What is software auditing

When a company like M$ walks in through your front door and makes sure that you are not using any unlicensed copies of their products or that you have not installed the same product several times on different computers and not paid the license fees.

Currently companies like M$ offer a deal to those who report the theft of their software so they encourage workers to Dob In their Employers who are not doing the right thing. They will them walk in through the door and make sure that you have valid licenses for every piece of their software installed on your companies computers. When they find copies of software that are not being legally used or have remained installed on computers handed down to less demanding areas of the business they proceed to instigate Legal Action against the company. They can do the same thing on a Domestic Level but generally do not as the individual doesn't have the necessary funds to settle out of Court and pay M$ several Hundred Thousand $.

Col

Basically you get copies of all purchase orders/receipts for all software purchased by the company. Then you audut each workstation, server , computer etc to count copies of s/w installed. compare purchased to installed and if they are the same...you're laughing. If they're different, you either have too many licences, in which case you're not in trouble.....or you don't have enough licences in which case you're in deep doo=doo. If this is the case, bite the bullet, buy the required licenses and continue.

But in ALL cases, document everything sou your butt is covered.