Wednesday, May 7. 2008
IBM LUM likely the most complex license manager
I've decided to put some focus on IBM LUM, which we support through our License Statistics license usage monitoring software.
There are a handful license managers in today’s market, including LM-X License Manager, IBM LUM and others. While all of these license managers work similarly and serve the same purpose, they certainly have not been created with the same goal. I won’t make this a history lesson, but it's worth noting that IBM LUM has been around for a long time and is used mainly by CATIA today.
We’ve supported several license managers over the past few years, and I personally think that IBM LUM is a strong candidate for “Most Complex License Manager.” It's designed to accomplish the same task as others, but far more users complain they have problems getting License Statistics to work with it. In some cases, we’ve resolved these problems, and in others our only choice was to leave the support for the application vendor.
Here is a small, unordered list of some of the problems we've seen with IBM LUM:
1. Although its reporting capabilities are written in English, some parts of the reports, such as date information, are output in the local language. So, if you're running a Chinese version of Windows, you’ll get an English report with unicode date characters. Very illogical, and for no obvious purpose.
2. Setting up i4blt (the query utility) comes with about 100 “garbage” files and it's difficult to set up correctly. If you make a single mistake in this process, you’ll get wrong error messages like "server not found." The setup for i4blt is misleading and tricky at best, and a complete failure at worst. Whatever happened to simplistic deployment?
3. The config files that IBM LUM offers are obscure and overly bloated with seemingly useless details. From time to time, customers even ask us to write their config files for them. Obviously, we don't do application-specific support, and wouldn't want to read the 300+ page manual on the topic. I'm sure it's a good night read, though.
4. Speaking of the manual for supporting IBM LUM being 300+ pages, that should be a sign that there are far too many options that can trip you up.
5. Sometimes i4blt takes 1 second to complete, yet for some high availability license clusters it takes up to 15 minutes. Why? No one knows. I guess it's a good reason for spending more on application support, since it seems to work at random in the first place. Furthermore, the speed depends greatly on whether you run the tools on AIX or Windows. Go figure!
6. The reporting is inconsistent. Sometimes it works for high availability licensing, and other times it doesn't.
7. Old, old, old! IBM LUM still runs on Java 1.3, which is now considered ancient, has no support for 64 bit, and lacks modern functionality.
When people come to us with their IBM LUM woes, we assure them that they’re not the only ones. We have over 30 successful installations of License Statistics with IBM LUM, but virtually everyone has problems up-front with the system. How can this be? Obviously, it's alarming, but we learn from such experiences and turn the negative feedback into understanding how things should not be done. For us, this understanding gives us insight into improved functionality for LM-X License Manager.
I don't think any of the modern license managers are going to top the complexity of IBM LUM anytime soon. As they say at the Oscars...”We have a winner!”
There are a handful license managers in today’s market, including LM-X License Manager, IBM LUM and others. While all of these license managers work similarly and serve the same purpose, they certainly have not been created with the same goal. I won’t make this a history lesson, but it's worth noting that IBM LUM has been around for a long time and is used mainly by CATIA today.
We’ve supported several license managers over the past few years, and I personally think that IBM LUM is a strong candidate for “Most Complex License Manager.” It's designed to accomplish the same task as others, but far more users complain they have problems getting License Statistics to work with it. In some cases, we’ve resolved these problems, and in others our only choice was to leave the support for the application vendor.
Here is a small, unordered list of some of the problems we've seen with IBM LUM:
1. Although its reporting capabilities are written in English, some parts of the reports, such as date information, are output in the local language. So, if you're running a Chinese version of Windows, you’ll get an English report with unicode date characters. Very illogical, and for no obvious purpose.
2. Setting up i4blt (the query utility) comes with about 100 “garbage” files and it's difficult to set up correctly. If you make a single mistake in this process, you’ll get wrong error messages like "server not found." The setup for i4blt is misleading and tricky at best, and a complete failure at worst. Whatever happened to simplistic deployment?
3. The config files that IBM LUM offers are obscure and overly bloated with seemingly useless details. From time to time, customers even ask us to write their config files for them. Obviously, we don't do application-specific support, and wouldn't want to read the 300+ page manual on the topic. I'm sure it's a good night read, though.
4. Speaking of the manual for supporting IBM LUM being 300+ pages, that should be a sign that there are far too many options that can trip you up.
5. Sometimes i4blt takes 1 second to complete, yet for some high availability license clusters it takes up to 15 minutes. Why? No one knows. I guess it's a good reason for spending more on application support, since it seems to work at random in the first place. Furthermore, the speed depends greatly on whether you run the tools on AIX or Windows. Go figure!
6. The reporting is inconsistent. Sometimes it works for high availability licensing, and other times it doesn't.
7. Old, old, old! IBM LUM still runs on Java 1.3, which is now considered ancient, has no support for 64 bit, and lacks modern functionality.
