More Contracting Info
Software Licensing - Part Two
Story:
Interesting piece on software license management in Software Magazine (www.softwaremag.com/L.cfm?Doc=943-5/2006 ). The article comments on the difficulty companies have staying in compliance with contracts and under changing circumstances (e.g., migration of software to a multicore hyper-threading computer. There are some interesting stats and graphics in this piece from Macrovision.
Analysis:
Probably the best advice I have is for software users to:
- get very familiar with their existing software contracts (if they can locate them)
- verify what the contracts really allow you. In-house and/or outside counsel is helpful here.
- develop strategies first, discuss them with vendors prior to instigating any changes. Vendors have no leverage over users until after they're in breach of their contract.
- leave options open.
- understand how important (or unimportant) your firm is to the vendor. If you're their largest, most visible user, they'll be maleable. If you're a smaller firm, one of thousands, start praying. These discussions could get really mean and ugly.
Threatening to be a negative reference or bolting to another vendor seldom works with vendors. Why? Most of them know you can't afford the switching costs to change and your executive team won't permit the change. If you're going to go this route, make sure the story is plausible and evidence points to this being a credible event.
