Summary: After using several other software license management solutions, Portfolio Decisions found the Reprise License Manager (RLM) to be easier to install and support while offering increased licensing flexibility and control.

Who We Are

Portfolio Decisions is a management consulting and software firm specializing in the analysis of decision options and alternatives. We take business planning to the next level. A conventional business plan is valuable, but like a paper road map when you re on a trip, it is limited and static. Our approach is like a GPS combined with Google maps – valuable even when you’re navigating unfamiliar territory or facing changing circumstances and complex choices.

What We Do

With our approach, decision makers can link business investment decisions to strategy and explore ways of meeting or exceeding their performance goals. Perspectives, our portfolio management tool, helps identify and assess strategic options interactively – in real time, yet comprehensively – honoring both financial and operational metrics, near term and longer term considerations, and project interactions. Foundations, our data management tool, compiles and manages data from disparate sources, preserves an audit history, and facilitates processing of economics data, forecasts, strategic plans, budgets, and post-review data for planning and valuation needs.

Our Clients

Our clients include global corporations, midmarket companies, and private equity firms. Highly skilled professional engineers, economists, and financial staff use our tools for strategic planning, budgeting, and quick responses to senior executive requests for acquisition assessments.  Our clients require reliable access to software, the ability to install without IT support, and the ability to move software licenses from desktops to laptops by themselves, so they can continue to work from home or on the road, For our part, we do not compare ourselves to Google maps or a GPS lightly; we take seriously our commitment to speed, flexibility, and comprehensive, data-supported analyses. Clearly, no one wants a licensing issue to slow down the results. We prefer to spend our time helping companies derive more value from their businesses rather than installing and policing licenses of our software.

Our Licensing History

For a small company, Portfolio Decisions’ history with licensing products is a long road with several twists and turns.  Initial products we investigated were so burdensome to users that we elected to simply trust our user base.  This went well for a time, but one inappropriate incident half a world away told us we needed a licensing product.    The initial product we used was painful for clients to set up and horrific to administer.  Our next product used a web site to initiate a license.  Due to security settings, we often cannot get internet connections at our clients’ sites, so licensing with the web based product could become a cumbersome and often embarrassing process.  The consultant onsite could not complete the job without calling another consultant who had internet access.  We sometimes spent longer licensing our tool than the tool takes to optimize a portfolio. This painful path caused us to continue to search for a solution that protected our intellectual property without putting undue burden on our staff or our clients.

The RLM Solution

Since implementing Reprise’s RLM solution, we have nearly eliminated our licensing headaches.  RLM has been simple to implement and even simpler to use.  The licensing product is integrated by our development teams but administered by our portfolio management consultants.  Most clients use a node lock license which we administer in accordance with lease agreements.  The license structure is easy to tie to expiry dates on software leases. We can offer a single license file for multiple products which makes the client’s life easier, and we can use roaming licenses to meet clients’ varying demands.  Reprise has been easy to work with and very supportive. Our clients are equally happy with the Reprise security solution. Once again, we are happily engaged using our expertise to help decision makers gain insights into the performance implications of their decisions while we are also confident that our intellectual property is protected.

Vision Software Solutions Ltd

Summary: A New Zealand based software company chooses the Reprise License Manager (RLM) to launch its product that uses subscription licenses activated over the Internet.

We are a New Zealand based start-up company still very much in our launch phase having spent the last 5 years in development mode. We have only just recently made our software product available for sale.

Our product “VSS Thunder” is a project management type tool designed for the building and construction industry with small to medium sized businesses specifically in mind. Our aim is to reduce the paperwork load of their businesses and give our customers greater visibility on all aspects of their projects, meaning hopefully spending less time in the office as a result.

Russ Lines (our founder) is a builder by trade so the concept came out of his need for a simple solution for his business but it quickly became apparent that other builders could benefit from it as well.

We sell subscriptions to VSS Thunder online via our website vssthunder.com so protecting our software via a licensing system is very important for us as is the ability for our customers to easily activate their keys over the internet. We have been with Reprise for over a year now and are a very satisfied customer. We appreciate the support Reprise has given a small start-up company like ours – especially one based on the other side of the world!

Our aim is to eventually take our product worldwide and we are confident that our relationship with Reprise will help us get there. Watch this space.

