Volume-Licensing Service Keeps Software Police at Bay

If you are having difficulty keeping track of your agency's software licenses, you might want to take a look at a service from ASAP Software Express, Buffalo Grove, Ill., which is designed to make it easier to identify, track and audit large software inventories.

The company's volume-license agreement (VLA) implementation program has a simple sales pitch: Without better coordination among people brokering software licensing agreements, governments chronically fail to maximize volume-discount opportunities.

Until it became one of ASAP's first state customers, that was the case in Arizona. "Our state is really decentralized in terms of purchasing," said Wendy Summers, a senior procurement specialist in the Arizona Department of Administration's State Procurement Office. "This helps us keep track of what our agencies are buying. It also helps with our negotiating. Before, we used to buy shrink-wrapped software with no rhyme or reason."

The VLA implementation program costs nothing; instead, it is being offered as part of many large, negotiated contracts. The VLA provides customers with quarterly reports of license usage as well as "situational" audits of current software practices.

"If the software police come and knock on your door, you need to understand what you have purchased," added Randy Lee, ASAP's director of government sales.