When people come to us with their IBM LUM woes, we assure them that they’re not the only ones. We have over 30 successful installations of License Statistics with IBM LUM, but virtually everyone has problems up-front with the system. How can this be? Obviously, it's alarming, but we learn from such experiences and turn the negative feedback into understanding how things should not be done. For us, this understanding gives us insight into improved functionality for LM-X License Manager.
I don't think any of the modern license managers are going to top the complexity of IBM LUM anytime soon. As they say at the Oscars...”We have a winner!”
Monday, April 21. 2008
LM-X License Manager: Introducing Virtual Machine Licensing
Virtual machines, such as VMware and Virtual Server, are a controversial topic: they're great from a usage perspective, but troublesome from a licensing perspective.
Today's technical world is moving quickly, and powerful, efficient hardware has become so cheap that it doesn't make sense to stack up loads of energy-hungry equipment in data centers anymore. Companies both small and large are consolidating their servers to reduce physical hardware breakdowns and streamline operations.
On the software licensing side, this shift has caused a predicament for software vendors, including us. Can software vendors allow users to buy a single user license and then freely load it onto a virtual machine that allows multiple copies of the license to be in use? In most cases, this is considered a license violation that vendors must try to protect their licenses against.
In response to this need, the newest version of LM-X License Manager offers specific functionality that lets you detect and handle virtual machines. With LM-X License Manager's virtual machine licensing feature, you can specify when a user can and cannot use your license on a virtual machine.
This is a prominent, real-life problem that should be handled by any serious software licensing vendor. Perhaps surprisingly, LM-X is the first professional licensing vendor in the world to actively support this functionality, instead of silently allowing potential overuse.
LM-X License Manager is designed to be hassle-free and easy to deal with, putting you in charge of creating your own license policy. For example, a common way to deal with virtual machine licensing is to allow it only for large enterprises and other companies you know you can trust. It's entirely up to you to decide...you provide the policy, and we provide the tools to make it happen.
If you would like to see an LM-X License Manager demo with this new addition, please request an evaluation.
Today's technical world is moving quickly, and powerful, efficient hardware has become so cheap that it doesn't make sense to stack up loads of energy-hungry equipment in data centers anymore. Companies both small and large are consolidating their servers to reduce physical hardware breakdowns and streamline operations.
On the software licensing side, this shift has caused a predicament for software vendors, including us. Can software vendors allow users to buy a single user license and then freely load it onto a virtual machine that allows multiple copies of the license to be in use? In most cases, this is considered a license violation that vendors must try to protect their licenses against.
In response to this need, the newest version of LM-X License Manager offers specific functionality that lets you detect and handle virtual machines. With LM-X License Manager's virtual machine licensing feature, you can specify when a user can and cannot use your license on a virtual machine.
This is a prominent, real-life problem that should be handled by any serious software licensing vendor. Perhaps surprisingly, LM-X is the first professional licensing vendor in the world to actively support this functionality, instead of silently allowing potential overuse.
LM-X License Manager is designed to be hassle-free and easy to deal with, putting you in charge of creating your own license policy. For example, a common way to deal with virtual machine licensing is to allow it only for large enterprises and other companies you know you can trust. It's entirely up to you to decide...you provide the policy, and we provide the tools to make it happen.
If you would like to see an LM-X License Manager demo with this new addition, please request an evaluation.
Thursday, April 3. 2008
Why we aim to deliver quality support
Recently, I got a phone call from a potential customer, who said they were interested in using LM-X License Manager to license their software product.
They had been using one of our competitor’s license management products some years ago, but then began partnering with another company on licensing issues and no longer needed license management software. Later, they wanted to break free from the partner they’d been working with, so they approached their previous license management software company again. Being a small company with only a few developers, they were understandably discouraged about getting a quote in the magnitude of tens of thousands USD.
Listening to this company’s needs, I saw that we would be completely capable of solving their technical requests. They didn't mind our initial purchase price either, which was several times lower than the competitor’s.
However, they expected that our software would include unlimited support at no additional cost, arguing that large companies like Autodesk offer a licensing model where maintenance is virtually free and covered by an up-front fee. I attempted to explain that continued development and support is expensive, because it's resource demanding and requires active time as opposed to selling a fixed package. But the company was so against paying for maintenance, they decided to write their own license manager.
Since I don't know exactly how Autodesk’s licensing model works, I can’t go into those details. However, the conversation got me thinking about what we as X-Formation want to achieve. After a few weeks of thinking, I concluded that what we feel is more important to our customers than free support is quality support.
We want to offer our products at very competitive prices and with high quality support, and we work hard to accomplish this. The bottom line is that our products are sold at prices several times less than our higher-end competitor’s products. At the same time, we optimize our support resources to takes care of our customers’ requests much faster than our competitors do.
On a daily basis, our average support response time is about 1-6 hours during normal business hours. This goes for both small and large customers, because we value all our customers.
Furthermore, bugs are usually identified within a few hours and typically solved within the same day if it's not a complicated problem. In some cases, we've acted so quickly that the customer reporting a problem didn't even have time to verify the solution until much later after receiving the solution.
