All IT Services PCs will then be audited. The requirement for auditing stems from the need to stay within legal licence limits, and to gain hardware and software support data. External pressure for undertaking audits comes from organisations like FAST and Microsoft, who can obtain legal powers to search and confiscate an organisation's IT resources. Software auditing will affect every department within the University. The need, therefore, for the University to implement software auditing in a professional and thorough manner is paramount.
Proper organisation is the key to a successful audit.
Expertise may be 'bought in' from audit service companies but this is expensive. As far as IT Services is aware, few universities have yet performed audits of their entire software resources, but many are, like Exeter, now starting down this road. In addition, following the software audit of IT Services, the University's internal auditors have recommended that IT Services arrange with a user department for a further trial audit to be carried out during the summer vacation 1996. The audit would involve some staff effort from the department along with IT Services staff time. Further information is being sought from departments requesting Bibliographic software.