You can purchase Office 2007 licenses in many different ways. An upgrade license can be bought for an existing Office 2003 installation or the full boxed product can be purchased. Microsoft Office boxed software licences let you install a second copy of Office on a mobile device but it must be for your use only. Licences for pre-installed software for example software that comes with your new PC, only let you run that software on one machine.

Ergo are Microsoft Gold Partners and if a company are unsure of their licensing situation we would recommend that the customer works with such a partner on a Software Asset Management plan. Also, there are downloadable tools here for this purpose. Microsoft also offer the services of a SAM team that can work with partners to make sure a customer is 100% licensed.

Counterfeit software poses potential risk to your I.T environment - whether you find it on the street, on the Internet, or at a low-price retail outlet that seems legitimate. In an IDC (International Data Corporation) study it was found that 25% of web sites that offered counterfeit or pirated software also attempted to install spyware or Trojans that could compromise your systems.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is the leading voice of the software industry. On behalf of its members (Adobe, Microsoft, Apple Computer etc) the BSA is responsible for pursuing legal action against companies that use software illegally. If found guilty of misuse of software company principals can face up to five years in prison or up to €127,000 in fines or confiscation of assets or all three. In the civil courts you may receive injunctions to stop any further use of the software and to hand over illegal copies (punishable with imprisonment if breached). You may have to pay damages for the costs of a legal case (which can be substantial). Courts can grant orders to enter and search premises and to seize illegal copies and the computers on which unlicensed software is used.

Develop Policies & Procedures
The first step to software compliance is to develop policies and procedures along with a “legal software only” culture within the company. It is important that your employees understand the value of commercial software and learn the difference between legal and illegal use.  To do this your company must have a clear statement of policy. This statement should express the company’s goals to manage software for maximum benefit and dealing only with legal software along with a purchasing procedure for all software.
 
Audit Your Software
Once you have a policy and a set of procedures in place, you will need to take inventory of your software assets. Only by knowing what programs are installed on all the computers in your company — desktops, laptops, and any copies of programs from work installed by employees on their home computers — can you determine how to proceed.

Determine What’s Legal & Illegal
With your inventory in hand, you can compare the software that’s installed on your company’s computers to what’s allowed under the terms of your licenses. Remember that some licenses allow you to make a certain number of copies of a program from a single source or have a limited number of network users use the software simultaneously. The original license will tell you how many.

Establish & Maintain Accurate Records
The perpetual change within many organisations means that your effective licensed position could change on a daily basis, depending on the size and complexity of your operation. It is therefore essential that you implement effective software management procedures and keep a record of your hardware asset register, software asset register and your licence register. You will also need to monitor adherence, guard against the introduction of illegal software, keep your list of supported software up to date, and plan ahead for the next three years.