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On this Cyber Monday, we are happy to announce NetLicensing 2.3.4 availability!

With this release we are introducing very notable security feature - Licensee Secret, which significantly improves your protection as a vendor against licenses abuse. It adds the node-locking capability and may be used in combination with any supported licensing model. Read more here.

For a detailed list of changes in this release, see NetLicensing 2.3.4 Release Notes.

Cyber Monday has arrived, and you don’t want to miss the biggest offer of the year! All accounts created until the end of this year (2016) will receive a complimentary 1-year access to all new premium NetLicensing features that will be enabled throughout the coming year 2017.

Here’s a sneak view of what you will get:

NetLicensing Shop Customization VAT support for European vendors and customers Transfer licenses between licensees Offline licensing mode … and many other interesting improvements This offer is valid for all new NetLicensing registrations made between November 28, 2016 and December 31, 2016.

Be sure not to miss out on this chance – it’s a limited-time offer!

As always, your feedback is important to us - please visit NetLicensing Website - Leave Feedback.

Thank you for your contributions & Happy Licensing!

The effective use of images and photography on your website and blog can have a massive impact upon the message which you convey to your customers. A phrase which is well known and perhaps now a little too often used – a picture speaks a thousand words – is actually truer now than ever before. The advent of ever smaller technology and a greater degree of reading ‘on the go’ it has become absolutely paramount to make you website content as eye-catching as possible. If you have strong title and header image people are more likely to bookmark any blog posts of yours which they are linked to by friends and colleagues, than those which are pure text. It is important then, to make sure that the company which you use to purchase your stock images will offer you a fair deal and won’t impose any unreasonable restrictions on your use of the images which you purchase. After all, it is all well and good having a great image but if it comes with a watermark that covers most of the picture then it is not going to be nearly as effective as you might have hoped in conveying your message – rather any one viewing the post at a glance may not even think that you have paid to use it. When this is far from true. In this article we will look in brief at three of the largest Stock Image Companies and how they prefer you to credit them for use of their products.

    Getty Images Widely considered to be the leading supplier of Stock Images and Photography, the reputation of Getty Images is second to none. The prices which they offer may seem expensive at first, particularly if you look at their subscription service – 50 downloads per month for $399 USD. However, 60,000 of these images are royalty-free. If you have seen any of Getty’s images in use before you will know that they all carry an individual watermark which identifies both the source website and the individual photographer: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/Creative/Frontdoor/NewWatermark

Corbis Images Founded by the father of Microsoft, Bill Gates, Corbis Images has been in operation for nearly 25 years and in that time has amassed over 100 million images and videos. They provide superb product quality and have an excellent internal search engine which enables you to easily navigate the vast product range which they have on offer. The sheer number of images available makes it hard to find a negative aspect to their operation. Terms of Use for Corbis Images: If being used on a blog or website or other such editorial use each image must display a copyright notice next to each image. Acknowledging Corbis Images as the source as well as including the name of the photographer; ‘© photographer’s name/Corbis’. In cases where the use is commercial, Copyright should be stated where appropriate. For Footage, Corbis Copyright must be displayed in the on-screen Credits.

Fotolia The leading stock photography company in Europe, Fotolia offer high-quality images at very reasonable prices. They also have a selection of Subscription plans as well as the Pay-As-You-Go option for those companies just starting out. They have a wide range of images across numerous categories, many of which are royalty-free. It’s quick and easy to create a free account with Fotolia meaning that you can get started with using their images right away. Fotolia are very flexible with regard to displaying copyright on their images when it is used on a website or blog. It is a not a requirement but they are always appreciative of you doing so. If you are using their images for editorial purposes in a newspaper or magazine story, using the conventional method beneath each image. It is also possible to display the copyright information on a reference page.

Hello and welcome to this next article in our ongoing series on Software Licensing Metrics. In this article we will be looking at what is considered by some companies to be the most cost-effective of all metrics – ‘Named User’. It is, in principle a very straightforward metric to understand. If your customers business operates using a Group Policy where each user is assigned a unique login then a Named User can be an easy to implement means of managing their license costs.

