ARTICLE: Why SAM Projects Fail - Legal Requirements (Part 8/8)

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ARTICLE: Why SAM Projects Fail - Legal Requirements (Part 8/8)

This article has been kindly contributed by Phara McLachlan of Animus Solutions.

The ITIL Guide to SAM highlights several possible problems that may arise when implementing Software Asset Management projects. In this series we look at some of those issues and how organisations can address them using Phara’s hands-on experience.

Why do Software Asset Management projects fail?
Part One – Conflict with Decentralisation Culture
Part Two – Lack of Senior Management Support
Part Three – Lack of Clear Responsibilities
Part Four – Customized vs. Off-the-shelf SAM Software
Part Five – Poor Communication
Part Six – Lack of End User Support
Part Seven – Underestimating Software Recognition
Part Eight – Legal Requirements

In this part we take a look at the role of correctly identifying the legal requirements of SAM implementations.

A SAM implementation typically involves the use of an electronic auditing technology and this in turn usually involves collecting data about the behaviour of individual employees.

For those organisations which have to audit several different territories across the globe local legal requirements need to be taken into consideration. Auditing and monitoring an individual PC sometimes involves the transmission of personal information across countries and data protection issues.

For example in some countries users must be notified that they are being audited and have the right to cancel the audit. Similarly for some countries if users are audited the results of that audit must reside in the local country. Failure to take these local nuances into consideration can lead to a SAM project being derailed or unnecessarily delayed.

What are your experiences of dealing with local legal issues?

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