L I C E N S I N G
CodeMeter Cloud Pilot Phase:
The Birth of a New Product
The Background
CodeMeter Cloud was first envisaged around
four years ago. Wibu-Systems’ Corporate Tech-
nology department was expanding and looking
at how the use of licensing systems was evolving,
and they came to an interesting conclusion.
CmDongle and CmActLicenses were still
needed, of course, and will continue to be
needed into the future, but workforce mobility
was mushrooming and the need for real time
flexibility becoming apparent. Thus, the concept
of CmCloud was first developed.
Of course, Wibu-Systems already provide an
ultra-secure dongle-based licensing system that
allows for network-based license access, and a
slightly less secure software-based license that
allows for a degree of portability. But as cus-
tomers grow and evolve, so do their environ-
ments and the requirements of their licensing
systems. CmCloud was developed to keep
customers fully flexible.
The Pilot Program
At Wibu-Systems, it is very important that
we develop solutions that customers actually
want. We have never felt that we should
simply build products and then explain why a
customer should buy them: Rather, we always
strive to understand from our customers
specifically what they need, why they need it,
and what their challenges are, and only then
do we develop the software to cater to their
requirements.
Most seasoned software professionals have
been in projects where features were devel-
oped for software and then never used by
12
customers. Sometimes, this happens because
customer requirements were not accurately
translated into features, sometimes because
the features are just assumed: “Well, this is a
great idea. Of course people will need that!” I
have even known occasions where developers
were working on a part of the codebase and
decided themselves to add a new feature,
because they felt it would be useful in the
future.
Essentially, what we are talking about is writing
code that does not have a verified use. This is
a bad idea for a number of reasons:
■ ■ In any modern software environment, all
code has an effect on other code and this
can introduce instability: Why take the
chance?
■ ■ New code always costs money to imple-
ment, which must ultimately be passed on
through higher prices.
■ ■ All code needs support, documentation,
and maintenance. This simply adds cost
to the software and thus should only be
undertaken if it is indeed used.
The purpose of the pilot program was to
ensure that we at Wibu-Systems understood
exactly what customer requirements would
be. This was not just from the narrow-minded
perspective of what a customer specifically
wanted, but rather to understand their en-
vironments to ensure that we could anticipate
future problems and address them early.
The Pilot Process
We developed a standard process when en-
gaging with a pilot customer. This ensured that
we would not miss anything important, but it
also helped us refine the process, so that, as
new customers came on board, we were able
to anticipate any questions they might have
and answer them before they were asked.
Setup
As product manager of CmCloud, before I could
engage with customers, there were some pre-
liminaries that needed to be addressed. Obvi-
ously paperwork needed to be completed, such
as the standard Wibu-Systems MNDA (mutual
non-disclosure agreement), though this was
already in place with existing customers.
Dongle Soft License Cloud License
No hardware costs No Yes Yes
No costs for a cloud services provision Yes Yes No
No shipping costs No Yes Yes
No support costs for computer replacement Yes No Yes
Availability in offl ine scenarios Yes Yes No
Highest security Yes No Yes
Portability Yes No Yes