It is important that each individual who will need to access the software has their own login as this is used by the software metric to measure its use. It also enables your customers to easily manage which of their users are making the most of the software as well as monitor for any use which could be considered excessive, thereby driving unnecessarily driving up costs.

The precise way in which the metric measures the time spent operating the software by each user has several different variations. The precise method which you choose to adopt will have to take into account factors such as the size and infrastructure of the business, the actual number of users who will have access to it and ultimately the method which will work best for both you and the customer. As an example; if the software or service is relatively light on its processing power and it would be difficult to distinguish between all but the most extreme differences in usage (i.e. 5 minutes to one hour would be the smallest distinction possible). In this case it would seem logical to measure the number of times each user accesses the software rather than the time they spend using it.

For a software or service with a greater draw on the processor, you may want to consider monitoring the actual usage by each user, rather than simply the number of times that they make use of it. As with many aspects of Licensing, there are overlaps between the different metrics and different variations are always possible.

In addition to this, it is important that as a Vendor you decide each time the precise level of flexibility which you are going to grant to each customer. Especially if they operate across multiple servers and locations. Significantly, does the Named User license allow the given users access across all sites and servers? Or just specific ones? It is important to consider factors such as these before signing on the dotted line.

Software as a Service has been instrumental in harnessing benefits of productivity of man and organization in working environment by delivering a diverse range of remotely maintained applications over the Internet. Unlike Traditional Software Licensing Model, SaaS strives to resolve the inflexibility of software that arises during maintenance and evolution. Software as a Service model is user friendly and incurs comparatively lower cost.

SaaS vs. Traditional Software Licensing Model: Technical features and Support

Multiple Users: The SaaS model can be used by multiple users at a time, and operates on a subscription per user per month basis. It is quick to deploy as your only requirement is an internet connection, and you are ready to use your new software. On the other hand, the conventional model cannot be deployed immediately as software needs to be installed and user training is required.

Work from Anywhere: SaaS can be accessed from any computer or device at any time, the only requirement is an internet connection. This gives the freedom of working from anywhere and results in a more productive output. The application is mobile friendly and unlike Traditional Software Licensing Model applications, the learning curve for SaaS solutions is very low. Also online training on SaaS applications can be generated on demand.

Latest Updates: One major advantage of using Software as a Service is that at all times you will be using the most updated version of the software. There is no need of installing and managing software updates. And unlike on premise, you don’t have to wait for getting hold of the latest features and upgrades.

Reliability & Security: With SaaS, you can obtain guaranteed levels of service and performance. This model also offers automatic data backups and recovery, which is a meticulous process with regards to Traditional Software Licensing Model users. Automatic recovery and backup of information delivers a sense of security while using SaaS data centres and it becomes more reliable than the data management offered by in-house systems in the organizations.

SaaS vs. Traditional Software Licensing Model: Financial implications

Less Costly: SaaS customers do not have to pay large upfront cost as it is based on a monthly subscription fee. This results in a better and long term customer relationship and a focus on customer satisfaction. Whereas in the case of Traditional Model, the initial costs are very high but there are no subsequent periodic payments required.

Less Investment: In case of on premise the higher costs include the costs of hardware, software and resources. However, as the SaaS software can be hosted from distant locations, no additional hardware requirements are there, which further minimizes the costs. This implies that the initial investment by organisations in Traditional Software Licensing Model is way more than in the SaaS model.

No Installation & Maintenance charges: Moreover, the installation and maintenance charges are nonexistent in SaaS, unlike the traditional software licensing model where the organizations have to include the set-up and installation costs. Management of IT infrastructure and hardware becomes a concern for organizations while using the traditional set-up. SaaS offers freedom from these concerns, as it is based on using services and software via the internet and no infrastructure is required.

Conclusion

Hello and welcome to this next article on Licensing Metrics, we’ve already covered some more general points about Licensing Metrics in two previous articles which it would be worth reading if you are new to the topic of Licensing Metrics. In this next stage of articles on Licensing Metrics we will be looking more specifically at different types of metrics, usually one per article, the different pros and cons of each and how they work in real-world use. If you are familiar with our previous series on Software Licensing Types then you will know how we structure these articles and what you can expect from them.

