3 Minute Overview - Why Software Licensing is a Smart Move

This overview will validate your decision to use a licensing system and help you choose the best solution for your needs. Today's licensing system solutions can deliver more than ever right out of the box and are highly adaptable as your needs evolve.

Modern software licensing solutions prove invaluable when you want to maximize revenue and minimize costs. These two goals are accomplished through theft protection, automation, advanced licensing schemes, and maintaining control through a robust set of features. Smart features add opportunities and efficiencies for marketing, accounting, and your overall operations.

Protect Against Theft

You would rather have a customer pay for your software than steal it. You may have heard the argument that software is impossible to protect, but the same can be said for any product or belonging. No single type of lock will stop every burglar, but that does not mean we should stop using locks, whether on homes, cars, or software.

A primary function of licensing is to control use through product activation. This can take many forms:

Require license keys.
Employ encryption technology.
Install on specific PCs and/or for specific named users.
Install throughout an office and license concurrent users.
Assign user-defined parameters.
Track usage-based models.
Dissuade theft by offering trials or converting illegal copies into trials.

Independent software vendors (ISVs) also count on licensing as a counterbalance to application and PC virtualization technology, which has made it easier to cheat. Your specific application and its users will determine which anti-theft options make the most sense.

Embrace Automation

When you automate, you immediately reap the benefits of 24/7 availability for activations, deactivations, payment collection, notifications, upgrades, tracking maintenance contracts, and more.

Making your software available around the clock means:

Increasing sales through greater customer access to license activation and validation.
Reducing labor costs by removing the need to staff the phone for orders and activations.
Improving your professional image by giving customers easy ways to buy from you and activate the software.
Achieving peace of mind with a secure system that makes sales and manages licenses on its own.
Maintaining software maintenance contracts with pre-set notifications to customers when an expiration date is due.
Staying in contact easily using notifications for news such as software updates, marketing messages, automated downloads, or other desired actions.
Using a rules engine to determine eligibility to purchase discounted software upgrades.

Design Advanced Licensing Schemes

You can grow your earning potential with proven tactics that make it easy for customers to choose and use your software. Licensing systems offer a wide range of design options at your disposal.

Choose whichever schemes contribute to the most mutually beneficial transactions, and create conditions for easier administration for you and your users:

Gain new customers by offering trial usage. A try-before-you-buy option is a must-have in your sales and marketing arsenal.
Meet varied customer requirements by offering versions of your software, such as Lite, Standard, and Premium, using a single gold master.
Increase total revenue over time with ongoing subscription models at a low recurring price.
Increase your customer base by embracing subscription or other usage-based (term license) models instead of perpetual models. This popular approach lets you lower the price to the user, so more people can access your software with a lower barrier to entry.
Satisfy your specific customer needs by creating your own model or by combining any or all of these popular models:
pay-per-use
pre-paid tokens or credits that are consumed
pricing tiers based on the number of users or records in a database

Maintain Control

You can rest easy knowing your licensing system maintains control of your intellectual property and keeps you in contact with your users:

Control access to specific features or modules in the same application to simplify installations and offer customers more purchase options.
Earn additional sales by offering free trials of additional features and converting them to purchases.
Support only paying customers validated by maintenance contracts, and enjoy the associated cost reductions.
Get your software into more hands by using the power of the Internet and e-commerce to reach global markets.
Get a snapshot of the information you want tracked with the ease of a portal or dashboard.

Why It Matters

Software licensing systems are a significant product management tool, powering billions of software transactions all over the world. They are relied upon because they maximize revenue, minimize costs, and make life easier for everyone involved. Using a software licensing system can be the difference between success and failure in getting your software out there, becoming profitable, and retaining and growing your user base.