Many companies worldwide still use multi-user licenses for Autodesk applications. However, Autodesk has made a commitment to change its licensing strategy, retiring multi-user subscriptions, therefore forcing organizations to switch to named user licenses by mid-2023.

Autodesk’s Transition to Named User Program page reveals the deadline the vendor has set to finish the retirement process of network licenses: 

“Subscriptions with multi-user access will retire on August 7, 2022 and cannot be further renewed. For multi-user subscription, at your next renewal before August 7, 2023 and for network maintenance, at your next renewal before May 7, 2022:

• Trade-in one multi-user subscription or network maintenance seat for two standard subscriptions for one named user each at a similar SRP you’re paying today for your existing seat or subscription.

• For example, if you have 20 multi-user subscriptions, you can trade them in for 40 standard subscriptions for 40 named users at a similar SRP you’re paying today. Then, renew at an ongoing discount to 2028.”

Autodesk transition program: a challenge for organizations 

The transition, despite being painted as painless by the vendor, is a challenge for organizations relying on multi-user licenses, because SAM managers will now need to make a qualified guess (or a decision?) regarding the number of named user licenses they need to purchase. The fact that Autodesk has postponed the retirement of network licenses twice shows that the transition to named licenses is a more demanding process than initially thought.

For organizations using multi-use licenses, the central question is: how do you estimate the number of named users licenses you need after the transition? Well, they have two options: the hard way and the easy way. We will detail both below. 

1) The hard way: guess the number of licenses

Without a license monitoring and application management tool to provide license consumption data, SAM managers/license managers are in the hot seat. They will find it difficult to properly plan the license procurement and estimate how many named user licenses the organization needs. They will now have to make a qualified guess regarding the number of named user licenses the organization needs to purchase and have the procurement plan ready well before the August 7, 2023 deadline. SAM managers must forecast the organization’s license expenses and have it in place.

If they overshoot, there will be an increase in license expenses. The change in the budget needs to be justified with data backing up the claims. If they undershoot, the risk to leave end users with an Autodesk license is high. This may cause interruption in the workflow, and trigger losses for the organization.

2) The easy way: have the license consumption insights at hand with OpenLM 

For organizations using OpenLM to monitor license consumption of Autodesk licenses (and other licenses) the transition will be easy. OpenLM provides rock-solid insights that will enable you to have the license procurement plan ready before the two-for-one trade-in offer ends and Autodesk closes the transition program.

These insights hand over control to you in the negotiation process with the Autodesk representative. When it comes to license procurement decisions, there is no room for guessing: you will know exactly how many named user licenses you need to maintain operational efficiency. OpenLM provides with the data you need: license consumption insights and user-level reporting so you can negotiate the optional solution Autodesk.

Don’t hesitate, contact us today and we will help you estimate the number of Autodesk named user licenses required.