Whether you’re struggling with Oracle licensing, Microsoft compliance, SAP rules, take a break and watch.  Microsoft is going viral and shattering licensing myths themselves.  Enjoy!

With respect to Oracle software licensing, Concurrent Device licensing is generally defined as the maximum number of input devices accessing a program at a given point in time. If multiplexing hardware or software is used, this number must be measured at the multiplexing front-end.

What does this mean for customers licensed in a Concurrent Device model?

With the Concurrent Device metric, Oracle counts the source and use of data. Automated batching of imported as well as exported data would increase the Concurrent Device usage. Miro estimates that 8 out of 10 times enterprises using Concurrent Device licensing are found to be operating beyond the limits of their license inventory.

So how do you determine if your enterprise is operating within the limits -or beyond? Read your existing Oracle software license agreement, and couple that with an honest appraisal of your use of batching.

Of course we’re going to say yes as Miro Consulting helps negotiate Oracle software licensing (and Microsoft too!).  But, we’ll try to be a bit more methodical about why you should hire an outside pro to help with license negotiation and software asset management.

Remember that having a C-level executive – the CIO – devoted solely to IT is relatively new for businesses.  The last 7 or 8 years has seen an explosion of CIO titles.  But, nevertheless, the CIO function at the executive level is here and here to stay (as long as the world runs on software).

Also, keep in mind that 80% of the annual CIO budget is dedicated to vendor fees and contracts.  That’s a major justification for paying attention to software licensing. 

Why hire a consultant to help with your Oracle licensing (or even with Microsoft licensing)?

·    Unless you are laser-focused on the changing rules of a software vendor, there is no way an internal IT person(s) could keep up with them. It’s doubtful that a company will dedicate one person to just manage and follow software licensing changes.

·      An outside consultant has a team of people to follow Oracle licensing changes or alterations to Microsoft software changes. In fact, Microsoft has a 100-page manual for its enterprise users just to understand the basics of software licensing.

·    Consultants consistently deal with vendors during the contract renewal or purchasing period. They do this constantly and have practical, up-to-date knowledge on what works and what doesn’t. Remember: Licensing is complex and much of what works depends not only on what is written in the contract, but the environment of the company (each having its own unique business and IT environment….bringing new complexities into the mix).

Our next blog: How to select a consultant.

A European bank (not named) negotiated its Oracle software licensing.  According to Forrester, the bank approached Oracle with best practice in “how to negotiate” with the multimillion-dollar Oracle database vendor.  Typically, Oracle licensing and maintenance contracts are complex and can be costly.  

One of the main issues: Oracle and many software companies typically include clauses in their software license agreement to remove any liability from any negative business-related events related to the software.  The financial institution needed more assurance. 

CIO Magazine did a wonderful write up last week (entitled How a European Bank Got Oracle to Surrender Key Software Licensing Points).  Beginning with: A Forrester Research report offers a rare look inside a multimillion-dollar Oracle database negotiation and how one bank held its ground on a critical contract clause that’s typically “not up for negotiation” with software vendors. Vendor contract negotiations can be complex, arduous and costly. And sometimes there appear to be competing “must haves” on each side that can end up breaking a potential deal.  Such was the case as a large European bank entered into negotiations for enterprise-class database technology with Oracle. Forrester Research Senior Analyst Duncan Jones, who wrote a report on the situation, says he cannot name the bank or provide many specifics on the deal, but the bank’s approach to the negotiations provide best practices for how to deal with seemingly insurmountable disconnects with vendors.

In the News This Week

·    CIO How a European Bank Got Oracle to Surrender Key Software Licensing…

·    CNN Money Virtualization Real Issue For Software Licensing/

·   ComputerWeekly Court ruling strengthens UK patents on software

It follows an appeal case brought by software licensing company, Symbian, after a patent application was rejected by the Intellectual Property Office.

·   Trusted Views Microsoft Licenses Adobe Flash For Windows Mobile

·   WebProNews Enterprise Software Up Google’s Alley?

Here is an interesting news item – Microsoft has licensed Adobe Flash Lite, specifically designed for mobile devices. They have also licensed Adobe Reader LE Software for viewing web content and email attachments.