Shane Lines
Marketing Director, Vision Software Ltd

Summary: Here at SketchList Inc. we use RLM for four primary reasons. First, it protects our investment in our software by assuring us that only paying users can use our software. Second, it provides us with flexibility in our pricing plans by allowing us to time limit keys we sell to our customers. Third, the RLM software and services are high quality and professional in nature. And finally the RLM pricing and scheme provide fair value to our company.

Licensing Challenge: To develop a scheme that allows us to sell online, offer trials, provide many pricing options, and address both the PC and MAC computer users with a minimum of operational burden.

Why RLM: While the consultants charged with recommending the solution had originally selected another package, the pricing for that package / service was too high and inflexible. After RLM was introduced to the consultants they tested it, incorporated it into the SketchList product, and have since recommended it to other clients of theirs. We were able to introduce RLM to our environment and test it to our satisfaction within the trial period. We are currently using it to provide keys for a new release that is in beta, and have seen no problems.

About SketchList Inc: SketchList 3D is a software product that helps professional woodworkers prepare winning bids for new projects and customers. It allows woodworkers to use virtual 3D objects – boards, doors, drawer and hardware – to quickly and easily design and demonstrate their proposed work to prospects. Photo-like quality images in 3D help their prospects see what they are buying. In addition, all drawings and reports necessary for building the project are being created as designs are developed.

About InfoChem:

Infochem is a specialist engineering company that provides thermodynamic modeling software and consultancy services to the oil & gas, process and chemical industries. We have been established for over twenty years. Our principal software product, Multiflash, is a powerful and versatile program for modeling physical properties and phase equilibria involving any number of fluid and solid phases. It is used by engineers worldwide, either as a stand-alone program or in conjunction with other software. Typical applications include flow assurance and life-of-field studies for the oil industry, pipeline network modeling and process design and optimisation. A complementary product, FloWax, simulates the deposition of wax from oils and condensates in multiphase pipelines.

We have always regarded a licensing system as an essential part of our software. We started using a dongle-based system in the early 1990s and this has developed over the years from parallel port dongles to USB dongles and from stand-alone installations to network licenses. Dongles are not always popular with customers but they do an effective job of controlling licenses.

It is a common complaint among software suppliers that the licensing system consumes an uncomfortably-high proportion of support effort. It has certainly been our experience over many years. This was one of the main reasons for investigating alternative license control systems. Another was to enable a complete electronic delivery of the software product and license. In the past we have considered a number of license-file based systems but poor experiences as users of these systems and high costs decided us against adopting them for our own software. We were aware of RLM for some time before we decided to try an evaluation. We talked to other users and their positive comments convinced us to go ahead.

Our software is written in Fortran so we needed some help to get to grips with the API. Reprise put us in touch with another Fortran user and that made the task simpler. Overall our experience was good. The product performed well and met our requirements. Our software comes as a basic product plus a number of optional modules; we provide node-locked and floating licenses and we issue short-term evaluation licenses. All this is well-supported by RLM. In particular, the cost and effort of providing evaluation licenses has decreased dramatically because there is no hardware device to deal with. The process is smoother, faster and simpler for prospective customers.

The transition to RLM has been transparent to our customers because we are using the dongle system and RLM in parallel. We have a single program that incorporates both licensing libraries. New licenses are RLM-based and, although it is still early-days, the support effort has indeed decreased. Most importantly, we have not been faced with any of the long trouble-shooting investigations that were sometimes necessary in the past. We are still learning but the effort has been worthwhile.

Summary: Lanner Group, the business process improvement and simulation software specialist has included Reprise Licensing Manager as standard for all users within its latest release of WITNESS Power with Ease 2.01. It follows the successful introduction of WITNESS software incorporating flexible license fulfillment with Ford Motor Company.

Full Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 24, Houston, Texas

Lanner Group, the business process improvement and simulation software specialist has included Reprise Licensing Manager as standard for all users within its latest release of WITNESS Power with Ease 2.01. It follows the successful introduction of WITNESS software incorporating flexible license fulfillment with Ford Motor Company.

The latest release of WITNESS Power with Ease 2.01 includes a number of enhancements to the award-winning WITNESS system, and in partnership with Reprise Software, Inc. it now includes Reprise License Manager (RLM) networking licensing.

Lanner Group’s initial deployment of its WITNESS program integrating RLM was with Ford Motor Company.  The system proved adaptable and reliable and has led to the as standard inclusion of the licensing mechanism in the latest issue of WITNESS.

