A Business Success Story Times Two

Some things are just meant to be, whether serendipitous or not – even in business. That’s the backstory of the mutually beneficial relationship that developed between Wibu-Systems and Glaser Programmsysteme.

Glaser specializes in the development of user-friendly construction planning software. Their high powered ISBCAD is used by over 10,000 customers for placement, formwork, armoring, and detailed planning in construction engineering. In 2012, Glaser migrated its ISBCAD software to the .NET framework 4.0 but needed to find a new software licensing and protection solution, as their current solution did not support .NET. Like most software companies who develop specialized, high-end software, they needed a reliable and secure means to prevent copying and reverse engineering, as their old protection systems’ encryption did not live up to modern standards. They also needed a licensing platform with enough flexibility to scale their software packages to meet the usage models required by their customers, and one that could be easily integrated into their existing license creation and distribution sales processes.

Glaser evaluated two licensing systems and chose Wibu-Systems CodeMeter as the optimum solution, and so began a prosperous partnership between the two leading technology companies. At the time, Dipl.-lng. (FH) Matthias Glaser, Managing Director, explained why he chose Wibu-Systems and CodeMeter: “Using CodeMeter has empowered us to license ISBCAD reliably and with pinpoint precision for the needs of our clients. The remote update feature has streamlined our sales processes, getting our products faster into the hands of their users. CodeMeter also puts us in a perfect place to respond to new challenges coming from our clients’ IT preferences, such as virtualization or remote desktop solutions. The extensive and committed support that we experienced from the Wibu-Systems team at every step of the way has been exemplary and went a long way towards us reaching our goals in the ambitious timeframe we had set for the project.”

The second half of the success story began in 2017, when Wibu-Systems began planning its new expanded campus in Karlsruhe, Germany, incorporating a new modern production facility for the company’s headquarters alongside a novel cooperative endeavor, called the House of IT Security. Both buildings were created with the joint expertise of the structural engineers of Haag Ingenieure from Ettlingen, Germany and the CAD specialists of Glaser. The engineers at Haag’s turned to Glaser for their specialized construction ISBCAD engineering software, the very same package with protection and licensing by CodeMeter.

Glaser’s ISBCAD application narrows down the functional spectrum of regular, unspecific CAD applications to concentrate specifically on creating perfect architectural and structural engineering plans, with particularly powerful functions for reinforcement, cladding, and formwork calculations. The resulting data could be easily exported with a range of file formats and interfaces at the user’s disposal. This included the ability to produce the data for enveloping surface calculations, a must-have for designing buildings to comply with Germany’s strict energy efficiency standards.

Their expertise and our vision came together to make not only an attractive place to work and an attraction for the city’s IT talent, but also a physical statement of Wibu-Systems’ belief in future growth and innovation and its commitment to its local roots and traditions. Wibu-Systems was proud to announce the completion of the project and moved into its new facility from January to July 2021.

The mutually beneficial partnership was then solidified.

The engineers at Haag Ingenieure helped us put a new landmark on the map of Karlsruhe’s unique IT ecosystem. With them using the CAD software of Glaser, and Glaser in turn relying on our CodeMeter technology to keep their intellectual property protected, we have come full-circle – we all benefit from each other’s strengths, and our city and its vibrant IT community benefit just as much from the spirit and energy we can add.

You can read the full Glaser case study here. If you would like to learn more about the construction effort for Wibu-Systems headquarters and House of IT Security, you can read our KEYnote article here.