Author: staff

April 13, 2023

New RLM Release (v15.1)

We are excited to announce the release of RLM v15.1, which provides a number of security enhancements, simplifies service installation, and fixes multiple bugs.

Significant improvements, such as the introduction of the Mongoose web server make RLM more secure, while also simplifying installation for your end-users. These upgrades give you and your customers peace of mind and reduce your support cases.

Some of the new features in the latest release include:

The embedded web server has been changed from GoAhead to Mongoose.
The RLM web server now requires login to access.
Running RLM as root/administrator is no longer restricted.
The web interface now supports HTTPS.
Several additional security improvements.

See the Release Notes for all the details.

Click Here to Get the Updated RLM

If you are not a customer yet, request a free trial or contact us at [email protected].

March 3, 2023

Saving Time and Eliminating Frustration with RLM Activation Pro

One advantage of Reprise Software joining Vela Software’s STEM portfolio in late 2021 is our partnership with many sibling companies who utilize RLM. This relationship gives us the opportunity and obligation to use our own products in a number of different software licensing scenarios – “eating our own dog food” so to speak. However, many of these partnerships are not new. Portfolio companies like Tecplot have been using RLM for more than 12 years and have maintained a close connection all along.

Tecplot (www.tecplot.com), a leading provider of CFD post-processing and visualization software, was an early and enthusiastic adopter of RLM, using it across their entire suite of products. With over 50,000 users worldwide, including licenses at all the major space agencies and aircraft companies, finding a secure and reliable license management system at a favorable price point was mandatory. However, once the initial licensing need was satisfied, they wanted strategies to minimize the time required to serve keys to their many customers, especially at small companies who may lack IT resources, and might not want to spin up an internal license server. Instead of making traditional keys one at a time, Tecplot needed an automated solution for entitlement delivery. RLM Activation Pro was the answer.

Activation Pro activates licenses automatically over the internet, either from Reprise’s cloud service or your own servers. When integrated with your back-office systems, a push of a button in CRM results in an activation code being sent to the customer through your workflows. After being input into your program’s licensing dialogue, the code pings the activation server, and if valid, checks out a key, with updated entitlement information. This bypasses the traditional need to manually gather computer details like Hostnames and MAC addresses from the client before issuing a key, which can frustratingly become a back-and-forth series of emails to get them set up properly. Instead, Activation Pro streamlines new sales and renewals and makes it nearly impossible for the customer to have issues getting started, leaving a good impression with their newly purchased or renewed software. It gives you more information than a conventional license, letting you know how many times a code has been used, and gives the freedom to deactivate licenses whenever required. Additionally, codes are extremely flexible and can make delivering groups of licenses, rehosting licenses, offering software trials or making temporary keys easy.

Dan DeLapp, VP of Software Development for Tecplot, noted that Activation Pro “cut our support load for making keys in half – saving dozens of hours a month for the support team, who can now focus on providing true technical support.” Not only does it save the company many thousands of dollars per year, but it also improves customer satisfaction. “There are no delays to customers getting keys. New customers are up and running immediately, and in most cases for renewals they don’t even know they are getting a new key because the activation code pings the license server in the background and downloads new keys when needed. It just works.”

If you have a need to automate your software activation, and reduce your time spent helping customers get their software running, please visit our Activation Pro web page, or email [email protected] to learn more about RLM Activation Pro.

December 6, 2022

The Power of Metered Licensing

Did you know that besides offering node-locked, networked, and named-user licensing, RLM can provide metered licensing options?

CPFD Software is a trailblazer in computational particle fluid dynamics. Organizations around the world use their Barracuda Virtual Reactor software to solve complicated engineering and technology problems.

Learn how CPFD offers metered licensing on the RLMCloud.

September 30, 2022

Datamine Software Case Study

Interview with Joshua Knight, Software Developer, Datamine Software.

Challenge

For over 40 years, Datamine has delivered a wide range of integrated mining and exploration software solutions that improve and maintain quality data across the entire value chain. With local offices in 20 countries, their groundbreaking technology services customers from all over the world.

After relying on their own proprietary software licensing solution, they needed licensing software that provided flexibility and customization for their Discover product without all the headaches that come with it.

Decision Process

Joshua Knight, a software developer for Datamine was tasked with finding a simpler, more streamlined solution for Discover’s software licensing. They didn’t want to deal with calls from customers to troubleshoot their licensing issues. Knight added, “We need to be focused on delivering value to our customers instead of the licensing.”