Recently, we also introduced our issue tracking system, which allows our customers to participate directly in our development. Yet another step we've made to increase the satisfaction of our existing client base as well as welcome new users to the X-Formation family. Actually, our users are better called partners, because they are the key resource for allowing us to create better software.
We recognize that frustrated users can be particularly helpful in improving our services.
I do not see negative feedback as bad. Rather, it encourages us to improve our services and increase the value that we provide.
The feedback we’ve received has influenced us in introducing several offerings for our different markets. Here are a just a few of the offerings we did throughout 2007:
Discount for Samreport users
License management made affordable
LM-X License Manager for Free
Discounted Prices for License Statistics
To sum up, we prefer giving our customers real value over simply providing low-cost software that doesn’t deliver the functionality and level of support that customers need to get their jobs done. During the upcoming year we will continue to strive towards delivering more value.
They had been using one of our competitor’s license management products some years ago, but then began partnering with another company on licensing issues and no longer needed license management software. Later, they wanted to break free from the partner they’d been working with, so they approached their previous license management software company again. Being a small company with only a few developers, they were understandably discouraged about getting a quote in the magnitude of tens of thousands USD.
Listening to this company’s needs, I saw that we would be completely capable of solving their technical requests. They didn't mind our initial purchase price either, which was several times lower than the competitor’s.
However, they expected that our software would include unlimited support at no additional cost, arguing that large companies like Autodesk offer a licensing model where maintenance is virtually free and covered by an up-front fee. I attempted to explain that continued development and support is expensive, because it's resource demanding and requires active time as opposed to selling a fixed package. But the company was so against paying for maintenance, they decided to write their own license manager.
Since I don't know exactly how Autodesk’s licensing model works, I can’t go into those details. However, the conversation got me thinking about what we as X-Formation want to achieve. After a few weeks of thinking, I concluded that what we feel is more important to our customers than free support is quality support.
We want to offer our products at very competitive prices and with high quality support, and we work hard to accomplish this. The bottom line is that our products are sold at prices several times less than our higher-end competitor’s products. At the same time, we optimize our support resources to takes care of our customers’ requests much faster than our competitors do.
On a daily basis, our average support response time is about 1-6 hours during normal business hours. This goes for both small and large customers, because we value all our customers.
Furthermore, bugs are usually identified within a few hours and typically solved within the same day if it's not a complicated problem. In some cases, we've acted so quickly that the customer reporting a problem didn't even have time to verify the solution until much later after receiving the solution.
Recently, we also introduced our issue tracking system, which allows our customers to participate directly in our development. Yet another step we've made to increase the satisfaction of our existing client base as well as welcome new users to the X-Formation family. Actually, our users are better called partners, because they are the key resource for allowing us to create better software.
We recognize that frustrated users can be particularly helpful in improving our services.
I do not see negative feedback as bad. Rather, it encourages us to improve our services and increase the value that we provide.
The feedback we’ve received has influenced us in introducing several offerings for our different markets. Here are a just a few of the offerings we did throughout 2007:
Discount for Samreport users
License management made affordable
LM-X License Manager for Free
Discounted Prices for License Statistics
To sum up, we prefer giving our customers real value over simply providing low-cost software that doesn’t deliver the functionality and level of support that customers need to get their jobs done. During the upcoming year we will continue to strive towards delivering more value.
Wednesday, March 19. 2008
Software license management: one of the most boring--and important--topics around
Throughout the past year, we've written a large number of blog articles on the subject of software license management. However, there have been few comments on these articles.
I think this lack of open discussion is likely due to the fact that license management is a pretty boring topic for most people. After all, who wants to waste their time thinking about a topic that seems made only to annoy users?
Sure, the subject of license management can seem boring. However, at the end of the day, it's all about ROI and improving your business. As a contributor to these common goals, the impact of good license management cannot be underestimated. Throughout the past year, we've had customers telling us stories like, "by the way, using License Statistics we identified savings of more than 200,000 USD within the last 2 months. I'm sure our software vendor won't be happy when we renew our licenses."
This is just one in a series of "boring" license management stories we've heard from our users.
Looking at the industry, we see that many competitors, including the market leaders, experience the same lack of public feedback on their sites that we experience on ours. However, despite a lack of public feedback, we certainly receive a great deal of feedback by email. We greatly appreciate this feedback, as it helps us to understand your problems and experiences.
Unlike many, we're actually quite enthusiastic about the topic of license management and will continue to publish information on the subject. We value every opportunity to listen to you and help make the topic of license management a little less boring. Do you have some topic that interests you? If so, be sure to let us know and we'll be happy to pick up the conversation.
I think this lack of open discussion is likely due to the fact that license management is a pretty boring topic for most people. After all, who wants to waste their time thinking about a topic that seems made only to annoy users?