For those of you following the company’s plans – they had announced earlier this month that they would be releasing a rival to the Adobe product. Interesting turn of events.

What does this mean in terms of licensing? Even your mobile phones can play a part in your overall licensing compliance. Think about how many organizations have mobile workers and each and every application that has been downloaded – scary thought huh? Keep them in check!

In the News This Week

· BizJournals.com Former Quovadx execs agree to SEC fines

The SEC alleged the two in 2003 orchestrated “the fraudulent recognition of over $12 million in software licensing revenue” by Greenwood Village-based …

· ComputerWeekly.com CIOs in strong position to help businesses fight slowdown

… which carry the double costs of migrating away from the custom code, and the software licensing costs of the migration tools themselves….

· CNN.com Red Hat adds top intellectual property lawyers

· ComputerWorld Office Live Workspace — does it work for you?

· InfoWorld Serena extends Creative Commons license to mashups

….representations of a workflow, and because they’re graphics, you can’t use traditional software licensing rules,” said Kyle Arteaga, Serena spokesman. …

· IT Week Licence to cut down IT bills

Publishers are taking more steps to take software asset management seriously, and to ensure compliance. If

· Web Services Journal Enterprise Compliance Manager(TM) Now Certified for Windows Server …

· eBizQ Gartner Identifies Cost-Cutting Maneuvers While Supporting Data …

With typical investment in data integration tools falling in the range of $200000 to $500000 for software licensing and $50000 to $100000 for annual

· Computer World NZ British licence reseller adjusts to MS changes

· PC World How to Play It Safe With Software Licenses (and avoid hefty fines!)

I came across this really interesting piece from Zdnet.com about a company called Discount-Licensing.com that has continued to sell second hand software, after Microsoft attempted to squash them. They apparently found a loophole within Microsoft’s licensing agreements and are able to offer a variety of Microsoft products.

Although Microsoft made a change in October 2007, software licenses with the previous terms (disused licenses purchased before October 2007) can still be sold by the company.

Microsoft has yet to respond to the article, which tells me that they cannot and this company will be able to go on doing what they are doing. There could be a great potential here for companies that have organizational changes or bankruptcy and need to offload their unused licenses; same goes for small businesses who need licensing, but don’t want to go through the process of purchasing them directly from the software vendors.

I wonder how many other companies out there are doing this sort of thing and how long 20 of them will pop-up finding more and more loop holes for reselling licensing.

Very interesting to see what develops here!

If your enterprise has installed any Oracle applications (including Hyperion, Siebel, PeopleSoft, etc.), the following piece of information is important and should be kept in mind.

Many Oracle applications come bundled with the following restricted use licenses:

• Oracle Database Enterprise Edition; and
• Oracle Internet Application Server Enterprise Edition

‘Restricted use’ means you cannot modify, alter, or otherwise change these underlying products. The intent of restricted use is that you employ -and deploy - these products “as is” and straight “out of the box” like you would, say, the home accounting/personal finances software product, Quicken.

Some enterprises do just fine with “out of the box” functionality and don’t need to modify what’s lying underneath. But other enterprises require ever more robustness. Accordingly, they change and otherwise modify the underlying stuff, which from the Oracle software license standpoint includes forms, reports, workbooks and, of course, the database. Enterprises then have to accept that in modifying they create a new/additional Oracle licensing requirement that moves the enterprise beyond the restricted use entitlement and into the ‘full use’ realm, which in turn creates a need to ‘true-up’ or otherwise necessitate an additional license purchase.

In the News This Week

• Computerworld: Microsoft vs. Apple: You do the math
• eWeek: Red Hat adds top intellectual property lawyers
• Los Angeles Times: Ex-CEO of Merisel is sued Jenson resigned from the software licensing firm in 2004 as the New York company, then based in El Segundo, sued him and others.
• Bloomberg: TiVo Fourth-Quarter Loss Narrows; Hardware Costs Drop (Update2) TiVo continues to have software licensing discussions with other cable operators, Rogers said today in a phone interview. Total sales fell 3.6 percent to…
• Houston Chronicle: American Software Shares Plunge After 3Q License fee revenue, which fell about 32 percent during the quarter, was hurt by the deferment of several software licensing contracts until later quarter.