Independent software vendors who
see the need for a software
license manager face the
universal question of whether to
"build or buy."
Hidden Demons (or should I
say, daemons?)
The choice is not always obvious
at first. There's the notion
that only a simple model is
needed and "hey, we're a
software company, we're smart,
we know what we need, and my
guys can whip this up over the
weekend." Sure, if you limit
the scope of the project, you
could build a solution that
addresses your current set of
known requirements, but that
attitude ignores many critical
issues that may make you regret
your decision down the road.
Change - Deal with it
To borrow from the famous diaper
company's motto, "Change
Happens." A home-brew license
manager must be designed to
account for change - not just
changes in operating systems and
development environments, but
also changes in end user
preferences for licensing models
and deployment methods. Almost
by definition, successful
off-the-shelf license managers,
like
RLM,
are already designed to address
a wide set of platforms,
languages, vendor licensing
policies and end user
requirements. This added agility
helps you to respond quickly to
competitive pricing threats and
to book orders with "funky"
licensing requirements - without
involving your engineering team.
Safety in Numbers, Big
Numbers
When you design a license
manager, your customers are the
sole "guinea pigs." They are
the only ones who can help you
find bugs and improve
performance in your licensing
software. With a third party
license manager, you benefit
from a huge user community
banging away on the product
ensuring maximum robustness
across a more varied set of
usage conditions.
OK, Who'll draw the short
straw?
If you decide to build your own
license manager, who will write
it? We have seen eager software
engineers take on this
challenging task only to quickly
discover that it's not as easy
as it looks. More common is the
dilemma of the "pigeon-holed"
engineer who, after completing
V1 of the licensing software,
desperately wants to move on to
a more interesting project. But,
he is stuck maintaining his
licensing system because he is
the only one on staff who knows
how it works. I wonder how long
he'll stay at this company?
Hmm?
Licensing Experts are Rare
Birds Indeed
Successful third-party licensing
systems, like the Reprise
License Manager (RLM), are
written by experts who have been
in the trenches for decades (in
our case, two decades, to be
exact). They can spot what works
and what doesn't for ISVs and
their customers. They are
passionate about this technology
niche, and take pride in solving
difficult licensing challenges
with ease. If you "buy" rather
than "build," these guys become
your new in-house licensing
experts.
Beep Beep Beep - Buzzword
Alert!
Core Competencies -
Time-to-Market - Opportunity
Costs. These well-worn phrases
remind us that we should stay
focused on what we do well. Our
software projects should be
directed toward making
innovative products more
competitive. Time spent
developing your own license
manager will slow the progress
toward that goal and will result
in longer release cycles which
may cause you to miss some
important sales opportunities.
When you choose a 3rd party
license manager, the time you
save could be used to widen your
competive lead and to integrate
licensing more tightly into your
IT infrastructure.
Street Knowledge
You want to support not only
standard licensing models, but
you also want to leverage your
customers' prior experience with
other licensed software to
minimize their learning curve
with yours. End customers are
willing to tolerate a few
different license managers, but
not dozens. If yours is
significantly different from
others, your prospective
customers may reject your
solution. By the same token,
your business may be more
valuable
to a potential suitor if your
licensing is familiar to them.
Conclusion
These arguments are not new, but
writing your own license manager
went out of style with the
"mullet" ("business in the
front, party in the back"). And
don't tell me you can't afford a
3rd party license manager.
Prices are now affordable for
companies of all sizes.
