--- title: "Automating Open Source Reports with FOSSA at Applause" description: "Discover how Applause leveraged FOSSA to automate their OSS licensing and compliance process, saving time and improving accuracy." canonical_url: "https://fossa.com/blog/automating-open-source-reports-with-fossa-at-applause/" markdown_url: "https://fossa.com/blog/automating-open-source-reports-with-fossa-at-applause.md" content_type: "blog" language: "en" date_published: "2019-02-19" date_modified: "2019-02-19" author: "Marnie Devon" organization: "FOSSA" --- # Automating Open Source Reports with FOSSA at Applause > Discover how Applause leveraged FOSSA to automate their OSS licensing and compliance process, saving time and improving accuracy. **Featuring**: Rob Mason, SVP of Engineering @ Applause, Inc. Applause assembles custom teams of on-demand, highly-vetted professionals around the globe, providing brands with a full suite of testing and feedback capabilities. This approach drastically improves testing coverage, eliminates the limitations of offshoring and traditional QA labs, and speeds time-to-market for websites, mobile apps, IoT, and in-store experiences. To find out more, please check out [https://www.applause.com/](https://www.applause.com/). ## A Manual, Fragmented Process When Rob Mason first took his role as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Applause, he inherited a manual process around open source software (OSS) licensing and tracking: > _The whole process for identifying and documenting open source licenses, and then providing them to customers, was awful for everyone involved. And at Applause, it was a major challenge to continuously keep the information up to date and accurate._ The team was struggling under the load, and it wasn’t really surprising as Rob found a complex SaaS platform with several languages, development tools and a number of repositories to manage: > _We have a pretty complex SaaS system with dozens of micro-services spread over many repos and developed in five primary languages using many OSS packages._ ## Choosing a Solution Rob went looking for a solution that would easily address their complex needs for open source code compliance. > _When I found FOSSA, I thought it sounded too good to be true – I had never heard of a solution that could do this. During our free trial, the FOSSA app found all the dependencies and licenses. The team was also great to work with – they were always incredibly responsive when we had questions or concerns during the on-boarding process._ Very quickly, Rob found there were features of the tool that were incredibly valuable: > _This is a messy and tricky area. FOSSA allowed us to explain the decisions we made during the compliance process, and we always had an audit trail to refer back to._ That value is not only internal, but it gives Rob and his team leverage in providing their customers with critical information. FOSSA provides an easy way to integrate repositories, seamlessly communicate between team members, and customize reporting that can update the application as components change. > _Our largest customers and partners want proof of our compliance with our open source licenses. The fact that in FOSSA we can easily export [and host] that information as a nice report which has been extremely useful._ ## Renewing the Relationship After renewing the first cycle of Applause’s annual contract, we asked Rob why he stayed with FOSSA: > _It saves us so much time and pain since we don’t have to chase down everyone quarterly to get things lined up. Now, I have continual review of the OSS licenses and a system to accurately track and report on them. And, even better, FOSSA eliminates the manual process to create the comprehensive list._ ...And the FOSSA team has been very grateful to have the partnership of one of our early customers throughout this process. We look forward to continuing to partner with Rob and the Applause team in the next year! ## Related resources - [Analyzing 5 Major OSS License Compliance Lawsuits](https://fossa.com/blog/analyzing-5-major-oss-license-compliance-lawsuits.md): Learn about five lawsuits that have helped shape global enforcement of open source software licenses. - [May 2025 FOSSA Product Updates](https://fossa.com/blog/may-2025-product-updates.md): Learn about several recent FOSSA product updates, including container scanning and CycloneDX report improvements. - [Annotate Dependencies with Context: Introducing Package Labels in FOSSA](https://fossa.com/blog/annotate-dependencies-context-introducing-package-labels.md): Introducing FOSSA Package Labels - a powerful way to annotate packages with contextual metadata, enabling more efficient and insightful reporting and filtering. - [License Compliance, SBOM, and Vulnerability Management for Smaller Teams: FOSSA Business Tier](https://fossa.com/blog/fossa-business-tier.md): FOSSA introduces a new business tier tailored for smaller teams, offering flexible pricing and comprehensive features for SBOM, vulnerability management, and license compliance. - [Fall 2024 Software Licensing Roundup](https://fossa.com/blog/fall-2024-software-licensing-roundup.md): Explore the significant licensing stories of fall 2024, including Elastics return to open source, the new fair source licensing model, and the PearAI controversy. ## Source Canonical page: https://fossa.com/blog/automating-open-source-reports-with-fossa-at-applause/