After an extensive comparison with other commercial license manager solutions on the market, LMS opted for RLM from Reprise. Following a successful trial period, which allowed LMS to also validate the technical support of Reprise, the vast majority of the LMS customer base has already migrated to RLM. Customer feedback is very positive.

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This month Reprise Software licensed our 300th RLM customer.

We wanted to take a moment to thank all our customers for making Reprise successful, and thought this would be a good time to take a look back at the history of RLM and FLEXlm.

Back in the FLEXlm days, we had about 300 customers in 1993/1994, when GLOBEtrotter took over the FLEXlm product from Highland Software.  That was 6 years into the life of the product.  We ultimately got to about 2000 customers by 1999.   So we added about 300 customers/yr (on average) for those last 6 years.  Or 25/month.

It has taken Reprise 5 years to get to 300 customers.   Last quarter (Q1/2011) we added 24 new customers which was the largest number for any quarter in our history.

The other comparison is that in the FLEXlm days, nearly all of our customers were new to license management,  since license management was a new technology at the time. At Reprise, about 65% of our customers are new to license management, and the other 35% are switching from another technology.  We are pleased that companies both new and old to license management are selecting RLM as their licensing solution.

So, once again, thanks to everyone for another great milestone in Reprise Software’s history.

Ellexus chooses the Reprise License Manager

Ellexus LTD, a software start up from the UK, recently released a tool called Breeze for managing scripted flows such as those used in hardware design and software builds. They surveyed several licensing providers before choosing RLM from Reprise Software.

“Our business has been growing steadily since we purchased the RLM licensing package in January 2011 – you may have seen our article in EEtimes,” said Dr. Rosemary Francis of Ellexus. “We have been very happy with Reprise and so far it has been well received by our customers. It was really easy to integrate into our product and straightforward to cut new licenses.  Our customers have large computing infrastructures that mean that they need a robust floating license model that gives their teams flexibility and cuts down on administration cost. The simplicity of the Reprise setup procedures has made their lives – and ours – easier. ”

About Ellexus

Breeze is designed to help customers understand complex software flows such as scripted builds and compilation flows. Breeze traces the interactions between programs, scripts and data to help develop and debug mix-vendor and mixed-language builds. It helps to automatically document flows as a means to package up solutions for third parties and remote engineers or to understand a new flow from a customer or vendor. Breeze can be used to troubleshoot issues with compiled and scripted flows and is language independent. It works on your existing system and gives you an overview of the system as well as detailed information for debugging.

Summary: Tachyon Design Automation tells why they switched to RLM – to take advantage of its flexible licensing solutions to support multi-cores.

The Past

Previously Tachyon DA used an internal licensing system for our flagship product, CVC, a Verilog simulator with industry leading performance. Our in-house system only allowed node locked licenses and lacked the ability to support simultaneous simulations. As the industry moved to multi-core CPUs and we received more requests for floating licenses it became evident that our solution was in need of updating. We decided it was probably better to take a look at third party solutions than spend the time updating our own license manager.

The Switch to RLM

We found RLM to be a simple yet powerful licensing solution. RLM allowed us to immediately add support for multiple count (multi-core) and floating licenses with minimal effort. We were also able to maintain some of our original licensing mechanism on top of existing RLM features. It quickly became apparent that it was a good idea to go with RLM for CVC’s license manager instead of updating our own. This allowed us to concentrate our efforts on what we do best, while letting Reprise handle staying current with all the latest licensing models.

About Tachyon Design Automation

Tachyon Design Automation specializing in Electronic Design Automation (EDA)  software. Our flagship product, CVC, is a Verilog simulator which provides industry leading performance and capacity.

Summary: Lumina launched the 4.2 release of its flagship product, Analytica^®, in early 2010 using Reprise’s licensing solutions for the first time. This replaced an internal license code scheme that they had been using for more than 13 years.