Instance (or installation) is arguably the simplest form of licensing metric. It is similar to some types of software license but crucially enables the user to have an uncapped number of installations or uses of the software. This can then be measured by the number of times which the specific code which the user has been given goes through the registration process. Typically the best way to ensure that every installation or use of the software is counted is to force the user to activate after each installation, or log in for every use.

This is also the easiest metric to measure, where certain license metrics rely upon the number of concurrent users or the CPU usage of the software (we will come onto these in a future article). This metric relies purely upon the actual number of installations of the software.

Although on principal this is an uncapped metric – whereby users can install the software an unlimited number of times – it is also possible for you to combine the Volume License and with an Installation metric where the user is only charged per installation however this is limited to a pre-agreed maximum number of installations. As with all methods of licensing and metrics, it is important to make sure that you are not pricing yourself out of the market or cutting too far into your profits.

The advantage which this metric grants you as a vendor is that it keeps your administration costs low as you do not need to spend a significant amount of time processing the payments from your customers. However, it does limit your potential earnings from any one piece of software as the user has unlimited use of it after it has been installed. It is therefore suitable for software which either has a low production cost or which does not use a significant amount of processing power.

Hello and welcome to our third article on Software Licensing Metrics. You’ll need to have read the first two articles in order if you’re going to get the most out of this one which will cover the importance of the definition of rights in an agreement over license metrics. We will look at the common problems which vendors encounter; the common disagreements which often occur, some possible methods which you can use to avoid those, management methods for when disagreements do happen and the best course of action which you can take to avoid losing business.

It’s important to remember that we are not offering a complete solution to all of the possible problems! Each and every situation is different and we don’t know you, your business or your customers! Hopefully we can give you a guide as to what to expect when dealing with metric agreements and the best practice to follow when laying out the terms and conditions for a Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Keep it Simple

As we discussed in our previous article, when dealing with software licensing metrics, you can never understate the value of keeping it as simple as possible. This is particularly prescient when stating the terms of agreement between you and your customer. It is important to be clear about what it is that you’re measuring. It’s also important that you make it clear to the customer when they will be subject to price increases, potential changes to the terms of use. It is important that the metrics remain crystal clear throughout the duration of the contract.

Keep Yourself Safe

Ultimately the party who will suffer the most out of a deal gone bad will be you. You’ll lose business, potentially damage your reputation and in the worst circumstances can run into complex legal wrangling which is both time consuming and very costly to you.

A secure contract doesn’t have to be one which is constrained. Don’t feel limited in your potential by a fear of what could happen, rather you need to have confidence in your product and service always seeking the proper legal guidance when drawing up contracts and ensuring that when the contract is signed that all parties are one hundred percent happy with the terms. This keeps you safe as a supplier and ensures that your contracts are watertight.

Be Diplomatic

Disputes between vendor and customer almost always arise after the contract has been signed and the service has been running for a certain period of time. The best way to deal with these situations is to remain diplomatic, treat your customers with respect and attempt to resolve any concerns through calm discussion.

At the centre of these disputes there is often a disagreement about the metric and its use. This is why it is paramount that both parties regularly liaise to ensure that they are both still happy with the metric and are agreed on its appropriation to the SLA.

At the heart of an effective software metric system is its inherent simplicity and the ease of explanation granted to the vendor. The key to selling a product well is the first impression it makes on the customer. Although every salesperson will always say when they are talking to a potential customer they want to keep as far away from discussion of the price as possible; it is often the deciding factor in the decision by a business or individual about whether or not to purchase a piece of software or a service.

When selling software that comes with a recurring fee, a contemporary example being a cloud operations service whereby a company provides access to software and storage space on remote servers for a monthly/quarterly/annual fee. This form of software typically falls under the classification of ‘Platform as a Service’ (PaaS), ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) and ‘Infrastructure as a Service’ (IaaS). It is for services such as this, a market which is growing exponentially but which is also seeing a significant increase in market competition. It is a relatively easy service to set-up and operate which means that pricing is highly competitive and the simplicity of understanding for the customer is paramount.

The popularity of cloud operating systems makes them an essential part of any software vendor’s arsenal. Companies are increasingly shifting to a virtual infrastructure and the value of IaaS and PaaS contracts in now higher than ever before.

