House interior (Software Asset Management)

Management of licenses in retail: experience of network of Hoff furniture stores

Hoff is the federal network of hypermarkets of furniture and goods for the house earlier known under the Kika trademark. The first hypermarket appeared in 2009, and today the network includes already 6 such shops – in Moscow, Samara, Krasnodar, Voronezh and Rostov-on-Don.

The House Interior company has the developed IT infrastructure and the PC big park. In March, 2009 the management of Hoff decided to bring order to the used software, including to the documents setting competency of use of software of Microsoft. A significant amount of program and hardware assets and, as a result, the need for expense reduction on the set providing and minimization of the legal risks connected with possible use of the unlicensed software resulted the company in need of carrying out technical audit.

Obtaining relevant information on quantity of software installations of Microsoft and its subsequent analysis became actually main objective of the project. With this task representatives of Hoff addressed specialists of the international consulting company Columbus. As the solution the methodology of management of the licenses Software Asset Management was offered the retailer.

"We very much value the goodwill, we try to reveal most carefully and to quickly prevent any possible risks. At some point we understood that consultations on legal aspects of use of software of Microsoft are required for us. Standard recommendations about the choice of suitable model of licensing was explicit insufficiently. For the qualified support we decided to address our checked partner – consulting company Columbus. Experts of Columbus analyzed the history of our purchases and checked all earlier signed agreements with suppliers regarding compliance to requirements of the Russian legislation. We are happy with results of their work", - Denis Rudakov, the CIO of Hoff notes.

The project was performed in several stages. At first primary data for the analysis were collected: number of personal computers and servers, list of the used software and also list of the persons responsible for purchase, use and write-off of the software. Then specialists of Columbus and Hoff studied data on the software of Microsoft used in the companies, including version control of products. In most cases such inventory was carried out using system administrators by studying of the list of an installed software in the register.

At the third stage all these data were compared with information on the available software licenses. As a result specialists of Columbus provided to the management of Hoff due recommendations about acquisition, installation, use and utilization of the software of Microsoft.

After audit of the software the staff of Hoff reported to the partner all necessary information on confirmation of licensing rights to the used program is provided e to Microsoft, namely:

• agreements on acquisition of the software of Microsoft;
• agreements on acquisition of the PC and servers together with the software of Microsoft;
• the closing documents according to the software of Microsoft purchased separately together with the PC and servers;
• texts of licenses of deliverable software of Microsoft (scan copy of packagings).

All documentation was carefully studied by specialists of Columbus regarding authenticity of the software of Microsoft and compliance to requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation regarding copyright (Part 4 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Besides, in the analysis practice of work of NPPP (Non-profit partnership of software providers) and experience of specialists of Columbus in the field of corporate licensing were considered.

Also the list of documents confirming legality of the software of Microsoft in Hoff company was defined and approved, the conclusions by recognition (or not to recognition) authenticity of licenses by comparison of this list with the provided documents are carried out. Any discrepancies were considered by specialists of Columbus in a special order. Based on this additional analysis installation of this copy of software was recognized as legal or illegal.

"At the moment the issue with management of licenses softwares of Microsoft in Hoff company is completely resolved, possible legal and reputational risks are minimized. The company gained a due impression about IT infrastructure and purchase costs and a software maintenance. The insignificant discrepancies between the set software of Microsoft and the actual licenses for its use revealed during audit were quickly eliminated. It is good that the management of Hoff thought of implementation of technology of management of licenses for the used software in advance. Now it would be much more difficult to implement such project of the growing network. Now, when management processes of software are delivered and adjusted, the company with confidence looks forward", - Elena Elkina, the project manager from Columbus emphasizes.