{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Operational ITAM Podcast","title":"Surviving a Software Audit, Part One: The Letter Lands","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":971,"description":"The first seventy-two hours decide the outcome. Five opening moves for the moment the audit notice arrives.\nPart one of two. The letter arrives — or, increasingly, the friendly invitation to a \"SAM engagement\" that is an audit wearing a nicer coat. What you do in the first seventy-two hours shapes everything that follows.\nBill lays out five opening moves: contain it, read the contract, control the terms, build your own position before you share anything, and control the data. Along the way: which publishers audit most aggressively, why third-party audit firms are paid by the vendor and what that means for you, why unverified script output drives more inflated claims than actual non-compliance does, and the single most expensive instinct in this situation — panic-buying licenses after the notice arrives, which frequently doesn't count toward the findings anyway.\nPlus a listener question from Sandra in Grand Rapids on the soft-audit trap.\nPart two picks up when the findings document lands.\nIN THIS EPISODE\n- The five opening moves for the first seventy-two hours\n- Soft audits and \"SAM engagement\" invitations — the audit wearing a nicer coat\n- What your contract's audit clause actually permits, and what it doesn't\n- Why third-party audit firms are paid by the publisher, and what that changes\n- Building your own license position before you share a single data point\n- Controlling the data: what you provide, in what format, and what you never send\n- Why unverified script output drives more inflated claims than real non-compliance\n- The most expensive instinct in the room: panic-buying licenses after the notice\n- Which publishers audit most aggressively, and what the current data shows\nCHAPTERS\nTRANSCRIPT\nSOURCES & FURTHER READING\nFlexera 2026 State of ITAM Report — audit activity by publisher\nhttps://www.flexera.com/blog/it-asset-management/state-of-itam-2026/\nISO/IEC 19770-1 — IT Asset Management Systems\nhttps://www.iso.org/standard/68531.html\nAudit incidence and...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/nFlbExxNnhzrwnSlx4jBvKVGVnnfmon8-1VE92EQptA/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS84NjA4/YzdhOWJhZjcyZjYw/ZTY3Y2E1OTM1NTc2/N2M2Yi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}