Is Your License Technology Aligned with Your Customer’s Needs?
2019-04-04 Daniela Previtali
Over the past 30 years, we’ve helped hundreds of companies migrate from their homegrown or vendor-supplied licensing solution to our CodeMeter licensing and protection platform. While there are many reasons why ISVs and embedded systems engineers have evaluated CodeMeter and chosen to migrate, a common thread has emerged: Their current technology is lacking and does not enable them to keep up with the changing business complexities and the protection and licensing needs of their customers. In turn, this struggle has harmed their competitiveness in the market and potentially damaged their long-term customer relationships.
Here is a sampling of conversations we’ve had with our customers that led them to consider migrating their licensing solution to CodeMeter:
“We acquired a couple of companies in the last few years and now we find ourselves with three different licensing solutions in place. Can you please help us run an analysis of which features are crucial to us and consolidate the whole ecosystem?”
“When we started our business, we went for a simple copy protection solution. Now that we have a stable stream of income and even more ambitious plans for the future, we would like to use a more sophisticated license management system. Can you assist us?”
“Our current protection solution focused mostly on code obfuscation. However, we have come to realize that an approach which includes scrambled encryption algorithms and cutting-edge encryption methods is the way to go. What can Wibu-Systems offer in this direction?”
“The IoT is such an exciting opportunity that we decided to extend our portfolio. We would like a single technology for IP protection and license lifecycle management that works with computers, mobile devices, embedded systems, and PLCs. Is CodeMeter the right choice?”
“We are using a world leading IDE for PLCs to develop our IEC 61131 applications, but we feel like more stringent security policies could safeguard our know-how even better. Do you have a module that fully integrates and adds secure key storage, associated with a secure hardware element?”
“If the future is the cloud, we don’t want to miss it. So far, we have been using software and hardware-based license containers, but being able to move our applications as SaaS to the cloud would represent a pivotal business advantage. Is your cloud solution mature enough?”
“With our current licensing system, deploying licenses takes up too much of our valuable time. We want to be able to streamline the complete process in a way that our ERP system does automatically the heavy lifting for us. Which back office platforms do you support?”
“The VARs buying our CodeMeter-secured PLCs have expressed a strong interest in a similar solution that may protect and license the software they sell along with our units. Does your technology provide multivendor capabilities? How can you serve the entire supply chain with the lowest impact possible for all parties involved?”
Beyond these technology and market discussions, we’ve had customers contact us more recently with concerns about their chosen DRM vendor’s commitment to their investment in new technology and ongoing support. Amidst the confusion of mergers and acquisitions and other varied business interests of their suppliers, some ISVs have questioned whether their vendor is truly focused on their licensing technology needs.
If you are thinking about upgrading your current licensing solution, or perhaps you might be considering a new licensing vendor, you have a great opportunity to evaluate CodeMeter and learn more about Wibu-Systems at our upcoming Webinar, Your Migration Map to a Comprehensive Protection and Licensing System, to be held on Wednesday, April 10. You can learn more and register here.
Contributor
Daniela Previtali
Global Marketing Director
Daniela is a marketing veteran who has dedicated more than twenty-five years of her career to the service of world-leading IT security vendors. Throughout her journey in this field, she has covered executive positions in international sales, product marketing, and product management and acquired comprehensive knowledge of both digital rights management solutions and authentication technologies. Working from the German headquarters of Wibu-Systems, she is currently leading both corporate and channel marketing activities, innovating penetration strategies, and infusing her multinational team with a holistic mindset.