Defend your company with the right expertise for the right software vendor.
Quest Software: Audit Defence Legal Support
In addition to the general practice of the firm I also specialise in helping defend license compliance audits initiated by Quest Software (formerly Dell Software). Having led the EMEA License Compliance team while at Dell Software for 5 years and worked as an independent consultant defending against Quest Software Audit for 2 years, I am very familiar with Quest Software licensing, contracts, audit methodologies, audit reporting and settlement tactics.
If your organisation has just received an audit letter from Quest or is currently under audit with Quest, you need to speak with me!
You can schedule a free consultation to learn more about how I can help your organisation successfully navigate its way through a Quest Audit. Not having specialist advice is never a good tactic when dealing with a Quest audit.
Take the first step towards controlling your Quest Audit and organise a no-obligation consultation with me now.
Cunningham Solicitors can help your organisation with a Quest Software License Audit in a variety of ways:
Pre- Quest Audit
- Review of all applicable contract, quotes and communication with Quest
- Review of all deployments
- Review of all entitlements
- Reconciliation of entitlements v.s deployments and the likely exposures
- An executive summary report detailing strategic advice to derive greater value from Quest product portfolio, a Quest software audit playbook tailored to your orgainisation and specific to your product portfolio.
During a Quest Audit
- Quest Software audits have the potential to become a major issue for an organisation. Don’t assume that because your yearly spend on Quest is comparatively low to Microsoft, Oracle, or SAP that the risk of a large settlement bill is relatively low for Quest.
- The compliance team at Quest are masters at finding that soft spot in the contractual language and leveraging it to its fullest. Take the Nike case for example – https://www.itassetmanagement.net/2018/06/21/nike-hit-back-at-quest/.
- The case centered on Piracy and the interpretation of the licensing metric. It’s the classic “ability to use v.s actual use” chestnut that seasoned SAM specialist will be very familiar with. I was not involved in the Nike case, but if I were I would have had a thing or two to say!
Cunningham Solicitors can assist while you are under with Quest in the following ways:
• In-depth research on the contractual position relating to Quest products. Every contract, quote, email exchange will be poured over and assessed. There will be no surprises or “gotcha” moments from Quest !
•Review of the IT estate to determine the presence or not of unauthorised license keys. Such keys have unintentionally infiltrated many organisations over a long number of years and can be difficult to spot unless you know what to look for.
•Keep unfounded and contractually ambiguous deployments out of the settlement report. Once things creep into the settlement report Quest will use it as leverage in the negotiations.
•Review the settlement report to determine the accuracy of the findings from a technical and legal perspective.
•Provide the technical and legal position to counter-claim any inaccurate or inflated findings. I can spot a bogus finding in a Quest settlement report a mile off!
•Assistance in drafting the correct settlement language to ensure liability is waived and everyone is clear on what the expectations are. I have seen customers become non-compliant again, based on a misinterpretation of settlement language.
•Co-terming of Renewal periods making management of Quest software in the future easier.
•Assistance in formulating an Enterprise license agreement, where relevant, as part of a compliance settlement.
•Renegotiating of the relevant contractual terms so as to avoid any misunderstandings in the future.
•Review of the Quest Audit Clause to set out a defined protocol for the procedure for any future audits.
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