BSA introduces Verafirm portal for small businesses

BSA the software alliance organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world, has introduced first of its kind online portal Verafirm for small business organizations. The portal aims to provides a common interface to companies, buyers, and publishers. Verafirm was created to help companies effectively manage their software, easily demonstrate their legal use of it, and connect with buyers interested in doing business with ethical companies. The portal is managed and supported by Bengaluru based Symphony Services.

Speaking about this 6-months old initiative, Yolynd Lobo, director, BSA, (who joined BSA 2 months back), after the exit of Lizum Mishra said, "This free portal Verafirm (www.Verafirm.org), is the first and only registry of its kind targeted at small companies. Presently, it is at its pilot stage. The portal is being rolled out in states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Currently, we are working together with the State governments as well as small businesses associations to promote this portal. So far 80 small companies have registered in this portal, and we have been conducting various workshops to educate companies on the IT compliance.

The objective of BSA is to create awareness about software asset management (SAM) through various tools, which can empower government and small business to remain compliant from an IT perspective. For the last 1 year we have been working at the central government level for the SAM practice, guidelines and tools, now it has become an ISO standard.

Talking on the advantage of Verafirm, Lobo added, "By self-declaring your licenses via Verafirm, you take an important first step in demonstrating that your company is transparent, stable, and values intellectual property. As your company steps up its compliance (from Verafirm-Registered, to Verafirm-Verified, to Verafirm-Certified), you will receive special designation on Verafirm, demonstrating to subscribers that you not only value software compliance, but have taken concrete steps to ensure and prove your compliance."

Gouri Thounaojam, manager, programs, BSA highlighted, "We have seen there is reduction in the piracy level. In the last 7 years, the piracy rate has dropped by 10%. As the government is keen to grow the small medium businesses base in India, they are empowering small businesses to compete with the international arena. Hence, the Verafirm will allow small businesses to listing software details, all the detail will remain confidential between the company and BSA. Nevertheless, the flexibility to make the information public is also an option."

Lobo also added that some of the IT association like ISODA's members have registered their companies to this portal and also making their customers become IT complainant.