Key Considerations and Preparation Strategies for Vendor Audits
Are you ready for a vendor audit? Prepare yourself with our latest whitepaper
In the world of enterprise IT, vendor audits are unavoidable. Regarded by most enterprise consumers as an unpleasant necessity, they are something to be endured rather than embraced. In 2009, during the last global recession, the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) reported a 50% increase in vendor audits over the previous 12-month period. Given the impact on our economy resulting from the global pandemic, we should expect to see similar behaviours from enterprise vendors in the coming months. Enterprises need to be ready for this uptick in vendor activity.
There are any number of strategies, plans and activities to undertake that will better prepare you for a vendor audit, which has the added benefit of reducing cost and risk and improving the relationship with your vendor. This whitepaper will focus on three areas:
• Specific examples of vendor audit planning.
• How to reduce the probability of vendor audits through a proactive approach.
• The business benefits of a SAM program.
At the outset of COVID-19 in 2020, the Version 1 SAM Practice blogged on ‘The Key Audit and Licensing Areas You Shouldn’t Neglect’ as examples of potential difficulties that businesses may have unintentionally created in their need to support their remote workforce. The premise is that at some point, software deployments rushed at the start of lockdown may well come under scrutiny as part of a vendor audit.
This whitepaper will expand on those activities outlined above and summarise strategies to adopt to not only successfully undergo a vendor audit, but also increase ongoing software asset control, reduce risk, and spending, and improve your vendor relationship.