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!
