Image 1 : Active and denied license allocations as viewed through CodeMeter WebAdmin
tion of products or modular licenses for the individual parts of a bigger software package . That vendor would want to know which product or which feature is used and how often . The License tracking data enables the vendor to precisely analyze this in detail , by users , by use periods , by feature , or even by the time of day . This allows invaluable insights for decisions about where to focus future development efforts .
The tracked data also reveals long-term trends in the use of licenses .
Use Case : Consumption-Based Licenses
Pay-per-use is a common way of billing for e . g ., Internet or cellphone service providers , but it also has its uses for software licenses . The use of CmCloud licenses can be monitored directly through the cloud . But even without this direct thru-line , e . g ., when the software is used in a cordoned-off , offline production environment , it can be analyzed with confidence afterwards . With the right contract terms in place , software vendors can get license tracking logs back from their users at regular intervals .
The analysis allows precise billing , down to the second . It can also track when licenses are moved around at a client . Even interim license upgrades or changes in the pricing structure are no problem for billing , as the actual activation times are recorded at the user .
Possible Applications There are many situations in which License Usage Monitoring can be used to good effect . Retailers could , for instance , activate additional checkouts to cope with busy shopping periods in the run-up to Christmas . Or highly specialized software like that used in some construc-
tion and engineering jobs could be used and paid for by actual usage .
Simple Time Limits Not all users will accept that the usage of their licenses is tracked in detail , and sometimes technical or operational reasons might make it impossible . In these cases , the software maker could simply limit the usage period for their licenses .
The Product Item Option “ Unit Counter ” lets license creators program licenses that are limited to a certain number of uses . When the protected software is launched , the counter de- creases accordingly . Alternatively , this can be done through the CodeMeter API with an action chosen by the developer .
Software developers can also use the feature to set time limits by letting the unit counter decrease at specific intervals during use . This is an easy way to implement different timebased license models . For instance , the limit could be set to a specific number of minutes or hours , and the counter would decrease by one unit for every minute or hour .
But the unit counter is not only good for enforcing limits . It also helps with consumptionbased billing , e . g ., by returning the license to the vendor after an agreed ( and paid-for ) period of use or by swapping out the license with a new incarnation after the usage period expires . The real in-use time can be calculated by the unit counter and billed accordingly with the chosen pricing model .
If modular license models are used , the usage time can even be limited or tracked for billing purposes for every single licensed function or feature .
You can find more information on our website or in our webinar on Consumption-Based Licenses , which took place in September 2022 and can still be accessed via our website .
Image 2 : License Tracking Validation
Image 3 : Excerpt from a logfile
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