IFO4
Loading...The portion of software licence spend attributable to seats, capacity, or feature tiers that are not actively used over the licence cycle. License waste arises from over-procurement, post-deparature seat retention, and feature tier mismatch. The federation requires licence utilisation to be measured monthly across all material SaaS spend, with seat-level usage data reconciled to the active employee directory. Sustained licence utilisation below seventy percent on any contract triggers a procurement review under UFMS-001:2.4(f). Vendor-imposed minimums are documented separately.
A compound of licence, from Latin licentia, freedom, and waste; the SaaS sense crystallised with the rise of seat-based pricing in the 2000s.
Federation members run licence utilisation reports monthly with reconciliation to the identity directory. Sustained low utilisation drives a renewal renegotiation. Seat sprawl is a quarterly procurement metric under MEV-Annex:3.2 and a component input to capital efficiency.
@misc{ifo4_glossary_license_waste,
title = {{License Waste}},
author = {{IFO4 Federation Editorial Board}},
howpublished = {{IFO4 Federation Glossary, slug \texttt{license-waste}}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://ifo4.org/glossary/license-waste},
note = {Category: Waste; key: LicenseWaste}
}Federation members and accredited practitioners may challenge any entry under TGS-002:1.7. Filed challenges are routed to the editorial board, triaged into the revision register, and resolved in writing on the public docket. The slug remains stable through any revision.