Getting an audit notice of any sort is never fun. The same holds true when you receive one from Oracle’s License Management Services (LMS). Responding carefully and thoughtfully can have a profound impact on the overall course of the audit. For starters, we recommend the following:
- Make sure the audit notice came from Oracle’s LMS group. No other organization, not even Oracle Sales, has the authority or mandate to perform an Oracle license audit. If it’s not from LMS, or from someone formally delegated by LMS, you are not obligated to cooperate.
- Go ahead and confirm to Oracle LMS that you are in receipt of the letter. Do not get rushed into a kickoff call. Also, thinking about why you are being audited and the reasons behind the audit notice is not useful either. For more on this, check out our post: What causes an Oracle license audit?
- Gather your Oracle agreements and contracts and review them to make sure there is an audit clause. If you are not able to confirm this, put the onus back on Oracle LMS and ask them to prove they have audit rights. This will at least buy you more time.
- Most Oracle audit clauses include an “… upon 45 days notice” – if yours does, then tell LMS to contact you again 45 days after their original notice. Now, it’s time for you to get to work!
- Put all other communications with any group in Oracle on hold. If you are working on a sales deal with Oracle, or discussing your architecture or future planning with Oracle, put it on hold and make it clear that until this audit is completed, your organization will freeze all discussions with Oracle. Do remember, though, that once an official Oracle LMS audit notice is sent out, and audit will almost never be cancelled. Applying pressure back on Oracle through other channels may help speed up the process.
- Identify a single point of contact on your side. Make sure any data or information flows through that point of contact – this way, you will reduce the chances of inadvertently disclosing too much information.
- Challenge Oracle LMS to establish scope and support their audit scope with contractual details.
- Get expert help from Redwood Compliance. Our team of ex-Oracle LMS personnel can apply its experience and expertise to keep you in control of every step of the audit process, not get cornered and minimize the cost of resolving the audit.