(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/08/2022) The Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget’s (DTMB) software management program failed to account for license usage information for 9,000 devices, according to an Office of Auditor General report released Friday.
The department heads the state’s software management efforts. Currently the state acquires software as needed, either directly from a publisher or through an approved reseller, and DTMB monitors both purchasing and subsequent license usage for the state.
The audit, which ran from June 1, 2020 through April 8, 2022, deemed current monitoring efforts insufficient.
It says the department was unaware of usage information for 9,000 devices equipped with state-funded software, which could lead to unnecessary costs if software is under- or overused.
Underused software, if not canceled, could lead to unnecessary costs. And overuse of software could lead to fines if software publishers conduct audits and assess non-compliance penalties, according to auditors.
As of 2020, DTMB has used software called FlexNet to manage and monitor software programs. But the program hasn’t been fully implemented as of October 2021.
As of last October, State of Michigan workstations and servers contained approximately 3,200 commercially licensed software applications from about 650 software publishers.
The Office of Auditor General attempted to evaluate 80 out of the 3,200 applications, but the department informed that it would take nearly nine months for the necessary documentation of only 10 applications, two of which are uploaded to FlexNet.
Auditors determined better monitoring is needed to ensure licensing compliance.
“We consider a nine-month period to implement the onboarding process and/or provide for only 10 software applications a significant impairment to DTMB’s ability to make informed, useful and timely business decisions regarding its software licenses,” auditors said. “At that rate, it would take DTMB several years to position itself to monitor software licenses for the 3,200 commercially licensed software applications reporting to FlexNet.”
DTMB also couldn’t identify the total or average amount expended on their software licenses, but the audit determined that state costs could be up to $167,000 per license and annual maintenance costs for two of the commercially licensed applications were upwards of $100,000.
Another finding reported that as of September 2021, FlexNet only tracked 6% of the state’s software applications, or 181 of the total 3,200.
The audit found that discrepancies in tracking could be fixed by fully onboarding all applications and reconciling financial transactions with FlexNet.
DTMB’s preliminary responses showed the department partially agreed with the findings.
The department agreed with the need for state agencies, including DTMB, to create an inventory.
But DTMB told auditors monitoring of software licenses should be the responsibility of individual state agencies.
The Office of the Auditor General responded that this responsibility has been assigned to the department by the state, adding that 50% of the state agencies interviewed said they don’t maintain a current license inventory outside of FlexNet.
The report maintained the findings as written.
“DTMB continually delegates the management of key processes to State agencies, when DTMB, as the state’s IT expert, is best positioned to manage these processes at an enterprise level,” the report read.
The department now must submit a plan to improve monitoring practices, which auditors have 30 days to accept or deny after reading.
The office of the Auditor General declined to comment on possible expenses as a result of the department’s monitoring shortfalls because “there may be actions they take to address the findings in this report after its release.”
