Silverstone saves on software licensing

Silverstone today revealed a new deployment of IT audit software has saved it 20 per cent on its annual licensing costs.

The Northamptonshire racing circuit took on the new software when it was required to perform a full IT asset audit as part of its acquisition by the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC).

The audit data was also needed to guarantee that Silverstone's growing IT infrastructure was being used effectively, in line with corporate policies and compliant with software licensing agreements.

Kevin O'Brien, Silverstone IT manager, said: "Silverstone is a world-famous brand and, if we were without adequate licence provision, this would cause us great embarrassment and we could possibly be taken to task. It's important we are in control of our software license position."

The circuit is using IT audit software Centennial Discovery from provider FrontRange Solutions along with software asset management consulting services from Softcat to get better visibility of its software estate and identify licensing gaps.

The new audit software has enabled Silverstone to save 20 per cent of its annual software costs by preventing unnecessary purchases.

O'Brien added: "Many organisations combat the threat of licence compliance by purchasing more licenses than they need."

But he said the audit software "removes the guesswork from establishing how many applications are in use so we can make sure we are accurately licensed without spending more than we need to".

"Software asset management can either be your biggest headache or your simplest task. Softcat and Centennial Discovery have now simplified the task considerably," O'Brien added.