Software License Management
Software license management plays a pivotal role in almost all organizations . Automation or aviation, construction or fintech, retail, electric vehicle, or any other industry , software licensing management is equally inevitable for all. Technology is evolving at a lightning-fast speed . Purchasing individual licenses in today’s time can become obsolete the next day.
Similar is the scenario with entitling dongles to each user within the organization. Today’s license can become null and void the next day. Hence, it could become an impossible task to keep up with managing software licenses.
With OpenLM’s software licensing management tool, organizations can easily streamline their engineering and scientific software licenses. OpenLM enables organizations to stretch their software licenses’ limits and utilize them as much as possible. This way, organizations can skip the stress of managing multiple licenses for individual users. This would also help them in saving at least 15% of their total IT budget.
Table of Contents
All About Software Licensing Management
Software license management is currently among the most sought-after markets across the globe. Compared to a decade back, this industry has grown remarkably and is still on the rise. If you have to check the global data, this market recorded a valuation of around $997 million in the year 2021. This estimated number is even expected to touch $1,723 million by the end of 2022. Furthermore, the forecasted Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) could be 10.07% between 2022-2027. Add to this, the growing IT infrastructure is yet another reason the software license management market is gaining so much potential. Also, license management software is needed whenever an organization purchases new software or to upgrade its existing ones.What is Software Licensing Management?
Every organization requires a specific set of software. While some of these software comes as an individual, others come in bundles. Also, there is free as well as paid software available. The paid software always requires software license managers to use and operate. The process of managing all these permissions and restrictions from a single console is termed as ‘Software License Management (SLM)’. In technical terms, software license management can be defined as the legal process that controls or regulates:- How to use the software?
- Who can use the software?
- When to use the software?
- Where to use the software?
The Roles of Software License Management
Back in the 1980s, software providers started offering ‘floating licenses’ that offered a limited number of licenses among the users. The software license managers had a central license server that allowed licenses to one user at a time upon requests. Meaning, the second user gets it only after the first user is done using the license. The concept of floating licenses started becoming inefficient with the development in IT infrastructure since time and resource consumption was more. Organizations now required tools that would allow multiple users to use software licenses simultaneously. This is where and how the need for a centralized licensing management software started growing. In addition to the organizations, software vendors also felt this necessity. However, they largely required a central system to monitor and track the usage of their software license managers.Benefits or Features of Software License Management
Software publisher releases a pre-defined document during the release of their software. This document contains all the legal procedures to use the software. This document largely explains the terms and conditions, limitations (if any), types of usage, and how to distribute the software. This document is known as ‘software license’. Having a software license management tool enables an organization to understand the ins and outs of a software license. A license management software can be an enabler for any organization. It can direct an organization about how to utilize the maximum out of all their software licenses it has purchased. The software manager also suggests which license to purchase, when to purchase, and how many numbers to purchase. The software licensing management tool also suggests ways to stretch software licenses so that the organization can use the purchased licenses aptly. In OpenLM, we help our clients with deep software license management insights. We enable them to stretch their licenses and utilize the maximum out of them. Besides this, there are several other reasons for an organization to opt for OpenLM’s professional license management software. Listed below are some of these reasons:Reduce costs, Increase Profits
Buying unnecessary licenses always results in unwanted and excessive expenses for any organization. These unwanted expenses usually affect the annual ROI of the organization. On the other hand, having license management software ensures an extremely cost-efficient process for the organization. The license manager software can easily analyze the overall license consumption and figure out if any additional licenses are required. A software license management tool can also track unused licenses and cut down the cost further. At OpenLM, our software licensing management tool promises at least 15% cost reduction from the annual IT budget .Credible Compliance and Audit Protection
Using any unauthorized licenses within an organization is a critical issue. Based on the weightage of the software, this unauthorized usage can lead to momentous results. Organizations must always use software they have purchased. To be compliant with this, organizations must track the number of installations and distributions of software licenses among the users. However, when it comes to maximizing software license compliance, organizations might not be able to keep a track on their clients. This would eventually breach all the compliant guidelines. A software licensing management tool can help organizations gain a credible compliance score and audit protection.Software License Compliance Reports
Software licenses imply a number of laws, guidelines, and regulations on the overall usage of the software. Any instances wherein the organization fails to abide by these guidelines would result in compliance violations. As a result, the organization may have to face serious compliance issues in the future. Having a professional license management software like the one by OpenLM, makes an organization compliant towards all these rules and guidelines. This would help the organization to be compliant with all the clauses mentioned in the software license. Thus, the organization would gain a great software license compliance report in the future.Enhanced Productivity
As mentioned in the ‘floating license’ concept, waiting for licenses is a time-consuming process. Organizations can get rid of this waiting time by automating the process. To automate this process, organizations need a professional license management software. This will surely contribute towards enhanced productivity for the organization.Better Cyber Security