There are two things which a business will be looking for in a Cloud Service solution: maximum flexibility and best value. The license metric is intrinsic to both of these factors. The amount which a vendor charges the end-user for a recurring service (i.e. IaaS) depends directly upon their usage. Whilst some companies do offer a specific service for a set amount (i.e. 15GB for $2.99 a month) for those companies who use a Cloud Service for more than just storage, where it provides their entire network infrastructure, a set fee is not best suited.

It would be more beneficial to both the vendor and the end-user to determine a means of measuring the usage. This is where metrics can become complicated, and where it is most important for the vendor to keep the pricing as simple as possible. The varied usage which Infrastructure as a Service can often lead to an overly complex metric system where there are so many terms of measurement that it makes it almost impossible for the customer to track their usage and makes the cost calculation process longer than necessary.

The best method of execution for the software metric in these circumstances is to assess which will be the most beneficial to both parties. Where the service provided is a network infrastructure a potential example of an effective metric would be one which tracks the CPU usage of the Cloud Servers by the customer. This means that as the usage fluctuates, so will the price. It is relatively easy to measure and manageable.

As a company who distributes software to both domestic and business customers, it is important to ensure that you are charging the right amount for the products which you are distributing. In order to give your customers the best value possible, you need to make sure that your price is competitive and that it reflects the usage of the software.

If you haven’t already read our series of articles on Software Licensing Models, it would be worthwhile giving them a look as it help you to better understand some of the principles which we will be discussing in this series on Licensing Metrics. In essence, the license metric which is assigned to a piece of software is designed to carefully measure the level of usage of the software.

The metric is the unit of measurement which the vendor (yourself) uses to report back to developer about how their product is selling, and can also be used to determine the share of the profits which needs to be paid to each party which has a share in the ownership rights.

When determining the metrics which you eventually use it is important to consider how effective it will be against how costly it will be to implement as a scheme. The idea behind licensing metrics is that they make it easier for you as a vendor to determine the popularity of any one individual piece of software, as well as use them to extrapolate other data to then feedback into your marketing strategy.

In this coming series we will cover in more detail the fundamental aspects of determining an efficient and cost-effective means of measuring the usage of an individual piece of software.

In the first instance, the metrics should provide you with data that is easy to understand. It is worthless to have a metric which gives you a regular reading if you have nothing against which to compare it. If you have to employ addition data analysts then you are likely to end up wasting both time and money! It should also be easy for you to explain to your customers; ideally it should take fewer than 2 minutes for you to give any procurement staff a full and complete breakdown of how the metric system works for the software – in order to ensure full transparency between yourself and them.

It is worthwhile noting that the more open and honest you are with your customers, the greater the likelihood of them using the software on a frequent basis. This can be explained thusly: the more trust your customer has in you, the less they will be concerned about any ‘hidden’ costs ergo the more they will use the software as they will not be ‘living in fear’ of the end of the month and the impending bill.

If, for example, the metric which is in place is the number of ‘named users’ who access the software over a month, your customers will be significantly more relaxed about using the software by knowing precisely what it is that they will be charged for.

In this, our last article in our series on Software Licensing types, we will be looking at three final licensing types: OEM, Time Limited and Upgrade. The reason that these have been left to our last post that that they do not easily ‘fit’ within a certain group of license types and their uses are arguably esoteric. They have a limited field of use and are only useful to a small selection of end-users. However, as we have said on numerous occasions throughout this series, there is no reason why you should not take the time to learn about different software licensing types because in your position as a vendor – an increased knowledge will only serve to benefit you and your business though an increased quality of service to your customers.

Time-Limited

In many ways, this license model is the most self-explanatory of all license types. They are defined by the fact that they are set with an expiry date after which the license is not automatically renewed. A common example of software which makes use of a Time-Limited License is Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware software which almost always operates on a time-limited license basis. The end-user is forced to manually renew the license after 12 or 24 months depending upon which option they have chosen in the past. As a vendor, this can be a very profitable means of marketing a license as it forces customers to renew their license after a set period, it is also beneficial to the developers as it means that they can continue to develop the software but only release updates to those users with a valid subscription.

