Vendor audits are on the rise
Livingstone Group has witnessed a marked up-tick in the number of audit letters and new audit requests being sent out to our clients.
Reduce your Compliance Risk
We’ll help you stay compliant to safeguard your organization.
Outcomes
- Manage your next audit with confidence
- Better understand your compliance position
- Forecast and mitigate future risk
- Turn disparate data into actionable insights
- Avoid fines and back payments
Less risk, more reward
Maybe your next audit is raising compliance concerns. Or your evolving tech stack exposes greater security vulnerabilities. Whether it’s financial, reputational, or legal, any risk to your business is bad news.
Risks are unavoidable – but shrinking their likelihood is within your control. With detailed intelligence and industry expertise, we’ll help you pinpoint compliance risks more accurately and avoid costly fines, time-consuming audits, and reputational damage, now and in the future.
Effective License Positions Clarify your compliance position
Staying compliant means understanding your compliance position – and that’s where we can help. By combining your product usage data with contract licensing entitlements through Acuity, we’ll build clear, concise compliance risk reports that give you greater visibility into where you might be under-licensed. You’ll be able to nip any compliance issues in the bud and avoid fines later down the line.
Risk Mitigation Swing into action
Identifying risks is only half the battle. The other, and more important, half rests on your ability to act and mitigate them. Tap into Livingstone’s team of experts, and we’ll help you fight both battles on an ongoing basis. Backed by decades of specialist knowledge, we’ll work with you to paint a risk picture and build a detailed action plan so you can stay compliant around the clock.
Audit Defense & Support Get audit-ready
From true-up costs to fines and back payments, software audits often carry a host of financial risks. Livingstone’s Audit Management service, a team of compliance and audit experts, has helped organizations save tens of millions by planning, preparing, and responding to their next audit. Lean on us to offset risk, cut costs, and give your teams back time.
Livingstone Hub Harness data you can depend on
Accessible, quality data is key to easily and accurately identifying risks to your business. Livingstones Acuity gives you a leg up by turning disparate, murky data from across your cloud and software estate into a single source of truth you can trust. Use it to stay compliant, secure, and agile today, and leverage powerful predictive insights to better forecast future risks.
What is software license compliance risk?
Software license compliance risk is the financial, contractual, and operational exposure that occurs when software is deployed or used outside the rights granted by a vendor agreement. It can result from under-licensing, virtualization, cloud migration, organizational change, or incorrect interpretation of complex licensing rules.
How can an enterprise reduce software license compliance risk?
Enterprises can reduce software license compliance risk by maintaining accurate entitlement and deployment data, regularly establishing Effective License Positions, and reviewing licensing implications when infrastructure or business requirements change. This helps address potential compliance issues before they become part of a vendor audit.
What is an Effective License Position (ELP)?
An Effective License Position, or ELP, compares an organization’s software license entitlements with its actual software deployments and usage. It helps determine whether the organization is correctly licensed and highlights both compliance exposure and opportunities to reduce unnecessary licenses.
What causes software license non-compliance?
Software license non-compliance can result from untracked installations, virtualization, cloud migration, changes in employee numbers, mergers and acquisitions, incorrect product editions, changes in license metrics, and misunderstandings of contractual terms. Complex enterprise estates can therefore become non-compliant even without intentional misuse.
How can we prepare for a software license audit before one happens?
Organizations can prepare for a software audit by maintaining an accurate software inventory and entitlement records, reviewing vendor contracts, and regularly calculating their license position. Identifying potential compliance gaps before an audit provides more time to investigate, remediate, and develop an appropriate commercial strategy and Audit Framework.
Related Articles
Software Vendor Audits
This eGuide explores activities that trigger audits and the potential risks associated, as well as how you can best mitigate these risks and prepare for audits.
What is a software audit process?
A successful license audit is more than just counting your assets. This infographic demonstrates 4 key stages to conducting an effective software audit.
Case Studies What clients say
Ready to talk?