The Federation Against Software Theft (The Federation) is to shift its strategy to encourage UK firms to adopt software asset management (SAM) as company policy.

Over the next six months, The Federation will expand on its channel policing image and increase its efforts in promoting business best practice among UK firms.

John Lovelock, chief executive of The Federation, told CRN: “The Federation wants to broaden its relevance to the IT community. As it moves into the 21st century, it is working towards a whole landscape that works together.”

“The Federation is known for its software policing. However, it wants to increase the awareness of its
education programme and promote best practice in business,” he added.

The Federation is already in negotiations with companies to increase its energies in areas such as virtualisation and open source.

“These areas require clear thinking from an independent body, such as The Federation, so end users know how to get the best out of their technologies,” he said.

The Federation holds seven to 10 seminars a year for end users as part of its education programme.

These are based on issues such as legal requirements and services. “It is a good cop/bad cop situation. The Federation is known for its bad cop policing work, but very few know of our proactive efforts to help businesses,” added Lovelock.

“We want to continue to bring the vendor and the end user closer together, so they engage more with each other.”

However, Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of distributor Wick Hill, said The Federation’s seminars are already well attended.

“In Wick Hill’s experience, The Federation is already very active with its education and promoting best practice. The security seminars have also been very popular,” he said.

“Wick Hill attends regular Federation meetings, but if it is building on that then it can only
benefit its members.”