The majority of UK companies have no idea if their business software is compliant with international standards, according to a new report.

The research comes from Centennial, an asset management company which, admittedly, would gain from firms tightening up their software asset management (SAM) procedures. Nevertheless, the report shows that 71 per cent of IT managers from companies in the logistics, healthcare, retail and finance sectors claim they either know their software isn’t compliant, or do not know either way.

The directors of these firms risk criminal charges and the companies risk punitive fines for not complying with software licence terms. But without knowing what is installed on their systems, they are also exposed to greater software costs due to over-licensing, higher costs per unit from decentralised purchasing and unused maintenance agreements.

The research also revealed that this compliance knowledge gap exists despite the fact that 85 per cent of companies are aware of SAM targets, such as the international standard ISO 19770.

“It’s worrying that companies are continuing to ignore the risk of non-compliance with software standards, even when they know they could be facing a fine and potentially serious implications for their reputation,” said Alex Hilton, Centennial's UK vice-president of sales. “Microsoft’s piracy audits are very active, and it seems every day we read more horror stories about companies being caught out. There’s really no excuse for this kind of apathy any more.”

The research also revealed that despite the high proportion of people being aware of standards such as ISO 19770, 69 per cent of respondents have yet to act in order to achieve compliance.

In May the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) warned it was going to get tough on companies flouting the terms of software licences.