The incorporation of RLM into WITNESS simulation software allows licenses to be easily booked out from a network license on to a small portable computer or laptop providing the flexibility to work off the network as needed.

RLM is available for all network installations of WITNESS and for hardware locked stand-alone installations.  Further advantages of this new system are options for automatic web activation of licensing, making this process quicker and easier.

“We’re delighted with the simplicity and agility of the Reprise Licensing system,” says Lanner Group director of business development, Americas, Mandy Tague. She continues, “By integrating Reprise Licensing into WITNESS simulation software, Lanner Group is offering the market a uniquely agile and flexible system that gives a significant reduction in cost and time within the license fulfillment process.

“Reprise License Manager increases end-user customer satisfaction through the use of easy-to -implement, flexible license terms automatically included with software shipped to end users,” she concludes.

“Lanner Group’s license management requirements are similar to those of other companies in the simulation and modeling software industry, demanding a robust, powerful, yet affordable license manager,” stated Matt Christiano, CEO of Reprise Software. “We are proud that Lanner Group recognizes the flexibility, simplicity, power and value of the Reprise License Manager and look forward to continuing a long and mutually beneficial relationship between the two companies.”

Lanner Group also plans to roll out RLM with its law enforcement simulation, PRISM, and pharmaceutical simulation, Px-SIM, range of products in the near future.

The release of WITNESS Power with Ease 2.01 is part of a series of updates to improve the flexibility, power and ease-of-use of WITNESS software. Development objectives are set with the end user in mind, by consulting directly with WITNESS customers through client service reviews, site visits, and other informal conversations about what improvements customers would most like to see in the software.

Over the past two years Lanner Group’s development team has added built-in Quick 3D capability to WITNESS software.  This ability tracks and optimizes energy consumption and a host of other improvements to enhance user experience of WITNESS. This momentum continues with the release of WITNESS Power with Ease 3.0 later this year.

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About Lanner Group, Inc.

Lanner Group Ltd, headquartered in Redditch, UK, with its Americas subsidiary Lanner Group, Inc. in Houston Texas, is dedicated to delivering innovative solutions to model, analyze and optimize processes through simulation software and enables business managers to make comprehensive decisions in a risk-free environment.  Industry sectors include law enforcement and public sector, energy, defense, aerospace, automotive, manufacturing and healthcare.  The Lanner Group portfolio is based around the leading business improvement products WITNESS, L-SIM, Px-SIM and PRISM.  Its client roster includes end users such as HP, 3M, Boeing, Ford, GM, Nissan, and Rolls Royce. www.lanner.com

Summary: The Reprise License Manager provides a win-win solution by ensuring Textronix’s customers that they have enough licenses to satisfy their business requirements and, at the same time, that they are not paying for more licenses than they need. Also, the license manager protects  intellectual property from unauthorized use while increasing overall revenue as customers purchase all the licenses they need.

Tektronix selects RLM

Network operators today are faced with many challenges that impact their businesses – more competition, technology challenges, and a more demanding customer base. Many network operators have been caught off-guard and are searching for viable, cost-efficient solutions that will mitigate these challenges and enable all facets of their business to excel. At Tektronix Communications we develop Network Intelligence Solutions to help fixed, mobile and next-generation operators around the world better manage their networks, services and customers by providing them with accurate, real-time (and historical) information that can be leveraged by multiple departments such as customer care, product planning, network operations, network traffic and engineering, and more.

To be able to meet the constantly changing network demands and growth as well different operator sizes and requirements, we introduced a new innovative Applications Platform, IrisView. As the framework behind the Network Intelligence portfolio, IrisView provides a seamless user experience for all applications within the framework­regardless of the underlying data source.

Such flexibility required the embedded power of a license manager platform to enable the dynamic change, update and packaging of customer tailored solutions using different IrisView modules. Using the IrisView embedded license manager, RLM from Reprise Software, we were able to creatively price, package, and bundle products for broader and deeper operator’s market penetration whether it is on the mobile or fixed side. To meet emerging markets demands, we were also able to quickly create corresponding product packages to better serve these markets. With the license manager we were also able to offer our customers the use of IrisView applications trials or evaluations. Such trials enabled shorten acceptance cycles and generated interest in our new product features and upgrades.

