Responsible
Deputy
Role Description
CERN is employing a large variety of software programs. Naturally, such a large variety comes with an increase of overhead costs e.g. when buying similar or redundant programs (i.e. their corresponding “Software Licenses”), loss of opportunities for better purchase conditions, and the risk of any kind of license violation.
It is the mandate of the Software License Officer (SLO) to coordinate any purchase or usage of Software Licenses at CERN or by CERN personnel *, and to authorize any site-wide purchase & usage of Software Licenses. In particular, the SLO:
- Assist in purchasing Software Licenses;
- Coordinates with the Procurement and Industrial Services (IPT-PI) of the Industry, Procurement & Knowledge Transfer (IPT) department;
- Verifies whether alternative in-house solutions exist and are appropriate instead in order to avoid duplication of similar products, and liaises with the IT Consulting Team of the IT department if needed;
- Checks any impact on privacy and data protection, and liaises with CERN's Data Privacy Protection Office (ODPP) if needed;
- Checks whether the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) or any other license conditions are acceptable for CERN, and liaises with CERN's Legal Service if needed;
- Checks whether the computer security level is adequately elevated, and liaises with the CERN Computer Security Officer (CSO) if needed;
- Keeps a register of all centrally purchased licenses (i.e. https://slma.cern.ch/slma).
* This, however, does not concern simple orders, especially where only a single end-user or single group is involved.
The software licence officer is available to assist in purchasing software for users at CERN. We work closely with the Procurement and Industrial Services (IPT-PI) of the Industry, Procurement & Knowledge Transfer (IPT) Department.
Simple orders for licences, especially where only a single end-user or single group is involved, should be directed to IPT-PI. Cases where a purchase may be shared by different groups or where some complicated negotiations may be involved to obtain better conditions for CERN may be referred to the SLO, either directly or via IPT-PI.
Contact
Please contact software-licence-officer@cern.ch