The Calendar Hour Policy Has Not Been In Place Since 2006

While it may be true that the calendar hour reporting interval has been around since 2006, the policies relating to the the calendar hour have changed entirely.

Before mid-2013, the Bentley Account Manager played a large role in helping us manage license overages. On a few occasions, we did go over our license count. At that point, we would receive a call from our account manager. We would either purchase new licenses, portfolio balance, or resolve the overages in other ways. I believe that this process was fair and satisfactory to both Bentley and to us. The calendar hour reporting interval meant very little to us because our account manager knew how we were using the licenses, and if license adjustments were actually needed, we would make them.

After mid-2013, the account manager was completely taken out of the equation. From the Open Access contract: "Subscriber acknowledges that use of any Bentley application in excess of license pools will be conveniently and automatically invoiced as Quarterly Term Licenses at the end of each calendar quarter." Apparently, this policy also applies to those who did not "opt-in" to Open Access. The account manager is no longer able to work with the customer to meet the needs of the company. All companies big and small are treated the same now.

I'm placing these comments here because I see Bentley representatives in these forums and in promotional emails state that the calendar hour policy has been around since 2006. It certainly has not.

  • This is the standard comment that account reps have made, and you are correct, they are not being honest. I would imagine that they had this plan in place since 2006, and knew that at some point they were going to change the policy to net a big gain in profits. I have filed a complaint with the NC Attorney Generals office and the federal trade commision over this new profit generator they created, and I would suggest as many people as possible to likewise. We are REQUIRED by our state DOT to use the product, many others are in the same position, they know this, and have us at a dis-advantage.