Software Licensing - How to get my company fully licensed without getting ...fired?

Author

How to get my company fully licensed without getting ...fired?

Melissa Samprie

2005-03-27, 4:04 pm

Hello all. I am the (sole) IT person of a University department, with
about 150 endusers. Every year, I submit my "budget proposal" to the
president.

For reasons both honorable *and* irresponsible, I have never purchased as
many software licenses as I should - for programs like Microsoft Office,
Photoshop, etc, we own a bunch of licenses, but not quite enough to make
us 100% compliant and legal.

I want to get us 100% compliant within a year. That means an extra
$10,000 (or so) in my budget request. This will, of course, cause our
president to say:

"well, how come we haven't had to pay in *previous* years?" and
"you mean we've been breaking the law?"

I guess many IT people have been this same position, I'm wondering what
to tell my boss. And, more importantly, how to word it.

I admit I should have done this alot sooner, but I'm coming clean now,
and expect to get us fully licensed.

Anyone have any insights, recommendations, or advice?

Thank you=

Melissa

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High Plains Thumper

2005-03-27, 4:04 pm

Melissa Samprie <rmxx998i@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:420a4f66$1_5@127.0.0.1:

> Hello all. I am the (sole) IT person of a University
> department, with about 150 endusers. Every year, I submit
> my "budget proposal" to the president.
>
> For reasons both honorable *and* irresponsible, I have
> never purchased as many software licenses as I should - for
> programs like Microsoft Office, Photoshop, etc, we own a
> bunch of licenses, but not quite enough to make us 100%
> compliant and legal.
>
> I want to get us 100% compliant within a year. That means
> an extra $10,000 (or so) in my budget request. This will,
> of course, cause our president to say:
>
> "well, how come we haven't had to pay in *previous* years?"
> and "you mean we've been breaking the law?"
>
> I guess many IT people have been this same position, I'm
> wondering what to tell my boss. And, more importantly, how
> to word it.
>
> I admit I should have done this alot sooner, but I'm coming
> clean now, and expect to get us fully licensed.
>
> Anyone have any insights, recommendations, or advice?

Well, one thing comes to mind. Are you required to maintain a
100% M$ office environment?

There is a movement afoot however subtle to move toward
independence from M$. AFAIK, one of these is the European ISO
standard, which favors Unix like operating systems. Recently,
Singapore Government installed about 1,500 Linux based
desktops with Open Office as a cost cutting measure. Shortly
after they were warned by M$ for so-called proprietary Linux
violations with SCO Unix. However, much of that is political
IT hogwash (check the forums).

Since you are in academia, it seems that you could probably
replace some of the desktops with Linux installations similar
to Singapore. This may require some political hard selling on
your part but if presented properly, may be able to sway the
President in your way as Linux is more stable than MS and the
Open Office suite has come a long way toward acceptability.
Also because your mainframe is probably Unix based, it should
be easier to integrate similar operating systems.

Compared with a few years ago, there are more available
commercial software applications with Linux at competitive
pricing.

You could try a small demonstration project. When things are
running acceptably and you have been able to convince some of
your customers, then may be the time to present to your
President. The creme de mint will be showing that your Linux
installations have every bit the functional capability of your
M$ desktops.

Try it, you may like it.

Good luck - HPT

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