Licensing Challenges of the Past
Prior to Analytica 4.2, Lumina would issue a license code for each individual end user of its products. The license code would be entered during installation to enable the appropriate edition of the product.  In many organizations, the end-user and the purchasing agent are not the same person. So the identity of the end-user was often not known to Lumina unless the end-user voluntarily filled out a registration web form.

Licensing Motivations
As they attempted to improve support relationships with end-users, it became apparent that they needed better information gathering mechanisms to find out who their end-users were. The solution was to adopt a license-activation mechanism for distributing licenses. The advantage of using activation-based methodology is that it provides a natural time to collect the most up-to-date CRM information from their customers.  It also allows them to set up subscription-based support services automatically. For example, their customers can now set up access accounts for the web-based Analytica Wiki which provides reference materials on Analytica while their customers are using the product.

Lumina also wanted to start offering a floating license option, which would not have been possible using the old method. Floating licenses have several advantages.  Large organizations can make Lumina’s product available to an extended user group, which increases product exposure and familiarity.  Floating licenses also allow them to focus on organization-wide sales instead of low-margin individual sales. This is convenient for them and their customers both, since it reduces the amount of time their staff has had to spend processing Analytica license transfers between individuals.

Selection of Reprise
“We surveyed several options prior to undertaking this change in licensing scheme,” said Lonnie Chrisman of Lumina.  ” These included expanding the current in-house solution to include activation and floating license support, or integrating with one of several existing license manager products on the market.

Lonnie added, “We carefully considered four major license manager offerings in this space, focusing primarily on the level of end-user friendliness and transparency, flexibility of the product, openness and documentation for the programmer, and overall capabilities.  Flexibility was especially important knowing that we would have to adapt it in many customized ways to integrate it into our installers, products, and back-end systems. Reprise’s offering stood out compared to the other offerings on all counts.  We also attended a conference on license management sponsored by one of Reprise’s competitors where we solicited opinions from existing IT managers who use these products. They repeatedly recommended Reprise over the other options.”

Based on the recent success with RLM, Lumina will continue to use Reprise for the release of version 4.3 in March 2011. Analytica 4.3 is a major new release of great importance to Lumina and their customers.

About Analytica
Analytica^® is a visual modeling tool for building and sharing quantitative decision models.  Popular with top quantitative and statistical analysts, Analytica’s success is based on its ability to speed the development process by an order of magnitude while improving the transparency of complex decision models. Analytica models are organized as a hierarchy of influence diagrams, providing a highly intuitive and visual depiction of the encoded logic. Its efficient handling of multi-dimensional intelligent arrays™ allows users to break out of the two-dimensional spreadsheet paradigm, enabling unparalleled flexibility and scalability, explicit representations of uncertainty, and optimization capabilities.

Summary: RLM provides the foundation for a modularized floating license and pricing model for Parcel Builder from The Sidwell Company.

Parcel Builder includes several modules which can be licensed separately in order to provide a scalable application for customers with a variation of software requirements and budgets. Traditionally, Parcel Builder modules were licensed by a unique identifier generated at the time of the first install and was stored in the registry. This type of licensing system had some vulnerabilities and limitations, such as ghosting, virtual machine usage, etc. If clients required a reinstallation of the software, or a reconfiguration of installed modules on different workstations, they needed to contact Sidwell to provide new licenses.

RLM Introduced

In order to provide a more flexible solution, Sidwell sought to include concurrent licensing capabilities in Parcel Builder 4. Concurrent licensing would give enterprises with multiple installations the ability to utilize different modules from their current workstations without issuing additional licenses. After thorough research, Sidwell found that the Reprise License Manager (RLM) offered the best solution for providing the enterprise-class license management required by Parcel Builder. Sidwell’s software developers found RLM to be the best solution due to its affordability, ease of customization, and exemplary technical support throughout the entire software development cycle.

