Posts: 1,956
Threads: 65
Joined: Jun 2003
Quote:i would be thankful if i can see the end product :bounce:
It's gonna be tough getting the authorization to develop this application which identifies unauthorized and unlicensed software on 350 PC's. IT management does not like to spend money on in-house problems. I call it in-house because it has nothing to do with the company's business. Also, since all their software is outsourced, they wont want me to develop it anyhow.
Who knows, I may have to quit, develop the system, and sell it to them. This might work.
The company is very risk oriented.
Unauthorized software is that found on a PC without an authorized installation; that is, the company has a license for this software but not for this particular installation. The risk here is that the vendor would audit and discover this, which is highly improbable, and therefore low risk.
Unlicensed software is that found on a PC where the company does not have any license at all for this software. Again, the risk here is that the vendor would audit and discover this, which is highly improbable, and therefore low risk.
Another risk associated with not knowing what software the company has installed, as well as poor management of software licenses in general, is that of purchasing more licenses than we need. This financial risk is very hard to measure.
*****
Posts: 864
Threads: 13
Joined: Oct 2003
Sounds like it's time for new management Moneo? The third risk you mentioned is very plausible, especially considering the high costs of licences, but I think the largest risk would be internally, from a disgruntled employee who decides to fsck over the company by reporting their illegit software.
igitalblackie.com - Done!  Ask about our hosting 
-Goddess of the of the No More Religion Threads movement
Posts: 1,956
Threads: 65
Joined: Jun 2003
Quote:Sounds like it's time for new management Moneo? The third risk you mentioned is very plausible, especially considering the high costs of licences, but I think the largest risk would be internally, from a disgruntled employee who decides to fsck over the company by reporting their illegit software.
Your right, Rhiannon, that's a definite risk, and it's higher than the "low" rating on the others.
Your comment on "time for new management" is a tricky one. IT management is well aware of the risks, but in most companies, IT is not completely backed up by top management. The top brass doesn't want to enforce anything that might make the "business people" unhappy. So what happens is that the IT established policies and rules are pretty much ignored outside of the IT area.
Example: Let's name an expensive (US$600) software as XXX. It suddenly becomes popular and let's say 20 users in different departments want/need it. So we buy 20 versions and install it for the 20 users. A few months later, one of these users leaves the company. Policy dictates that all the purchased software on that PC is to be uninstalled in order to recover those licenses. Also, the PC is supposed to be returned to the Engineering department to format the disk and prepare the PC for another user.
So, what really happens is that the manager of the department where a guy left, does not let anyone touch the PC, saying that a new guy is coming in soon. Now we have one unused license of software XXX in that PC. If someone else needs software XXX right now, we would have to buy it. When the new guy comes in, he may or may not use software XXX and others installed on that PC. Also. he's going to keep on using the old machine which may need some service packs applied to Windows.
Anyway, as you can see, if this happens all over the company, you have a caotic misuse of company assets, both hardware and software. This situation really happens in some companies. IT doesn't have power over the "business people" --- after all the business pays our salaries, IT is only a very costly expense.
*****
Posts: 4,307
Threads: 63
Joined: May 2003
That really sucks! But I dont think "Business people" pay your salaries. Infact IT professionals are the ones who are keeping the business going. Lets say your IT department stopped working for your company just for a month or so, just think how much financial losses would be incurred. The whole communication backbone would stop functioning! Company secrets would leak out like crazy and so on... 
You have the power but you gotta realize it :bounce:
Posts: 3,279
Threads: 170
Joined: Nov 2003
So true...IT is always the true source of company power, and they're not easily replaceable either.
I'd knock on wood, but my desk is particle board.
Posts: 1,956
Threads: 65
Joined: Jun 2003
I agree with you guys 100%.
However, the reality is that IT is just another prostitute of big business. Doesn't matter what the company business is, they use and overshadow IT. Take a look around.
*****
Posts: 115
Threads: 11
Joined: Jun 2004
This thread is sort of funny from another angle.
There is a constant battle to meet users' needs. Most desktop support organizations (just as the rest of the IT world) have a heck of a time with this. License management, security, and system integrity (keeping malware away) make it necessary to limit the software users have at their disposal. There just aren't enough resources available to weigh and compare, check out, license, and support every little thing a user might need.
So users with special needs get screwed over. "Too bad, so sad" as it were. Another application of the 80/20 rule: 80% of the people only need 20% of the software out there. So that's all we allow.
This is where "XCopy deployable" software comes in.
To get my job done I seek out such software. Things I can simply unZip and run. Using an XCopy-able Zip utility like FreeByte Zip if necessary.
Many Windows applications can't be deployed without leaving traces in the registry. Most DOS applications can, of course. If WScript/CScript/HTAs aren't locked down, you have another applet venue.
The biggest promise of .Net was that it opened up a component model that wasn't (necessarily) based on registry entries. XCopy deployment of WinForms apps was quite heavily touted in the early .Net days.
Once .Net runtimes (the Framework) reaches broader desktop penetration we may see a renaissance in freeware/shareware. If nothing else because you can do XCopy-deployable stuff again without resorting to static or linked libraries.
So while I hate to make the desktop admin's job harder, I'm not about to make my own job impossible. Long live XCopyable software!
I should add that I limit this to freeware which I have virus-scanned on a computer that isn't attached to corporate network resources. I'm not completely stupid.
Posts: 1,956
Threads: 65
Joined: Jun 2003
Dile, you've got some interesting points, but I have to disagree with the entire concept. Having been in the computer business for over 40 years, I don't see the sudden (within the last 10 years)need for every person in an organization to fundamentally have any software he wants installed on his machine.
Fo God's sake, how did people do it before? Well, they either did it manually sometimes with the help of a calculator, or they asked the Systems dept to develop a solution for them.
Now, every turkey thinks that the solution is some flash-in-the-pan software that they saw on the Internet. Plus they want all the DVD, sound, and snapshot stuff that's new. Hey, I thought you came here to work!
It seems like nobody creates any solutions anymore, they're all busy looking for some mystical new software that will do it for them. If the decision was mine, I would have a few select software products available for general use, and that's it! Maybe what's called an "image" in several versions, tailored for different departments.
By the way, I haven't seen a computer that isn't connected to a corporate network, in a long time.
*****
|
