Using Software to Fix Problems with the Software Supply Chain

Daniel Sanders, Senior Director, Legal, Flexera, United Kingdom

As a young software lawyer, I simply accepted things as they were. I learned about software licenses, warranties, intellectual property indemnities and audit provisions. I tried to understand the nuances between the position taken by a software supplier, and that taken by a software buyer. I never questioned any of it. I accepted the status quo: • How should a software supplier keep track of usage? Audit or not at all. • Who should be responsible for complying with license levels? The buyer. • How should a software buyer protect itself from security vulnerabilities? Warranty, indemnity, luck. • How can a software buyer be sure that the software supplier is giving good title? Warranty and indemnity. That’s just how it worked. That’s what everyone else did. I needed to get contracts negotiated and out the door and didn’t have time to think about the bigger picture or how we could do things better.

Daniel Sanders is an experienced Commercial Lawyer, Negotiator and Commercial Strategist. He is currently Senior Director of Legal at Flexera with overall legal responsibility for EMEA and APAC including Commercial Negotiations, M&A, IP Protection, Litigation and Compliance. Sanders was previously a legal lead for Oracle Cloud (EMEA) and legal lead for Tekelec (EMEA), with responsibility for complex negotiations with customers in EMEA, Russia and CIS.

Flexera is reimagining the way software is bought, sold, managed and secured. We view the software industry as a supply chain, and make the business of buying and selling software more transparent, secure, and effective. Our Monetization and Security solutions help software sellers transform their business models, grow recurring revenues and minimize open source risk. Our Vulnerability and Software Asset Management (SAM) solutions strip waste and unpredictability out of buying applications, helping companies purchase only the software and cloud services they need, manage what they have, and reduce license compliance and security risk. In business for 30+ years, our 1000+ employees are passionate about helping our 80,000+ customers generate millions in ROI every year. Visit us at www.flexera.com.