About The Sidwell Company:

The Sidwell Company, located in St. Charles, Illinois is an industry leader in the development and implementation of GIS solutions for cadastral mapping, land records management, aerial photography, photogrammetric services, and software development for local governments across the United States. Sidwell has become a recognized name on a national scale with the success of their Parcel Builder™ software suite, which is an extension to ESRI®’s flagship GIS software, ArcGIS® 10. Parcel Builder has been adopted by over 160 counties across the country as their land records-based GIS maintenance solution. Parcel Builder has undergone three major updates since its inception in 2004, and is now at Version 4.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 8, 2011,  San Jose, CA

Reprise Software Inc, a leader in software license management solutions for independent software vendors announced today that SDL, the leading provider of Global Information Management  solutions, has selected the Reprise License Manager (RLM) as the software license manager for their SDL Structured Content Technologies division’s SDL Contenta®, SDL XML Professional Publisher™ (SDL XPP™) and SDL LiveContent™ products.  RLM represents a robust, and more easily maintainable licensing platform on which SDL Structured Content Technologies can support its future licensing capabilities.

“We chose RLM because it allows us to stay current with evolving licensing technologies while providing a familiar structure for our existing customers,” said Jennifer Goodman, vice president of product management for SDL’s Structured Content Technologies division. “We particularly like the possibility of implementing new business models by making changes in the license file without requiring a recompile or new release of our software.”

“SDL SCT’s license management requirements demand a robust, powerful, yet affordable license manager,” stated Matt Christiano, CEO of Reprise Software. “We are proud that SDL’s Structured Content Technologies division recognizes the flexibility, simplicity, power and value of the Reprise License Manager .”

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About SDL

SDL is the leader in Global Information Management. Global Information Management enables companies to engage with their customers throughout the customer journey –from brand awareness, to sales and after-sales support– and across languages, cultures and channels.

SDL’s best-of-breed Web Content Management, eCommerce, Structured Content and Language Technologies, combined with its Language Services drive down the cost of content creation, management, translation and publishing. SDL solutions increase conversion ratios and customer satisfaction through targeted information across all customer touch points.

Global industry leaders who rely on SDL include ABN-Amro, Bosch, Canon, CNH, FICO, GlaxoSmithKline, Hewlett-Packard, KLM, Microsoft, NetApp, Philips, SAP and Sony. SDL has over 1500 enterprise customers, has deployed over 170,000 software licenses and provides access to on-demand portals for 10 million customers per month. It has a global infrastructure of more than 60 offices in 35 countries. For more information, visit www.sdl.com.

About SDL Structured Content Technologies

SDL’s Structured Content Technologies division is the worldwide leader in Component Content Management and Dynamic Publishing software. Leveraging XML standards such as DITA and S1000D, the division’s suite of products empower global companies to efficiently create, share, manage and publish technical information that is up to date and tailored to the interests of their global customers.

LayTools Upgrade includes the Reprise License Management

Summary: TexEDA smoothly transitions to the Reprise License Manager and away from an exclusively dongle-based licensing solution.

The Past
TexEDA has been offering Integrated Design solutions for almost sixteen years. Until recently, the licensing of that software was managed using hardware keys (dongles) – parallel port varieties in the early days and USB versions in recent years. Although effective and secure, dongles are generally unpopular with customers. They also pose problems during evaluations, particularly when a customer in a remote part of the world needs to run a fully licensed version rather than one with reduced capability. Further, dongles have been known to be damaged, fail to function, and, since software prices are an important consideration, dongles can become a significant part of the software cost.

The Present
Despite the advertised benefits of a software licensing solution, there was reluctance based on security concerns, cost, effort to include the license manager lines in the code of the various application programs, and backward compatibility. The decision was taken, however, to move to software licensing when TexEDA embarked on a major software update. TexEDA identified Reprise as a possible partner and discussions with them resolved the perceived barriers in the past. Today, with RLM’s support, all the applications in LayTools software tools set are licensed with or without hardware keys. The  transition was seamless to the customer even though it was introduced at the same time as a major software re-organization and as a new installation approach was introduced.

