The Software Industry Research Board (SIRB) is lending a helping hand to businesses worried by the recent surge in software audits, after the Business Software Alliance (BSA) unleashed its campaign to rid London of software piracy last month.

June saw the BSA launch its two-month campaign designed to eliminate software piracy from the capital’s businesses. Following on from similar campaigns in Glasgow and Manchester, the BSA is conducting software audits on more than 1,000 London-based businesses targeting those that deliberately misuse software licences.

Since the launch, the BSA has taken legal action against several London firms after investigations proved they were under licensed. Many organisations have already been made to pay thousands of pounds to become compliant plus recovery fees.

Reassuring businesses that may find themselves subject to a software audit, SIRB is explaining to firms how they can demonstrate compliance ready for when the audit teams come knocking.

SIRB was created in May 2008 with the aim of providing relevant guidance and education to the business community, on the effective management of software licences.

John Lovelock, chief executive of FAST IiS, founders of the SIRB, said: “This is a worrying turn of events but organisations should recognise that implementing an effective software asset management (SAM) programme and demonstrating willingness to get to grips with licensing can head off these risks to their business.

“Software licence management is not sexy, but it is a serious area of compliance that must be addressed properly if firms are to both derive maximum value from their software and move into an area of competitive strength, and conversely to defend themselves against allegations of piracy or under-licensing.”

Market watcher IDC conducted research on behalf of SIRB, revealing 75 per cent of organisations claim to have a formal SAM strategy, but this tends to be very basic, resulting in organisations making poor decisions in relation to their software spend.