As long as business technology consumers permit the software publishers to control the entire licensing process, we will continue to be targeted by predatory compliance enforcement industry players.
• As long as the enforcement industry publicity teams use “piracy” as a synonym for "non-compliance", or "honest licensing errors", we will continue as targets.
• As long as the "compliance landscape" is constantly shifting, we'll be easy targets.
• As long as the enforcement industry-sponsored "studies" & media blitzes represent the smoke & mirrors world of piracy to the public & our legislators, we'll continue to be targeted.
• As long as we permit nebulous terms & conditions (such as the literally limitless "right to audit" clause) in licenses, we'll continue to be targeted.
• As long as our software asset managers are not trained, are being trained only to the enforcement industry perspectives, or are being "qualified" as "professionals" in over-night certification classes, we'll continue to be targeted.
• As long as the enterprise pays only lip service to software & license life cycle management, we'll continue to be very easy - even clueless - targets.
• As long as the technical "experts" in the enterprise continue to be in the dark about the realities of license compliance, we'll remain targets.

It's time for the next generation in software asset management professional development & awareness. Business technology consumers need to stop being reactive & start being "intelligently proactive" in addressing the root causes of software life cycle management & compliance assurance.

I've spent nearly twenty years studying the enforcement industry players & their games & it has become evident that our training programs are less than optimal in their approach to compliance assurance (& nearly empty in terms of effective life cycle management). Each & every issue listed in this article & my response could have been minimized by intelligent asset management. Unfortunately, our asset managers frequently are not given the knowledge they need, nor the executive support necessary to address the problems up front - where they could have avoided the confrontation.

For an example of what I'm saying, look through the technician comments on the discussion thread noted in my previous post.

What you'll see, if you can make it all the way through the thread, is that these front line IT personnel DO NOT generally have a clue about compliance or license management. If these people do not understand, or if there is no well-trained/empowered software asset manager in their enterprise, their companies are defenseless - & ripe - for punitive compliance audits.

You want answers? I'll be glad to provide them, along with pointers to the next generation of strategies & tactics for compliance assurance & software life cycle management professional development. Feel free to connect with me at any time.

The Institute for Technology Asset Management publishes its Guide to the Technology Asset Management Body of Knowledge - TAMBOK - the planet's only cost-effective guide to the competencies asset management practitioners need to succeed in the front lines of SAM & ITAM.

Are you drinking the "Cloud" fruit punch?

There are literally tens of millions of dollars being spent in a campaign to convince you that cloud computing (also being referred to as SaaS or software as a service) is the next best and greatest thing for managing the business technology portfolio. While I won't argue that, in some instances, offloading your controls of specific technology requirements may not cause a problem, I recommend you carefully consider any cloud-related decision from a perspective that is both tactical and strategic (short term as well as long term).
    Since the early 90's I have been recommending that smart business management absolutely needs to adopt an intelligent business process improvement framework to help minimize costs and risks while maximizing the ROI on business technologies. Cloud computing is a great place to start your technology asset management improvement initiative. 
Consider: A majority of your current licenses for operating systems and software are perpetual - you pay once for the use of the product and you do not have to pay again until you upgrade or change products. In many cases this single up front payment permits you to use the same product for five or more years - only requiring change when absolutely necessary.
    Moving to the cloud will take this level of cost control away from you. No matter how prettily the software industry tries to wrap the cloud package, it will always look just like a yearly subscription fee once you get past the honeymoon stages. (You will be paying for the product again and again, every year you use the service.)

Bottom Line: Higher software costs...

Consider: This yearly fee for access to operating systems or software is the TOP reason why mainframes have been priced nearly out of existence. The problem isn't merely the carefully crafted yearly fee structure that magically keeps changing. Instead, the core problem with the yearly subscription model is that, once you are committed to it, the copyright holders are well aware that conversion costs will literally force you to accept any changes they choose to send your way. (I've seen countless examples of companies under yearly subscription plans being held hostage with threats of "...reduced or discontinued access unless you agree to this new contractual change...") After all, once committed, what are your options? With the cloud licensing model you have given up virtually all of your negotiations capabilities.

Bottom Line: You'll Take What They Give You...

Consider: The vast majority of enterprises operating at any level around the globe do not honestly read or understand the licenses, terms, and conditions that govern their acquisition and use of operating systems and software. (After all, if you genuinely understood the onerous vendor licenses, you probably wouldn't accept the majority of these agreements.) The cloud agreements are even more deadly - read them. (Now, read them again and note all the "We have all the rights - You have all the responsibilities..." clauses.)

Bottom Line: They're Not Going to Give You What They Say They're Going to Give You...

Consider: Under the current licensing models, you – the business technology consumer – determine when you will move to the new releases or versions of products. There are plenty of costly land minds you have to negotiate such as: will your computers support the new product; or will the new product be compatible with all your other software; or will the new product be compatible with your printers or other devices. Managed incorrectly, your costs for a single upgrade could easily exceed the value of your existing hardware base.
    Moving to a new product under the existing license is determined in-house or, in worse case scenarios, when the provider refuses to support that perfectly acceptable product you purchased six years ago. Under the cloud, you'll move to the new product when the supplier says you'll move. After all, your hardware and compatibility issues are of no concern when you have no cost-effective alternative, right?

Bottom Line: You'll No Longer Control Upgrade Frequency of Software or Hardware

Consider: Coming full circle to my original comment - All this money being spent on the hard sell for cloud computing isn't being spent to educate you about the wonderful new silver bullet business technology solution. Instead it is being spent to ingrain the new "miracle service" in the executive psyche and ensure that business technology consumers fail to recognize the true costs and risks relating to relinquishing control over the systems your enterprise must rely on to survive.
    Prior to any cloud-related decision, conduct a seriously honest and scrupulous cost-benefit analysis. This step alone could help you reduce the artificially inflated costs and risks relative to virtually all business technology goods and services. If you want to increase the real world return on your technology investments, THIS is one of your key steps toward successful business process improvement.