Sure, the subject of license management can seem boring. However, at the end of the day, it's all about ROI and improving your business. As a contributor to these common goals, the impact of good license management cannot be underestimated. Throughout the past year, we've had customers telling us stories like, "by the way, using License Statistics we identified savings of more than 200,000 USD within the last 2 months. I'm sure our software vendor won't be happy when we renew our licenses."
This is just one in a series of "boring" license management stories we've heard from our users.
Looking at the industry, we see that many competitors, including the market leaders, experience the same lack of public feedback on their sites that we experience on ours. However, despite a lack of public feedback, we certainly receive a great deal of feedback by email. We greatly appreciate this feedback, as it helps us to understand your problems and experiences.
Unlike many, we're actually quite enthusiastic about the topic of license management and will continue to publish information on the subject. We value every opportunity to listen to you and help make the topic of license management a little less boring. Do you have some topic that interests you? If so, be sure to let us know and we'll be happy to pick up the conversation.
Tuesday, February 26. 2008
Macrovision selling FLEXnet and Installshield
On February 14, 2008, Macrovision announced that they are selling their Software Business Unit to an investment company that will take over its operations. The Software Business Unit includes FLEXlm/FLEXnet, a competitor with X-Formation's LM-X License Manager.
Although Macrovision advocates that this change is positive, some users will likely be apprehensive and unhappy with the uncertainty it presents.
During the past few years, we've helped mid-size to large corporations switch from FLEXlm/FLEXnet to LM-X License Manager. These companies' desire to find an alternative to Macrovision's license management solution is greatly due to their dissatisfaction with increasing costs and support falling short of their expectations.
To help companies who are ready for a change, we're now offering a transition discount of 10% off our normal pricing when switching from an existing Macrovision solution to LM-X License Manager. This discount will be available through 2008.
Get more details about this special offer.
Although Macrovision advocates that this change is positive, some users will likely be apprehensive and unhappy with the uncertainty it presents.
During the past few years, we've helped mid-size to large corporations switch from FLEXlm/FLEXnet to LM-X License Manager. These companies' desire to find an alternative to Macrovision's license management solution is greatly due to their dissatisfaction with increasing costs and support falling short of their expectations.
To help companies who are ready for a change, we're now offering a transition discount of 10% off our normal pricing when switching from an existing Macrovision solution to LM-X License Manager. This discount will be available through 2008.
Get more details about this special offer.
Thursday, February 21. 2008
Customer Driven Development: Let us hear your voice
Today's world is fast-moving and ever-changing. Our traditional notion of the relationship between software vendors and customers is being reinvented with offerings of new services and "Web 2.0" advancements that facilitate ready, easy access to information and sharing of ideas throughout a user community.
Recognizing the value of this new definition of the vendor-customer relationship, we want to be proactive in enabling you, the customer, to be the center of what drives our product development. By embracing the practice of customer driven development, we let you share your voice and truly be heard.
Regardless whether you're a long-term X-Formation customer or you're just getting started with our products, your opinions are important to us. By giving you access to our issue tracker we encourage you to contribute your ideas and feedback and stay informed about what we're working on. This way, you can actively participate in our development process and ensure that issues important to you are being addressed in an upcoming release of our software.
If you haven't yet visited our issue tracker, we invite you to log in soon and start being a part of your own success with our products.
Recognizing the value of this new definition of the vendor-customer relationship, we want to be proactive in enabling you, the customer, to be the center of what drives our product development. By embracing the practice of customer driven development, we let you share your voice and truly be heard.
Regardless whether you're a long-term X-Formation customer or you're just getting started with our products, your opinions are important to us. By giving you access to our issue tracker we encourage you to contribute your ideas and feedback and stay informed about what we're working on. This way, you can actively participate in our development process and ensure that issues important to you are being addressed in an upcoming release of our software.
If you haven't yet visited our issue tracker, we invite you to log in soon and start being a part of your own success with our products.
Monday, February 18. 2008
LM-X License Manager: Can you handle the speed?
We’ve often been asked how well LM-X License Manager scales, and whether we can handle enterprise environments.
As many as 100 simultaneous network connections are typical, and all our LM-X distributions on supported platforms fulfill this need with 20 independent license checkout times of less than 800 ms. This in itself is noteworthy, considering the operations that take place.
In order to satisfy an increasing demand, we've spent additional time making platform-specific optimizations, including optimizations for Windows. This has allowed us to scale to at least 3000 concurrent license clients simultaneously. Our tests have shown that with simultaneous 500 connections is no problem even on small systems.
Naturally, these results have been proven only for the specific release we've tested on. But can you rely on those results in future software versions, when functionality increases?
The answer to this question is “yes.” Each build of LM-X undergoes a long series of regression tests several times a day that catches all possible "hiccups," so we can guarantee consistent results from one release to the next. Our products undergo these tests up to 10 times a day, giving both ourselves and you the reassurance that our software quality meets expectations.
As many as 100 simultaneous network connections are typical, and all our LM-X distributions on supported platforms fulfill this need with 20 independent license checkout times of less than 800 ms. This in itself is noteworthy, considering the operations that take place.