OEM

OEM stands for ‘Original Equipment Manufacturer’ – they are the companies and individuals who design and build the hardware which then makes use of licensed software. They do not market the product, but instead they seek to obtain a license to distribute software as a part of the package. Thereby increasing the marketability of their products to retailers. OEM Licenses are often used to allow hardware and software manufacturers to work together to market their products. Under the agreed terms the manufacturer will distribute their hardware i.e. a Laptop Series and each model will come with the software pre-installed and already licensed as a part of the package. If done properly, this can prove to be a very lucrative marketing strategy for both parties.

Upgrade

95% of available software, whether it is free or not will have a certain amount of updates which are released as a part of the package. However, when the developer releases an entirely new version of the software, it may be that the existing users are reluctant to pay out for an entirely new version of a piece of software which they already own – this is where upgrade licenses can become particularly enticing to the end-user. There are also a number of benefits which upgrade licenses grant to the vendor; because they enable the user to have access to a pre-determined number of future releases of the software they can be justifiably more expensive than the usual license as they will obviously grant a longer usage period to the user. In order for upgrade licenses to be effective for you as a vendor, you need to carefully negotiate with the developer and ensure that you are not underselling the product.

This is now our seventh article, in our ongoing series on different software licensing models, their benefits and uses. We are now nearing the end of this particular series and as a result, the final couple of articles will see us cover those license models which we haven’t found space for previously. Rather than focusing on a specific type of licensing model in each article we will be covering a variety of types which link back to those which have already been discussed. In this article we will be looking at two more licensing models which aren’t often used but which can still have a significant value. As with Exclusive Licenses (see previous article) Cross Licenses and Duplicate Grouping licenses are worthwhile having knowledge of as they can provide you with the ideal solution to some major customers, providing you with significant financial gains and some long-term lucrative contracts.

Cross License

We have already looked at the benefits of Development Licenses as a means to expand your business prospects and branch into new areas within the technology sector. As a vendor it can often be easy to simply collate software and then sell it on, without actually getting involved in the creative process. However, you shouldn’t underestimate the value of developing your own software, and of building development relationships with your customers. A cross license is used when you the licensor and your customers, the licensee(s) agree on an exchange of rights to the software. The rights are not necessarily identical, nor do they always involve a fee; however they can be a very useful way of providing security for you and your development partners throughout, and beyond, the development process.

Duplicate grouping (license sharing)

Hello and welcome to this next article in our ongoing series on Software Licensing Types. If you are new to this series it would be worthwhile reading the previous articles which you can find on our blog. The first post has more detail about what it is that these articles are doing and you will also find our discussion in this article more useful if you have read those which come before it. In this article we will look at two more software license types: Enable/Disable Product Features and Exclusive Licenses. As ever we will be looking at how these license types work in deployment, how they can be useful to your customers and what you need to know to help your customers make the right decision and finally we will be looking at some examples of use for these license types. All with the aim of leaving you better equipped to make the right decisions about which Software License is for which customer.

Enable/Disable Product Features

The enable/disable product feature license grants you, the vendor and the developer, greater control over the distribution of a certain software package. In essence, it enables you to sell different versions of the software package which most often increase in price with the more the user can access. In enables you to create any number of different versions of release for the software – with the developer’s consent – which means that you can reach a broader range of customers than if you only sold one version. This software license type is very popular with some of the biggest software development companies such as Microsoft. When you purchase a new copy of Microsoft Windows you can choose from a range of options such as Basic, Home Premium or Professional all of which come at a price to suit different requirements and budgets. If you are a vendor who sells primarily to businesses then it may be useful to consider whether you can adapt different pieces of the software which you distribute to suit different sizes of business and industries. It can also give you the potential to expand into the home-user market which can be very lucrative.

Exclusive Licences

The use of exclusive licenses is very rare and it is unlikely that they will be a major part of your business. However, that does not mean that you should not be aware of them, as they can be very valuable to your business due to their nature. In essence, an exclusive license means that only one licensee is granted access to the software at any one time. The exclusive license does not need to run indefinitely and it can be a lucrative source of income to create an exclusive license which requires a renewal after a given period of time (monthly, quarterly, and annually). This means that if you have specific pieces of software that has been developed for use by one of your customers you can continue to make a profit long after it was initially deployed and keep your customers loyal.