There’s no need to be a software sinner
When you run a business or manage a team within a business there are always a million things to do – which makes it really easy to let something slip.
The trouble is that letting something slip can have really serious consequences, often of a painful financial nature!
Software is one such minefield. Licensing can be a complicated affair; do you need per processor, per user or per device licensing? What about about portable use rights, downgrade rights and software assurance? And don’t forget perpetual licensing and leased licensing!
Why is life never straightforward?
Some software makes it easy by checking in with its creator to see if you’re licensed, but even then an on-onscreen warning message or lockout can bring productivity to a costly and unnecessary halt.
Other products are not that clever and allow themselves to be copied ad-infinitum. You could end up with multiple copies strewn around your computers and servers when you only bought one originally. Get caught out by the software house and you’ll be looking at expensive remediation, not to mention professional embarrassment and business disruption.
If you want an example of how easy it is to get caught out, we give you internationally renowned DJ, Avicii, who it appears has managed to fall into the trap. Reports suggest the use of a cracked (read: ripped-off, unlicensed) plugin for a piece of music software.
It’s quite clear that this is someone who can afford the plugin, would surely not bat an eyelid at purchasing it and would probably be keen to support the developers into the bargain.
That’s how easy it is to get on the wrong side of this issue and when you scale up the problem to many workstations, numerous staff and even multiple sites it’s a disaster waiting to happen.
The answer is to let the experts worry about it. When we at Bespoke Computing look after a client’s IT, we can take care of all of it, including auditing and managing licenses. We know how many you should have, how many you’ve actually got, when they expire, whether they need updating, where to buy additional ones and how to get the best price for them!
We are, for example, a Microsoft Authorised Education Reseller which means we can advise on and sell Microsoft product to schools, charities and non-profits with huge discounts compared to buying as a commercial enterprise. Discounts can sometimes be as much as 85 per cent. Many other vendors also have suitable discounts if you know who to ask and what to ask them for, as we do.
It’s much better than getting caught and using the experts to ensure you have only what you need and that you get it at the best price could actually save you more than the cost of getting that support in the first place.