In summary, the IrisView license manager provides a win-win solution by ensuring our customers that they have enough licenses to satisfy their business requirements and, at the same time, that they are not paying for more licenses than they need. In addition, the IrisView license manager protects Tektronix Communications intellectual property from unauthorized use while increasing overall revenue as customers purchase all the licenses they need.

GenArts was motivated by the need for software license management on an expanding set of development platforms, while reducing licensing and support costs which had increased steadily with little to no product improvement.

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Summary: Reprise RLM fit IO Methodoloy’s needs. It is not only easy to integrate, but is also flexible enough to allow fine licensing control of product features to fit their customers’ requirements.

RLM Customer Story:

IO Methodology Inc. (www.iometh.com) is a start-up EDA company specializing in simulation modeling tools and services. Its SIMDE (Signal Integrity Modeling Development Environment) tool helps customers, especially big semiconductor vendors, to develop accurate, IP protected and industry-standardized models.

Simulation modeling development and validation is a niche market, but it is critical for chip vendors who are looking to deliver their devices to high-speed system vendors. SIMDE is currently the only product focused on this type of solution.

IO Methodology, Inc. struggled to pick the right licensing tool for SIMDE. Reprise RLM fit our needs. It is not only easy to integrate into our tools but is also flexible enough to allow fine licensing control of product features to fit our customers’ requirements.

As a small company, IO Methodology believes that providing responsive, reliable support to its customers is the key to its success. Reprise Software’s RLM helps IO Methodology to represent that high level support commitment to its customers.

Summary: Automotive and industrial customers have worldwide locations requiring a flexible and stable license manager. Innovative features like internet based activation, trial licenses and maintenance period management convinced HighTec that the Reprise License Manager was the proper fit.

RLM Customer Story:

Our product PXROS-HR is a real-time operating system for embedded targets with unique safety and security features.

The operating system manages the so-called memory protection unit (MPU) of a controller to encapsulate data, stack and communication between different processes.

Apart from PXOS-HR we offer customized version of GNU based compiler with integrated development environment in Eclipse.

Key features of PXROS-HR:

• Integrated MPU management
• No additional interrupt latencies
• Tasks reloading and debugging capabilities
• Unique safety and security functionality

Since our automotive and industrial customers have worldwide locations, we need a flexible and stable license manager. Innovative features like internet based activation and the excellent support of RLM convinced us that the integration of a license manager in our products would be simple and safe.

The Reprise License Manager gives us more flexibility in providing potential customers our tools with limited duration trial licenses. We also needed functionality to enforce our maintenance period and we now do this by the “version number” in the RLM license.

Summary: RLM provides enough flexibility to adapt to continually evolving licensing ideas. Reprise also successfully supports Cortona’s evaluation software program with a “no-touch” license model, in which downloads are activated over the internet to encourage later sales.

RLM Customer Story:

Prepared by Vee Baker, Cortona3D

Cortona3D software assists equipment manufacturers to efficiently and cost effectively deliver customer focused technical publications that guide users through the support, maintenance and training of their products. Headquartered in Dublin, Cortona3D sells worldwide through a network of specialist resellers who consult, advise and support customers through the product selection process and their successful implementation through the application of industry best practices,

The Rapid family of tools has specific packages to generate manuals, interactive parts catalogs and learning materials such as computer based training. Traditional technical publications processes involve the re-creation of engineering data by either re-drawing or taking ‘snapshots’ of the data. With Rapid tools users establish a direct connection to the changing engineering data design – so updates are captured automatically ensuring consistency with latest designs, and as there is no re-drawing errors are significantly reduced. Elimination both these practices significantly decreases the time taken to create the materials – speeding the product time to market and reducing costs.

Cortona3D have been using Reprise Software licensing for over 3 years now, and were one of its early adopters. Initial selection was made on the basis of the technical ability of the package, but the costing model was also very competitive. The tool provides flexibility as our licensing ideas are continually evolving, currently node-locked and site-wide versions of the tools are available. Reprise also easily delivers changes for customers – adding incremental licenses after the initial purchase, upgrading from locked to site-wide, migrating locked licenses from machine to machine, etc.

Reprise also successfully supports our evaluation software program. Cortona3D offers limited capability evaluation copies of our Rapid tools direct from www.cortona3D.com. In order to offer this without license management overhead a no-touch license model was essential, so these evaluation version downloads are activated over the internet as are the product sales.

Cortona3D remains committed to licensing with Reprise Software as it offers a flexible, cost effective, easily manageable solution for both us and our customers.