All businesses have software; some have more than others. However, not all businesses know what software they have, or whether all of that software is licensed, or even being used. Why does this matter? Well, firstly, you're paying for each of those licences, so you could be paying for software that your business isn't using. And if you have unlicensed software, you could be liable for a massive fine.

Adhering to licence compliance requirements is mandatory; having a tool to manage those licences is just smart business sense.

Rinat Dequcinis, sales and marketing manager at Pedion Technologies, says: "Businesses should consider software asset management as their next big cost-cutting exercise. Companies can save on licence costs instead of retrenching people, for example. Instead of cutting back on other resources, companies can stop overspending on their software licences."

She points out that fluctuations of the rand against the dollar can make it very costly to pay for licences that businesses aren't using.

Dequcinis says: "Once you know what software is deployed within the business, and on which devices, you can then initiate projects to get maximum value out of that software until it comes due for re-licensing. It's all about empowering the business with the awareness of what it consumes versus what it's entitled to use.

"Going forward, companies are going to try to cut costs where they can, perhaps on the premises that they occupy, on salaries, maybe even asset acquisition. We offer an additional way for businesses to trim costs by reallocating and even reducing software usage within the business."

In businesses of all sizes, people routinely resign or move to different roles within the company. All too often, the software they were utilising falls into disuse in the process, yet the company continues to pay for its licence. If you have a software auditing tool, it means software can be reallocated to someone else within the business who needs it – or decommissioned altogether. This can save a business a massive amount of money, says Dequcinis. "We empower companies to realise what software they are paying for, versus what they are actually using, thus assisting them to cut licensing costs."

According to the Global Software License Management Market 2016-2020 report by ReportsWeb, the global software licence management market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.8% through 2020.

Dequcinis says: "It's clear that vendors aren't helping their clients to be compliant. Yet companies reply on vendors to help them make the best decisions around the software within their business.

"Implementing a software auditing tool helps customers objectively (ie, in a software-agnostic manner) to be compliant, to understand their licences, what they have in their environment, what the consumption is and make informed decisions around what software to purchase, renew or reallocate."

In addition, Dequcinis recommends centralising decisions around who needs what software, instead of having individual departments acquiring software licences. This enables existing licences to be reallocated instead of a potentially unnecessary licence purchase being authorised.

Steps to software asset management:

1. Discover what assets you have purchased;

2. Identify which assets are being used;

3. Decide which idle assets can be redeployed; and

4. Cancel software licences that aren't being used.

Over and above saving the business money on licensing fees and ensuring compliance, a software audit tool can assist the business in ensuring the right licences are being loaded onto bring your own device items like cellphones, laptops and tablets. It also ensures all users are using the right version of the software and these devices are using the same software as the person's work-issued laptop, for example.

Access to this type of information can prove invaluable when companies start thinking strategically around their futures. So, if a business is acquired, and there's a need to transfer assets from one company to another, there's an audit of what requires transferring. The end result of any consolidation could be a glut of unused software, which will be quickly identified by a software audit tool.