About TexEDA IC Design Products – LayTools
TexEDA (formerly Catena Software) has enhanced its comprehensive IC design product, LayTools, over the past sixteen years. LayTools is a professional-grade custom IC development suite optimized for complex analog, digital, and mixed-signal IC design and offering the same sophisticated features as other high-end products on the the market. The applications include such key packages as schematic capture, a sophisticated simulator, a layout editor, physical verification, and automatic place and route. All the products operate under a design manager framework. LayTools is available on a range of platforms (including Windows, Sun-Solaris Unix, and Linux).

Summary: Geostation Corporation selected the Reprise License Manager (RLM) based on its complementary design, functionality, ease-of-use and value characteristics. RLM helps Geostation customers optimize their usage of licenses.

Geostation Corporation, a trusted provider of geographical information systems (GIS) to the upstream petroleum industry, announced today that it has selected Reprise Software, Inc.’s ‘RLM’ as the multi-user, networked environment, License Management System of choice, and that GeoStation 5.2 and future releases of GeoStation will ship with RLM.

Commenting on the selection and process, Bruce Keffer, GeoStation Corporation President, said, “We selected RLM for GeoStation® for reasons of fit, functionality, reputation and value.” Bruce added, “Our focus has always been on design, functionality, ease-of-use and value, and our feeling is RLM perfectly compliments the philosophy.”

RLM tracks and provides GeoStation user community administrators with valuable user and usage metrics, which in turn facilitate the management of application availability and optimal sizing of shared GeoStation license pools.

Summary: Computer Modelling Group (CMG) switched its license manager to RLM to license two distinct types of products: simulators, and pre and post processing tools. The simulator licensing model is a per-simultaneous-run model, no matter which user or computer is making the run. The other tools are sold on a more traditional per user basis.

More details about CMG’s use of RLM

CMG is a leading provider of reservoir simulation software to the global market. They began as a company known for its expertise in heavy oil, and have expanded this expertise into all aspects of reservoir flow modelling. Over the past 32 years, CMG has remained focused on the development and delivery of reservoir simulation technologies that assist oil and gas companies to determine reservoir capacities and maximize potential recovery.

CMG’s technology is comprised of two very different types of applications that put difficult demands on a licensing system. The first type comprises simulator applications (STARS, GEM, and IMEX), which are Fortran-based batch calculation engines that can run on anything from Windows laptops to high-end Linux clusters. These simulators model very complex oil and gas reservoirs and CMG is continually improving runtime performance by porting to different platforms and chips. The licensing model is a per-simultaneous-run model, no matter which user or computer is making the run. In addition, customers can license different optional capabilities in each of the simulators and the number of licenses consumed for a run can vary depending on the situation.

The second type of application that CMG provides is the pre- and post-processing tools run on Windows platforms. These applications are licensed on a more-traditional per-user basis.

Transitioning their products to Reprise from their previous licensing technology was relatively painless. The development model fit CMG’s commercial model very well, and the Reprise libraries were intuitive and easy to use. In addition to replacing the previous licensing technology with Reprise in their next major release, they were able to retrofit Reprise into older versions for customers that were not yet ready to upgrade.

Because their customers need maximum performance from CMG’s software, they occasionally need to port their technology to new platforms and chips. This means that the licensing technology needs to be ported as well, and Reprise has proven to be very responsive to those needs. Since selecting Reprise, CMG added two new platforms not initially in Reprise’s suite, and Reprise was able to provide their technology on these platforms in short order.

Although the Reprise technology works well “out of the box”, not every customer environment is the same and occasionally CMG needs assistance. Reprise has proven to be very responsive in helping to troubleshoot problems, and this helps CMG keep its customers up and running. CMG says that they probably make greater use of Reprise’s support than they did with their previous licensing vendor, but that is because with the previous vendor they just stopped asking for help.