KEYnote 45 English - Spring/Summer 2023 | Page 7

Resellers Customer

you as the original software vendor . Your resellers can now go out into the market with their pool of licenses . Again , the Portal gives them full flexibility : The resellers could create a new client and one or more users per client to allocate tickets to from their pool , and the resellers can also choose their preferred route : A printed ticket , a ticket per mail , a ticket assigned to a user , etc .

License Portal in the Lead If you are not using an ERP system or prefer simpler logistics , you can also create tickets and licenses directly through CodeMeter License Portal . Our Professional Services Team is available to tailor this option to your specific needs : You define the product groups and assign items from CodeMeter License Central to each group . You could even define specific properties , like the maximum length of time that a trial license can be used for .

Next , you need to put your retail partners in place as resellers , as you would with an ERP system . You can give the admin account of each reseller the right to use a certain selection of product groups or configurations , which enables the reseller to create licenses . In turn , the resellers ’ admin users can create new users , whose rights would be limited to the rights that the reseller has as well .

For the next step , the reseller can then create clients and the right number of licenses for them . The main difference to working with a mainstream ERP system is that the resellers are not given a pool of tickets . Instead , each license is created just-in-time for them . As the original vendor , you define which licenses and which license options can be created .

License Reporting In particular , when you work without a mainstream ERP system , reporting is essential for

Reseller

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the licenses created by your resellers . Again , our Professional Services Team is ready to help you tailor the reporting mechanisms to your interfaces and your specific needs .

The simplest reporting system would create a list of licenses , including full , trial , and subscription licenses . You could export this list regularly , e . g . once per month , and process the data in your back office systems . Alternatively , you could source the data automatically via SOAP , REST , or email to a defined recipient , e . g . for an automated billing process .

Best Practices for Subscriptions One popular use case in the real world are subscription licenses . In certain cases , these can be hard to implement with typical ERP systems , making CodeMeter License Portal a welcome alternative . Subscriptions would be created through the CodeMeter License Portal and set to run until these are cancelled or revoked . A cancellation would prevent the automatic renewal , while leaving the users the ability to use their software until the end of the subscription period they had paid for . When a subscription license is revoked , the license is set to be deleted at the next possible time . This is used e . g . when a client goes back on their purchase or when they decide to switch to a different type of license .

When selling subscriptions through resellers , monthly group billing is the way to go . The Portal can create a list of active ( i . e . not cancelled or revoked ) subscription licenses , either for a set threshold date or , for newly started or recently cancelled licenses , with accurate dayby-day information . You can then bill these licenses separately through your ERP system and include a list of active subscriptions as an “ itemized bill ” for your reseller .

For direct sales , subscriptions can be billed on

Customer-Facing Processes On the client side , you have all of the functions at your disposal that you know and love from CodeMeter License Portal . A client ’ s admin has the ability to create additional users , manage license pools , or assign individual tickets or licenses to individual users . Further down the line , users can activate and move their licenses or recover lost licenses through the Portal .

Where is the Data Kept ? As the original vendor , you should work with your partners to define which data is collected about your end clients . The options would range from pseudonymized IDs to a full address database , always mindful of the EU ’ s GDPR requirements : Clients must be informed about which data is collected , and what it is collected for . Since the data is used to recover licenses in the case of loss or failure , you should , in principle , have a legitimate reason to collect such data .

CodeMeter License Portal gives you the opportunity to delete data from the database in compliance with the GDPR requirements . Optionally , a License Portal could also be located in a local network or a private cloud at the reseller or an enterprise client . In that case , you , as the original vendor , only have access to information that is fed through to your CodeMeter License Central .

Internal Licenses ( NFR ) It happens quite frequently that employees need internal demo licenses ( NFR – Nor For Resale ). As always , CodeMeter License Portal has the perfect solution for them : You can create dedicated NFR licenses , which would typically be time-limited , but set to renew automatically like subscriptions . The renewal period can differ from that of subscriptions . One best practice for NFR licenses is to allow them to activate all features , which would work via a separate Product Code that can set all software features to be active at once .

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