More than seven out of ten UK companies have no idea
whether their business software complies with international
standards, research from IT governance firm Centennial Software has
revealed.
The Centennial survey of more than 100 IT managers from
companies across the logistics, healthcare, retail and finance
sectors found that 85% were aware of software asset management
standards, such as the international standard ISO 19770.
But the survey found that 71% of the IT managers either knew
their software was not compliant with international standards or
admitted they did not know whether it was or not, while 69% said
they had not yet taken steps to achieve compliance with ISO
19770.
Alex Hilton, Centennial’s vice-president for UK sales, said, “It
is worrying that companies are continuing to ignore the risk of
non-compliance with software standards, even when they know they
could be facing a fine and potentially serious implications for
their reputation.”
Hilton added that software firms such as Microsoft were "very
active" in auditing piracy, warning, “It seems every day we read
more horror stories about companies being caught out. There is
really no excuse for this kind of apathy any more.”