In order to satisfy an increasing demand, we've spent additional time making platform-specific optimizations, including optimizations for Windows. This has allowed us to scale to at least 3000 concurrent license clients simultaneously. Our tests have shown that with simultaneous 500 connections is no problem even on small systems.
Naturally, these results have been proven only for the specific release we've tested on. But can you rely on those results in future software versions, when functionality increases?
The answer to this question is “yes.” Each build of LM-X undergoes a long series of regression tests several times a day that catches all possible "hiccups," so we can guarantee consistent results from one release to the next. Our products undergo these tests up to 10 times a day, giving both ourselves and you the reassurance that our software quality meets expectations.
Friday, February 1. 2008
LM-X brings big value to small businesses
Arhus, Denmark – January 22, 2008 – X-Formation recently improved its small business offer for their license management software, LM-X License Manager. Under the Small Business Licensing program, qualifying businesses get all the features and support included with other LM-X pricing models for only 800 EUR. The program is designed to help growing businesses obtain a professional, robust and dependable license management solution without paying the high price of competing license management products.
Since introducing this pricing model, several companies have taken advantage of the offer. One such success story is SRI International, an independent, nonprofit scientific research institute. In addition to LM-X License Manager’s low startup cost, SRI found that LM-X was simply the best solution when compared to other license managers.
"SRI International has been evaluating license systems for a new line of software. Our key criteria were cross-platform support (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X), ease of use and complete in terms of features,” explained Regis Vincent, Program Manager at SRI International. “We wanted the ability to generate time-limited version, floating licenses and MAC address limited licenses. LM-X can do it all.”
As SRI discovered, LM-X not only has the features they need at half the cost of the competition, it is also easy to implement and use, and X-Formation provided them with quick, responsive customer support.
“We found during our evaluation that X-Formation was extremely helpful, and we went from evaluation to a product release in less than 1 month,” said Mr. Vincent.
LM-X License Manager fulfills the most simple to the most complex license management needs, for small companies to large enterprises. LM-X focuses on both simplicity and strong security, accommodating a range of distribution methods and customer preferences, including node-locked and floating licenses.
X-Formation is a leading provider in software licensing technology, dedicated to providing an end-to-end solution for license management needs, from licensing software products, to distributing the products to end users, to enabling end users to monitor license usage. With over a decade of experience in the area of license management, X-Formation understands the problems ISVs and their end users face and knows how to solve them.
To learn more about X-Formation's products, call or email:
General information: info@X-Formation.com
Sales inquiries: sales@X-Formation.com
Denmark Office: +45 30228575
Since introducing this pricing model, several companies have taken advantage of the offer. One such success story is SRI International, an independent, nonprofit scientific research institute. In addition to LM-X License Manager’s low startup cost, SRI found that LM-X was simply the best solution when compared to other license managers.
"SRI International has been evaluating license systems for a new line of software. Our key criteria were cross-platform support (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X), ease of use and complete in terms of features,” explained Regis Vincent, Program Manager at SRI International. “We wanted the ability to generate time-limited version, floating licenses and MAC address limited licenses. LM-X can do it all.”
As SRI discovered, LM-X not only has the features they need at half the cost of the competition, it is also easy to implement and use, and X-Formation provided them with quick, responsive customer support.
“We found during our evaluation that X-Formation was extremely helpful, and we went from evaluation to a product release in less than 1 month,” said Mr. Vincent.
LM-X License Manager fulfills the most simple to the most complex license management needs, for small companies to large enterprises. LM-X focuses on both simplicity and strong security, accommodating a range of distribution methods and customer preferences, including node-locked and floating licenses.
X-Formation is a leading provider in software licensing technology, dedicated to providing an end-to-end solution for license management needs, from licensing software products, to distributing the products to end users, to enabling end users to monitor license usage. With over a decade of experience in the area of license management, X-Formation understands the problems ISVs and their end users face and knows how to solve them.
To learn more about X-Formation's products, call or email:
General information: info@X-Formation.com
Sales inquiries: sales@X-Formation.com
Denmark Office: +45 30228575
Friday, January 18. 2008
X-Formation Knowledgebase now available
Do you have a question about getting License Statistics up and running? Want to know what license policies LM-X supports? Find out how to resolve a FLEXlm-specific issue?
We are pleased to announce that the X-Formation Knowledgebase is now available to answer your questions with zero wait time. The Knowledgebase contains answers to frequently asked questions about License Statistics and LM-X, offers helpful information on related issues, and more. Providing all of this information at your fingertips is yet another way that we are improving our support to best serve our user community.
Rest assured, if your question isn't yet addressed in the Knowledgebase, you still have the same direct access to and speedy response from our support group that you've come to expect. If your question is one of general interest to others, we'll add it to the Knowledgebase to benefit everyone.
You can log into the X-Formation Knowledgebase at http://kb.x-formation.com. We are constantly expanding upon the pool of knowledge, so be sure to check the X-Formation Knowledgebase anytime you have a question or need to resolve an issue.
