Software Licensing services address organizations’ challenges around software publishers and cloud providers. Events are often totally unexpected or have a way of creeping up when your experts are busy with other urgent obligations.  Handmarc’s services protect your interests and help you avoid rushed decisions.

Software Compliance Audit – Orchestrating Your Response

You just received a notice from a software publisher for a license compliance audit.  Everyone has heard the horror stories of multi-million-dollar settlements – however, you may not be able to tap knowledgeable resources to respond effectively without diverting attention from other important work.  Handmarc works with you to orchestrate your response and minimize the impact on day-to-day operations.  We start by understanding the publisher’s and your rights under the license agreement, and we proceed to develop a plan that fulfils your obligations while avoiding unnecessary turmoil in your organization.  Read more about audit response services in our Responding to Software License Compliance Audits sales brief. 

Annual True-Ups 

Typically, under your enterprise agreement, you are asked to do an annual “true-up” of your software license utilization and to purchase additional volume where necessary.  Sometimes true-ups can be more frequent requirements or ad hoc requests triggered by events such as mergers.  While common occurrences, it is not uncommon for companies to struggle to carry out true-ups efficiently due to their infrequent but onerous nature and the demands they impose on the very people being relied upon to deliver critical IT services.  Handmarc’s true-up service manages the overall process to complete your true-up on time.  Our process guides you though determining your effective license position and deciding how best to address the gap if any.  It helps you ensure you include grandfathered and conversion grants, and apply downgrade rights of unused higher-edition licenses.  And it analyzes the relative cost and benefits of purchasing upgrades and/or a blend of various editions and bundles to meet the shortfall. 

SAM Optimization Model Assessments

How well structured is your SAM function?  Where do you need to focus your energy to raise the overall value of your SAM organization?  Handmarc can provide a rapid assessment of where you stand and give you recommendations based on our findings and your business and IT priorities.  We will conduct interviews and assess your SAM processes, policies and tools in ten key competencies against Microsoft’s four-stage SAM optimization Model (SOM) and provide an objective opinion of your SAM maturity and an assessment of your current Microsoft compliance exposure.

Microsoft’s SOM is aligned with the ISO/IEC 19770-1 standard and broadly applicable to all software publishers, not just Microsoft.

Cloud Infrastructure Services 

Cloud infrastructures offer many benefits but can be a two-edged sword.  While the ease of setting up and cloning virtual servers (and tearing them down quickly) makes subscription-based cloud infrastructure highly efficient and attractive, it also makes management of software licensing and maintenance costs a constant challenge.  This is particularly true of open-systems software (like Linux and some SQL database implementations) which may be free to use but have non-trivial maintenance and support contract costs.  Handmarc can help you understand these costs, identify the drivers, evaluate the ROI, and develop a strategy to forecast and manage their financial impacts. 

Other Software Licensing Services 

Handmarc also offers services around other common needs.

• Understanding the costs of on-premises versus cloud subscriptions.
• Analyzing the cost implications of individual product purchases versus the value of suites and bundles.
• Deciding the value of buying maintenance (or “software assurance”) versus the risk of staying with a specific version and release level for a multi-year period. 

Handmarc can advise on the value of a Software Asset Management (SAM) capability to your company.  Costly to implement, SAM capabilities often have a strong ROI – we can help you define SAM processes and select enabling tools.

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