Reprise software licensing seemed straightforward and transparent, while other competitors made the integration process more complex.

Other solutions forced their customers to do things their way. Datamine’s customers can be one-person enterprises or large, multi-national companies on a cloud server, so lack of flexibility was a major drawback.

“Sometimes we have people in the middle of the desert or a jungle in Africa, that can’t connect to the web,” Knight said, “Reprise made it easy to take things offline in those scenarios.”

Reprise’s excellent reviews and outstanding reputation made choosing them an easy decision.

Solution and Results

Implementation was straightforward and drama-free. Within a few weeks, Reprise was up and running.

In addition to flexibility, Datamine’s Discover team also appreciated Reprise’s ease of use, customer support, thorough documentation, and wide range of products.

Now they can focus on what they do best and let Reprise take care of the licensing for them.

May 31, 2022

New RLM Release (v15.0)

We are happy to announce the first production release of RLM v15.0. It fixes multiple bugs, improves workflows, and adds functionality.

After working tirelessly for months to improve our software, we know this RLM release will make license management easier and more streamlined for publishers and license admins.

Here are just some of the new features and updates:

The RLM server now determines the client’s external IP address and adds this to the list of client IP hostids, if it is not already in the list.
The environment variable RLM_LINUX_ETHERNET_ITERATIONS sets the number of devices to check for MAC addresses. Prior to this release, the Linux ethernet hostid code scanned 5000 devices to get ethernet MAC addresses.
The Activation Pro debuglog now includes the PID of the license generator process, to make it easier to interpret the log if multiple instances of the license generator are running simultaneously.
The “text to prepend to license” field has been increased from a maximum of 1024 to 30720 bytes.

See the Release Notes for all the details.

Ready to download the updated version?

Get the New RLM Now

If you are not a customer yet, request a free trial or contact us at [email protected].

May 23, 2022

Reprise License Manager Wins the SourceForge Spring 2022 Leader Award

Reprise License Manager (RLM), which won the Spring Leader Award from SourceForge in March 2021, has been named a winner in Spring 2022.

SourceForge is the world’s largest software and services review and comparison website. This award recognizes exceptional companies and products.

The Spring 2022 Leader award winners must receive enough high-rated user reviews to rank them in the top 5% of favorably reviewed products on SourceForge.

“We are delighted to receive this honor again,” said Reprise President Alan Klug. “We believe in RLM and love that our customers do too. RLM improves the whole licensing process by providing reliable and flexible solutions. ”

Since 2006, RLM has offered numerous licensing models and flexible pricing that appeals to software publishers of all sizes. Though RLM is a robust software license manager, it is also easy to use. Reprise delivers solutions that can help increase revenue and attract new customers.

Klug adds, “Without users taking the time to provide overwhelmingly positive feedback on SourceForge, we wouldn’t have been granted this award. It reminds us how important it is to listen to customers and continuously provide them with best-in-class software and industry-leading support.”

May 12, 2022

Entitlement Management Software: How to Pick the Right Solution

Compare Reprise Activation Pro, RLMCloud, and RLM Teams

Reprise Software offers three entitlement management solutions. Each solution addresses similar requirements but in subtlety different ways.

This article outlines the functionality of each to help you decide which is best suited to your software policies and procedures.

Activation Pro

Regardless of the license types that you support—node-locked or floating—Activation Pro makes entitlement management and license distribution more efficient for you and your customers.

The RLM API integrates seamlessly with Activation Pro to enable activation from within your product. Customers enter an activation key to activate their license. The activated license is stored on the user’s computer. Users without an internet connection can obtain a license by using the same activation key on a simple web page to obtain a license.

Activation Pro supports:

Trials
Paid Licenses
Automatic Subscription Renewals
Customer-Directed License Re-Hosting

Customers can review their entitlements’ status through portal accounts. Furthermore, Activation Pro supports indirect sales channels via its reseller portal.

A REST-style web services API integrates Activation Pro into your CRM, order management, or e-commerce platforms. You can host Activation Pro on your web server, or Reprise Software can host it for you in the cloud.

RLMCloud

To minimize administrative overhead, software customers sometimes prefer their floating licenses served from the cloud. To address this, Reprise evolved RLM into RLMCloud, allowing customers to checkout software licenses over the internet.

RLMCloud uses standard RLM client and server components to support traditional on-premises license servers and cloud-based licenses within the same application release. RLMCloud is best suited for floating licenses.