We are pleased to announce that the X-Formation Knowledgebase is now available to answer your questions with zero wait time. The Knowledgebase contains answers to frequently asked questions about License Statistics and LM-X, offers helpful information on related issues, and more. Providing all of this information at your fingertips is yet another way that we are improving our support to best serve our user community.
Rest assured, if your question isn't yet addressed in the Knowledgebase, you still have the same direct access to and speedy response from our support group that you've come to expect. If your question is one of general interest to others, we'll add it to the Knowledgebase to benefit everyone.
You can log into the X-Formation Knowledgebase at http://kb.x-formation.com. We are constantly expanding upon the pool of knowledge, so be sure to check the X-Formation Knowledgebase anytime you have a question or need to resolve an issue.
Monday, January 14. 2008
LM-X License Manager: Improved small business offer
Are you a small business looking for a license manager that doesn't cost a fortune and can compete with the leaders in the field? In order to help small businesses get started with our license management software, we've improved our small business offer. If you meet qualifying criteria, you can start using LM-X License Manager at a flat annual fee of only 800 EUR.
And what do you get for 800 EUR? A robust License Manager that’s easy to implement and use and has all the features you’re looking for:
- Support for .NET, Java and C / C++
- Support for about 15 different computer platforms
- Support for a variety of license models, including anonymous trial licenses, local/node-locked licensing, and network/floating licensing, which can be configured for practically any needs.
- Support for automatic license server discovery, which results in an improved experience for your customers. We make licensing invisible for end users so they can concentrate on what’s essential to them -- their work -- and not on daily license administration.
- Support for advanced network licensing, such as client-side load balancing, high-availability servers, and transparent switch-over, which all serve the purpose of keeping software up and running so users won't have to focus on licensing when up against critical deadlines. Additionally, our system can easily handle hundreds of clients.
- A complete license fulfillment product that enables you to handle enterprise-level licensing. This system includes interaction with CRM systems, web portals, automatic purchase processes, accounting applications and more. Using this system also streamlines your software deployment process, enabling self-service for end users and demanding less support time from vendors.
- Fast support. We solve your problems within 24 hours.
- Responsive, customer-driven development. We listen to your input and improve our product accordingly.
Find out more about LM-X License Manager.
And what do you get for 800 EUR? A robust License Manager that’s easy to implement and use and has all the features you’re looking for:
- Support for .NET, Java and C / C++
- Support for about 15 different computer platforms
- Support for a variety of license models, including anonymous trial licenses, local/node-locked licensing, and network/floating licensing, which can be configured for practically any needs.
- Support for automatic license server discovery, which results in an improved experience for your customers. We make licensing invisible for end users so they can concentrate on what’s essential to them -- their work -- and not on daily license administration.
- Support for advanced network licensing, such as client-side load balancing, high-availability servers, and transparent switch-over, which all serve the purpose of keeping software up and running so users won't have to focus on licensing when up against critical deadlines. Additionally, our system can easily handle hundreds of clients.
- A complete license fulfillment product that enables you to handle enterprise-level licensing. This system includes interaction with CRM systems, web portals, automatic purchase processes, accounting applications and more. Using this system also streamlines your software deployment process, enabling self-service for end users and demanding less support time from vendors.
- Fast support. We solve your problems within 24 hours.
- Responsive, customer-driven development. We listen to your input and improve our product accordingly.
Find out more about LM-X License Manager.
Friday, December 28. 2007
End of year thoughts for 2007
With only a few days left before the new year, I'd like to say a few words about how this past year went.
First of all, I'm proud of what we've achieved at X-Formation. This year has been very exciting.
To start with the numbers, our user base has grown by an incredible 500%. The way I see it, this means we have 5 times as many development partners helping us to improve our products. I don't want to call our users customers; we want our users to be partners, working with us as part of our community.
To help you, our valued partners, play an active role in X-Formation, we've recently introduced our issue tracker system. This system helps us capture your input and enables us to make our software even better. Reports of software glitches or ideas for how our software can best meet your needs are always welcome.
The issue tracker also makes the support process even faster, allowing you to follow the real-time status on issues that interest you. In the few week’s time that this system has been available, I already see it as a success, allowing us to work even more closely with you.
As we've said many times, X-Formation is not just about software products. It's about solving needs. This is why we've been taking a number of steps to improve support, and I'm pleased to say that emails are normally answered within 6 hours and most issues are handled in a very short time as well.
Our increase in user base has also allowed us to create better software. This year, we've had 9 major and 4 minor releases, for a total of 13 releases. Even large companies can't match that speed. Furthermore, we are investing more in quality assurance to make the release process go even more smoothly.
In addition, we've published two entirely new products this year: License Distribution Service, which allows large-scale license fulfillment and activation; and an addition to License Statistics that lets you monitor standalone applications.
