Frost & Sullivan
Frost Sullivan
Frost & & Sullivan
Results: Nine months later, Bosch is meeting all functional needs for itself and its
“We designed our
customers.At the same time, it has yet to experience piracy of its product and continues
ideal LM solution
to be satisfied with the CodeMeter solution. It may deploy dongles in the future should
first and then
Software Is Monetizedits businessLicensing........................................................................... 3
Through needs change.
Software Is
evaluated vendors,Monetized Through Licensing........................................................................... 3
Licensing to
never expectingMust Resist Hacking to Be Effective.................................................................... 3
Licensing Must Resist Hacking to Be Effective.................................................................... 3
KEY TAKEAWAY: HOW TO CHOOSE A LICENSE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION
find anything that
Core Characteristics of an Effective License Management Solution................................ 4
would fully meet
Core Characteristics of an Effective License Management Solution................................ 4
LM systems by nature become deeply intertwined with a vendor’s business process
our expectations. To in Choosing a License Management Security Architecture .................... 5
Considerations
infrastructure, in theirManagement base and build infrastructure, as well as in5the installed
software code
Considerations
our surprise, Wibu in Choosing a License their products. Security Architecture .................... very complex
customer base for
Switching out LM systems becomes
Solution
offeredSolution Brief: Wibu-Systems in Action .............................................................................. 7 7in a careful,
a complete Wibu-Systems in Action ..............................................................................
and expensive, and therefore vendors should choose their licensing solution
Brief:
combination Takeaway: How forward-looking manner.Management Solution .................. .................... 10 the giant leap
of [our]
Key
to Choose a License When selecting a solution for a new product or taking
Key security
to Choose License Management Solution ...................................... 10
usability and Takeaway: Howof overhaulingaan underperforming LM system, software publishers should follow the following
three-step process:
requirements;& Sullivan .......................................................................................................... 11
About Frost
About Frost & Sullivan .......................................................................................................... 11
we chose them
1. List all features required from the license management solution. Feature requirements
without hesitation.”
should be considered from a number of perspectives, including business process, software or
—ISV
embedded device SKU management, development and deployment platform specifications,
licensing business models and end-user experience requirements. The chosen LM solution
should fit in seamlessly with existing processes and infrastructure, both for the software
developers and for their end customers.
2. Select the security architecture, whether using dongles, license activation or both,
that is most likely to meet current and future protection needs. Developers should have
a clear, realistic picture of what their required security level should be. Software that sells
at a low price has multiple competitive equivalents and will have very different protection
requirements from a unique or best-of-breed software product sold at medium to high
cost. This security target, combined with functional requirements, will direct the choice
of architecture. Nearly all vendors will start with either hardware or software, but most
prefer to have the option of incorporating both, or switching from one to the other in the
future, without the need for significant re-engineering.
3. Choose the License Management Solution that is best positioned to meet both
functional requirements and security goals, from developer and end-user perspectives.
Additional factors to consider in the vendor selection process include vendor credibility,
ongoing road map to deliver enhanced features and higher security in the product
line, flexibility of the service-level agreement, the agility of the vendor in resolving
business-critical issues, and long-term scalability of the selected solution.
In our research, we find that customers experience best long-term value in terms of both
top-line revenue realization and bottom-line costs and efficiency when license management
solutions inherently provide comprehensive functionality and robust security. Wibu-Systems is
a clear example of a vendor with strong commitment to both aspects, resulting in streamlined
operations and confident deployment of software and software-based products by their
customers to businesses and consumers worldwide.
10
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