Cybercrime is currently one of the hottest threats in the IT world. Using any unauthorized software always makes an organization prone to such threats. Also, since the advent of Covid-19 situation, this threat has risen tremendously. Since people now are preferring remote work culture, phishing out critical information from systems has become common globally. Almost all the software licenses come with strict data security measures and firewalls. Having them rightly installed in the systems offer better and tightened security measures. Whether people prefer working from the office or remotely, cyber security remains intact with effective software license management tools.More Business Agility
Organizations deploying legacy software often face issues with upgrading, replacing, or managing their existing software. This is also applicable for organizations using multiple software for each of their users or machines. This happens due to the complexities involved in replacing legacy software or organizations losing a track of the non-feasible software. With a software licensing management tool in place, organizations can easily track their older software. Software license management tools enable organizations to decide which software to retain or which one to let go of . Thus, with a software license management tool, organizations can gain more agility when it comes to making decisions.Best Practices for Better Software License Management
Purchase Only What You Need
Most of the time, organizations purchase licenses that they hardly put to use. This is a total waste of money and resources. Before purchasing any licenses, organizations must check or consult with a software license manager. This will save a lot of money from the annual IT budget.Purchase Only When You Need
Purchasing the right thing at the right time gets counted. Purchasing software or obtaining their licenses thinking about the future could cost you a fortune. Technology is evolving extremely fast; today’s software could become obsolete tomorrow.Use What You Have Paid For
Being compliant with a license’s terms and conditions is a must practice. If you or your organization crosses the thin line of compliance, your organization may have to face unwanted consequences. In extreme consequences, the organization may end up paying millions as a penalty .Hire OpenLM Services
OpenLM is one of the leading vendors in software licensing management solutions for engineering and specialty licenses. With 15+ years of market experience, OpenLM has 1000+ global customers. Among this, 400 customers are from the USA, and 10% of them belong to the ‘Fortune 1000’ club. OpenLM ensures better performance and productivity. It makes you scalable while helping your organization to reduce your annual IT spending by at least 15%.Software License Management Solutions
OpenLM provides all the essential engineering software licensing management, license tracking capabilities and reports. Optimizing your software inventory helps you to stretch your expensive software licenses to their limit. OpenLM handles all license models including network (floating), node-locked and GPU (Nvidia). Cloud and token (including Autodesk token-flex), and hybrid variations are also included. You will be able to monitor and generate reports of all the major hardware and software licenses. This includes: Sentinel, Flexera , Wibu DSLS, Reprise and more.- Know What You Have
- Know What’s Happening Right Now
- Do the Best for Your Users
- A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
- Take the Heat Off
- License Management for the Cloud
Explore OpenLM’s licensing model and delivery structure to know how to protect your software
An inside view of software licensing management tool with OpenLM
Organizations often make mistakes while procuring or purchasing new licenses. If your organization is missing out on software license management, it can also commit the same mistakes. One simple wrong call to action and your organization could end up committing serious mistakes in software licensing management. OpenLM is here to help and guide you through the entire process of how to manage software and engineering licenses. Insights from OpenLM could help you take the right call at the right time. Download software license management resources from OpenLM to delve deep into the world of licensing and management. This resource would help you to:- Get the right licenses at the right time.
- Follow the best practices to utilize the maximum out of your existing licenses.
- Avoid the most common mistakes every other organization makes while getting software and engineering licenses.
- Decipher the pre-existing myths about buying new software licenses and achieve more business agility.
- How to protect your software by using the right software license management tool.
- Things you or your organization should do or should not do after getting new software licenses.
- How to stay compliant with all the new software licenses to safeguard your organization from infringing any licensing agreements.
- Why must you optimize your software licenses?
What Are the Consequences of Bad License Management?
Bad software license management can lead to numerous consequences. Any organization may have to face similar situations if they don’t have licensing management software. Your organization could be the next if you too are missing this. However, here are two of the most crucial consequences due to bad license management:- Dip in ROI
- Non-compliant Issues
Types of Software Licenses
Software licenses are primarily of two types: Commercial and Open-Source. The commercial licenses are the ones that require a valid license to use. Open-Source licenses are those that are mostly free to use but cannot be used against the standard terms and conditions. Commercial and Open-Source licenses combined, there are a total of five different types of licenses:- Public Domain License
- LGPL
- Permissive License
- Copyleft License
- Proprietary License
Service Level Management: Challenges and Enablers
Service Level Management (SLM) is one of the most crucial and deciding factors in IT asset management. In fact, SLM could also be a deciding factor for any field related to IT asset management. However, organizations often face arrays of challenges in SLM. Some of the most commonly faced challenges are:- IT asset distribution
- Inconsistent ITAM
- Misplaced asset policies
- IT knowledge and awareness
- Purchasing wrong licenses
Organizational Challenges in Software License Management
- Not having the right set of resources
- Mismatched roles among resources
- Abundance of bottlenecks
Technological Challenges in Software License Management
- Wrong solutions at
- Lack of skill sets or expertise
- Extended
Cultural Challenges in Software License Management
- Lack of sync in leadership team
- Lack of sync among legal advisors
- Inability to merge all cultural values
Organizational Enablers in Software License Management
- Voluntary collaboration in the organization
- Assigning budget for all operations
- Short and long-term goals
Technological Enablers in Software License Management
- Asset monitoring
- Service monitoring
- Configuration management database (CMDB)
Cultural Enablers in Software License Management
- Bridge between IT and legal team
- Open team discussions
- Employee-friendly environment