These new products help to satisfy requests from our existing users, to better help them solve their needs. Furthermore, it has allowed us to advance our products to a higher level and bring you a complete end-to-end solution. I anticipate that the upcoming year will also have an exciting entry, as we already have many different initiatives in the pipeline.
Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank all our users for their support during 2007. It certainly has been hectic at times, but that’s a good thing. We also want to welcome several of the new partners we've started to work with this year; both resellers and development partners – customers, that is – as well as business partners. We hope that you will continue your valuable contributions in the new year, letting us serve you even better. As we bring in 2008, I hope we will be able to help you even more effectively, and as always, we welcome your feedback to let us do so.
I and rest of X-Formation wish you a prosperous and happy new year!
First of all, I'm proud of what we've achieved at X-Formation. This year has been very exciting.
To start with the numbers, our user base has grown by an incredible 500%. The way I see it, this means we have 5 times as many development partners helping us to improve our products. I don't want to call our users customers; we want our users to be partners, working with us as part of our community.
To help you, our valued partners, play an active role in X-Formation, we've recently introduced our issue tracker system. This system helps us capture your input and enables us to make our software even better. Reports of software glitches or ideas for how our software can best meet your needs are always welcome.
The issue tracker also makes the support process even faster, allowing you to follow the real-time status on issues that interest you. In the few week’s time that this system has been available, I already see it as a success, allowing us to work even more closely with you.
As we've said many times, X-Formation is not just about software products. It's about solving needs. This is why we've been taking a number of steps to improve support, and I'm pleased to say that emails are normally answered within 6 hours and most issues are handled in a very short time as well.
Our increase in user base has also allowed us to create better software. This year, we've had 9 major and 4 minor releases, for a total of 13 releases. Even large companies can't match that speed. Furthermore, we are investing more in quality assurance to make the release process go even more smoothly.
In addition, we've published two entirely new products this year: License Distribution Service, which allows large-scale license fulfillment and activation; and an addition to License Statistics that lets you monitor standalone applications.
These new products help to satisfy requests from our existing users, to better help them solve their needs. Furthermore, it has allowed us to advance our products to a higher level and bring you a complete end-to-end solution. I anticipate that the upcoming year will also have an exciting entry, as we already have many different initiatives in the pipeline.
Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank all our users for their support during 2007. It certainly has been hectic at times, but that’s a good thing. We also want to welcome several of the new partners we've started to work with this year; both resellers and development partners – customers, that is – as well as business partners. We hope that you will continue your valuable contributions in the new year, letting us serve you even better. As we bring in 2008, I hope we will be able to help you even more effectively, and as always, we welcome your feedback to let us do so.
I and rest of X-Formation wish you a prosperous and happy new year!
Tuesday, December 18. 2007
LM-X License Manager: Transparent switch over
Our latest version of LM-X License Manager has a new feature called transparent switch over.
As an end-user, it's frustrating when a license server goes down and you have to save your work and restart. No more! Using transparent switch over, LM-X License Manager protected applications can automatically move all license usage to a different license server, so users can continue their work without having to restart their application.
Transparent switch over makes applications using LM-X License Manager even more failsafe, allowing users to work more efficiently without being hindered by licensing requests.
As an end-user, it's frustrating when a license server goes down and you have to save your work and restart. No more! Using transparent switch over, LM-X License Manager protected applications can automatically move all license usage to a different license server, so users can continue their work without having to restart their application.
Transparent switch over makes applications using LM-X License Manager even more failsafe, allowing users to work more efficiently without being hindered by licensing requests.
Thursday, December 13. 2007
Improved customer interaction through issue tracker
It's important to us to have close contact with our customers. After all, we want to do our best to keep our customers satisfied and improve our services.
As part of this ongoing effort, we've introduced a new system for issue tracking, which you can find at http://issues.x-formation.com.
We encourage our customers and partners to use our issue tracking system to report bugs and request enhancements and new features. By using the issue tracking system, you can actively participate in our development process, to ensure that your good ideas are heard.
As always, we welcome feedback and value new ideas that help us to help you get the most out of your X-Formation software.
Log into the issue tracking system today and start participating in making X-Formation products the best they can be!
As part of this ongoing effort, we've introduced a new system for issue tracking, which you can find at http://issues.x-formation.com.
We encourage our customers and partners to use our issue tracking system to report bugs and request enhancements and new features. By using the issue tracking system, you can actively participate in our development process, to ensure that your good ideas are heard.
As always, we welcome feedback and value new ideas that help us to help you get the most out of your X-Formation software.
Log into the issue tracking system today and start participating in making X-Formation products the best they can be!
Friday, December 7. 2007
LM-X License Manager: The importance of simple license management
In today’s world, all software -- be it operating systems, business applications, or any other product -- must meet user needs and expectations. This is a fundamental requirement that software companies cannot ignore, and the software license management industry is no exception.
Earlier this year, we saw that Adobe License Manager had to be taken off the market within 6 months of its release. One interesting note about this story is that the licensing software was supplied by one of our competitors who is a leader in the market. Even so, the user reactions were so negative that Adobe had to withdraw its software.