Activation Pro delivers licenses directly to customers, but RLMCloud stores them in the cloud. For customers to securely connect to RLMCloud and check out their licenses, all they need is a username and password.

Since RLMCloud puts license servers under your direct control, you can support customers running in virtual machines, dockers, or containers, without the risk of license server cloning. You can also collect usage information for post-use billing and use software meters to tie your pricing to actual work done by your software. In addition, hot standby (failover) license servers are easy to set up on RLMCloud to maximize license availability.

A REST-style web services API integrates RLMCloud to your CRM, order management, or e-commerce platforms. RLMCloud is deployed in data centers in Asia, North America, and Europe.

RLM Teams

Reprise Software’s newest product, RLM Teams, extends licensing flexibility to collaborative groups, letting your customers assign and reassign licenses to themselves or their users from the RLM Teams portal.

With RLM Teams, you provision license entitlements to customer accounts. Customers fulfill their licenses on their computers or reassign them to their team members. Then, when users want to use your product, they log into RLM Teams where a license is generated and “soft-locked” to the user’s computer. Later, the user can log in on a different computer to move the license there.

You can host RLM Teams on your web server, or Reprise Software can host it for you in the cloud.

Below is a comparison table, highlighting the differences between the three solutions:

	Activation Pro	RLMCloud	RLM Teams
Trials and evals	yes	yes	yes
Subscriptions	yes	yes	yes
Uses HTTPS	yes	yes	yes
Web services management API	yes	yes	yes
On-premises licensing	yes, after activation	yes, temporary licenses	yes, cached licenses
Rehosting	yes, using RLM API	yes	yes
Use while disconnected	yes, after activation	yes, temporary licenses	yes, cached licenses
Requires internet connection	yes, initially	yes, periodically	yes, periodically
24x7x365	yes	yes	yes
Uses Standard rlm_checkout call	yes, after activation	yes	yes
Uses activation keys	yes	no	no
Floating licenses	yes, on-premises	yes	no
Manage RLM license servers	no	yes, in the cloud	no
License disablement	yes, using RLM API	yes	yes
Personal licenses	no	yes	no
Token-based licenses	yes, with the RLM server	yes	no
Metered licenses	no	yes	no
Post-use billing	no	yes	no
RLM-embedded compatible	yes	no	yes
Requires end-user accounts	no	no	yes
Can be self-hosted by ISV	yes	no	yes
Can use dongles	yes	no	no

January 14, 2022

Reprise Software Acquired by FOG Software Group

January 14, 2022 – FOG Software Group (“FOG”), an operating group of Vela Software, and Constellation Software Inc. [TSX:CSU], is pleased to announce the acquisition of Reprise Software, developers of the Reprise License Management (“RLM”) product.

RLM is a fully featured suite of tools that enables independent software vendors (ISVs) to secure and monetize their products, whether they be desktop, network or cloud based. Utilizing a single API for all licensing types, clients can easily create and deploy keys for a variety of environments, reducing development effort and cutting down time required to manage licenses. Additionally, clients can choose to host their own license servers or utilize RLM through a hosted service to make license deployment trivial for customers. Boasting a history that goes back to the early days of license management, RLM remains a trusted and vital partner for top companies.

Tom Chan, CEO of the FOG Software Group STEM Portfolio, expressed his excitement of the opportunity to acquire Reprise, saying “We have used RLM in our products for more than a decade and have always found the software and service to be top notch and an excellent value. We are thrilled to be able to carry the Reprise legacy forward – always providing best in class service and ensuring that RLM continues to meet our customers’ varied needs during a dynamic period in software entitlement.”

If you have any questions about this acquisition, or the capabilities of RLM, please contact Reprise Software at [email protected].

About FOG Software Group

FOG Software Group (www.fogsoftwaregroup.com) is an operating group of Vela Software (www.velasoftwaregroup.com) and Constellation Software, Inc. [TSX:CSU] which is a US$3.5 billion consolidated revenue software conglomerate headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The operating group acquires, manages, and builds software companies in a variety of vertical markets. By helping their acquired companies improve operations, grow through organic initiatives, and seek additional acquisitions that can strengthen their market position, their portfolio companies become clear leaders in their industries.

About Reprise Software

Based in California, Reprise Software (www.reprisesoftware.com) is a leading provider of license management tools for software ISVs in many verticals including engineering, CAD/CAM, heavy industry and scientific applications. Known for providing excellent service and an easy to integrate API, RLM is used by hundreds of clients, worldwide.

April 15, 2021

RLM Teams – Licensing Unleashed

Announcing a new Reprise Software product, RLM Teams.

Over the past year or two, we have talked with many software vendors who are interested in a lightweight licensing solution based on user identity, not based on locking to machines, doing away with traditional licenses and activation keys. Some of the same companies have asked for a more collaborative approach to licensing that would give more power to users to allocate licenses to their team members. So, we have developed a new product in response to these trends called RLM Teams.

RLM Teams is a easy-to-use user-based licensing portal for individuals and groups working together. Built on industry standards, RLM Teams complements the flagship Reprise License Manager product by providing you with an account-based entitlement fulfillment portal in the Cloud, giving your customers secure access 24x7x365, without requiring you to deliver licenses or activation keys.

Here’s how it works:

With RLM Teams, you provision a number of product entitlements to each customer who can then either fulfill them on their own computers, or transfer them to colleagues. When a user wants to fulfill a license, he logs into RLM Teams. Then, when he runs your application for the first time, a license is “soft-locked” (cached) to his computer for as long as you want. The license can be easily moved by the user later.

RLM Teams accounts are either “admin” users or “regular” users. Regular users can fulfill licenses for themselves, or transfer their license entitlements to someone else on the system. After transferring, they can later “reclaim” the entitlements for themselves. “Admin” users have the additional privilege of managing user accounts.

RLM Teams Features:
– Cloud-based 24×7 access
– Identity-based licensing, no permanent hardware locking
– Disconnected operation for increased speed and mobility
– No license keys or activation codes to deliver and manage
– No extra licensing components to install (just install your software)

RLM Teams Benefits:
– Always-on
– Simple “follow-the-user” soft-lock licensing
– Enable collaboration – users allocate licenses for group projects, including to outside contractors
– Once licensed, users may operate disconnected for as long as you want
– Works with standard RLM kit (14.2 or later) – once integrated, you can use RLM Teams, RLMCloud, on-premises license servers, or local node-locked licenses – without changing your code

How is RLM Teams different from Activation Pro?

With Activation Pro, you create activation keys which are later redeemed for a license. The license gets tied to the user’s physical machine and is stored there. The license is tied to the machine until it is revoked or expires. Your application must be programmed to allow the license to be revoked then reactivated elsewhere.

With RLM Teams, users have accounts on the RLM Teams portal. They log in to fulfill their licenses. As the vendor, you get to decide how long the resulting license can be used before it must be refreshed. If a user wants to move his license to a different machine, he logs into RLM Teams from the new machine, deletes the prior fulfillment, and fulfills it again.

Please contact Reprise Software for more information.

March 3, 2021

Reprise License Manager Wins 2021 Leader Award in Software

Reprise Software is honored to be recognized as a best-in-class category leader by SourceForge

[March 4, 2021]– Reprise Software, a leader in software licensing solutions, today announced that it has been awarded a Winter 2021 Leader Award by SourceForge, the world’s largest software review and comparison website. This award recognized companies and products with outstanding user reviews that are in the top five percentile of highly reviewed products on SourceForge.

“We’re excited to announce the outstanding SourceForge Winter 2021 Leaders,” said SourceForge President, Logan Abbott. “It’s my pleasure to recognize the Reprise License Manager as a Category Leader. Reprise License Manager from Reprise Software led the pack in the License Management category. Not only did RLM score extremely highly in overall ratings, users also overwhelmingly rated RLM as having outstanding features, design, and support. Congratulations to RLM for being best-in-class in the License Management category.”

To win the Winter 2021 Leader award, each winner had to receive enough high-rated user reviews to place the winning product in the top 5% of favorably reviewed products on SourceForge, which demonstrates the utmost quality that [Company name] delivers to customers.

“At Reprise Software, we’re excited to accept the SourceForge Winter 2021 Leader Award,” said Reprise Software CEO, Matt Christiano. “We do our best to provide a best-in-class product, and we’re happy to see our users rewarding us with good reviews. We’re honored to be valued at such a high level by our customers and to be recognized by SourceForge.”

About SourceForge

SourceForge.net is the world’s largest software comparison directory, serving over 30 million users every month and featuring user reviews, product comparisons, software guides, and more. SourceForge’s mission is to help businesses find the best software to fit their needs and their budget. There are a variety of software tools available to businesses, and there are tools in almost every category and niche, each serving a slightly different purpose.