Without a doubt, this situation likely caused some loss of customer goodwill in addition to the technical costs for personnel and software involved. My personal view on all of this is that the so-called “market leaders” have to some degree lost touch with their users. What is the benefit of making the most complex licensing software if it’s too difficult to use?
The great majority of end-users of software such as Adobe literally don’t care about licensing. They care about the software that Adobe sells them, not some 3rd party component that’s only making their life difficult. If you have a question on the subject of licensing, several of our competitors have 300-page manuals in which you can try to hunt down the answer. How much free time do you have for such a read?
The importance of focusing on simplicity seems obvious. Software should unobtrusively assist users, not make their lives more painful. Users don't want exhaustive 300-page manuals. They want simple, direct information that helps them get their job done as quickly and easily as possible. For example, you can install one of our products, License Statistics, in about 10 minutes with the help of our 2-page License Statistics Quick Start guide.
For our other product, LM-X License Manager, it's even more important to make use simple, because our customers’ end users couldn't care less about licensing -- just like Adobe's customers. For this reason, we've made LM-X License Manager’s configuration simple, specific and direct, to minimize the chances of misconfiguration.
Also, while it's great that some of LM-X License Manager’s competitors include so many features that they can do everything including licensing, this excess is not in the users’ best interest. Recognizing what end users really want and need, we have time-saving, helpful features that simplify the end user’s experience, such as automatic server discovery, high-availability licensing, and license blacklisting that handles license revokes. At the same time, we don't include a ton of features that only 2% of users would benefit from. Why would we? After all, we saw where this thinking got Adobe and several other companies.
All in all, the importance of simple license management cannot be underestimated. At the end of the day, everyone just wants to do their job and have software products perform as they should: working without a hassle!
Earlier this year, we saw that Adobe License Manager had to be taken off the market within 6 months of its release. One interesting note about this story is that the licensing software was supplied by one of our competitors who is a leader in the market. Even so, the user reactions were so negative that Adobe had to withdraw its software.
Without a doubt, this situation likely caused some loss of customer goodwill in addition to the technical costs for personnel and software involved. My personal view on all of this is that the so-called “market leaders” have to some degree lost touch with their users. What is the benefit of making the most complex licensing software if it’s too difficult to use?
The great majority of end-users of software such as Adobe literally don’t care about licensing. They care about the software that Adobe sells them, not some 3rd party component that’s only making their life difficult. If you have a question on the subject of licensing, several of our competitors have 300-page manuals in which you can try to hunt down the answer. How much free time do you have for such a read?
The importance of focusing on simplicity seems obvious. Software should unobtrusively assist users, not make their lives more painful. Users don't want exhaustive 300-page manuals. They want simple, direct information that helps them get their job done as quickly and easily as possible. For example, you can install one of our products, License Statistics, in about 10 minutes with the help of our 2-page License Statistics Quick Start guide.
For our other product, LM-X License Manager, it's even more important to make use simple, because our customers’ end users couldn't care less about licensing -- just like Adobe's customers. For this reason, we've made LM-X License Manager’s configuration simple, specific and direct, to minimize the chances of misconfiguration.
Also, while it's great that some of LM-X License Manager’s competitors include so many features that they can do everything including licensing, this excess is not in the users’ best interest. Recognizing what end users really want and need, we have time-saving, helpful features that simplify the end user’s experience, such as automatic server discovery, high-availability licensing, and license blacklisting that handles license revokes. At the same time, we don't include a ton of features that only 2% of users would benefit from. Why would we? After all, we saw where this thinking got Adobe and several other companies.
All in all, the importance of simple license management cannot be underestimated. At the end of the day, everyone just wants to do their job and have software products perform as they should: working without a hassle!
Thursday, November 29. 2007
Software compatible with Microsoft, Apple, Sun and Linux
Recently, we've been through the process of ensuring our software is compatible with the leading software industry standards.
After completing the compatibility process, we're now happy to announce that our software products, LM-X and License Statistics, meet the requirements for "Works with Windows Vista," Linux, "Solaris Ready," and "Mac OSX Universal."
Our work will pay off for you -- the user. We've been busy improving our software to acheive the greatest level of compatibility and ensure that future versions will work even more smoothly on the newest computing platforms.
Are you new to licensing? Feel free to drop us an email with your comments and let us provide you with an evaluation of our products.
After completing the compatibility process, we're now happy to announce that our software products, LM-X and License Statistics, meet the requirements for "Works with Windows Vista," Linux, "Solaris Ready," and "Mac OSX Universal."
Our work will pay off for you -- the user. We've been busy improving our software to acheive the greatest level of compatibility and ensure that future versions will work even more smoothly on the newest computing platforms.
Are you new to licensing? Feel free to drop us an email with your comments and let us provide you with an evaluation of our products.
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This is a blog on the topic of software license management provided by X-Formation.