HELP!
Is your company a victim of Bentley‘s software licensing policies?
We used to be happy with the SELECT subscription‘s TrustLicensing program until about two and a half years ago when we learned about the„bucket method“ of license usage (see attached file „What is usage and how is it calculated.pdf“ in zip) and what itmeant for us.
At this time, two and a half years ago and ever since,Bentley has repeatedly demanded that we buy more licenses since our „buckets“ haveoverflowed. Since we felt that we werenot using the software that much, we examinedthe records stored on the SELECTserver user login to see what the actual usagewas. We looked at every new record for aday, each of which meant that a license was being pulled out of the pool, andits Stop Time to see how many licenses were being used at the same time. We found out that we were only using thelicenses we had bought and paid SELECT subscription fees for. Attached is a study for one day („Efla - Application Usage By Hour -27-05-2013.xlsx“ in zip), one of many we have reviewed.
We own 10 PowerDraft licenses (also 10 MicroStation, 2InRoads, 1 Geopack and 1 Bentley Building Mechanical Systems license) and forthis particular day we only used a maximum of 10 licenses simultaneously.
Alas, Bentley doesnot allow us to use our licenses in this way! Instead, they count the licenses being used „within the hour“ so theycount 16 licenses being used on this particular day instead of 10. So if someone uses a license in such a waythat use starts one minute before the hour or ends one minute after the hour,12-14% of the license working day is lost. If someone uses a license for 10 minutes and use happens to straddle thehour, 21-24% of the license working day is lost. And this might happen more than once per day.
For this Bentley is asking for 17% of the cost of a licenseas a SELECT subscription fee, which is more than most other vendors ask for(10-15%) for similar or better services.
Why are we not allowed to use every license we havepurchased every second? In our caseBentley wants us to own MORE than 10licenses so we can use 10 licenses without overfilling the „buckets“. That is a hefty overhead they want us to pay. Bentley‘s Trust Licensing has gotten a wholenew sinister meaning.
Is it only us? Haveyou looked at your true usage for your overflowing „buckets“ (or your peaks)? Have you had to pay for more licenses inorder to keep the „buckets“ from overflowing even though your true usage hasbeen much less? Please share yourexperiences. What is your „bucket“ usagevs. the true usage? Our max is 16 vs. 10. For this Bentley wants us to suffer, i.e. forthe way we use our licenses.
We don‘t think it‘s fair that you can‘t use yourlicenses every second of the working day in any way you like without paying a premiumfor extra licenses that you don‘t use. Every other vendor we know of allows you to use your licenses everysecond of the day.
There is a very good Understanding, Monitoring and Managing Usage blog article related to this that was posted recently and is very much worth reading.
Unknown said: There is a very good Understanding, Monitoring and Managing Usage blog article related to this that was posted recently and is very much worth reading.
This blog appears to be just about trust licencing, and not how our licences are managed. Why is there a difference?
For some reason, I cannot add to the existing thread of the same name as my Subject.
Anyway, I exported some select series records to Excel and on my MicroStation usages, I have 28380 records. I set a filter to show only 2 Hr usages using the Bucket Method of counting. Then I set a second filter to show only 10 minutes of usage using the time stamps. I was left with 3908 records or 13% of my usages where a real usage of 10 minutes were counted as 2 hours of usage.
On my InRoads Survey, I had 22578 records. Setting the "Bucket" filter to 2 Hr usages and 10 min. of time stamp usage, left me with 3026 records or 13% of my usages where real usages of 10 minutes were counted as 2 hours of usage.
I believe that is excessive.
I also looked at hours of usage based upon real minutes vs "Bucket" hours. When I sum the total number of minutes of usage, based upon timestamps and calculate the number of hours that equals, I get a number equal to 20% of the total number of hours calculated by the Bucket Method.This was true of both products mentioned above.
Now this type of analysis is not based upon concurrent usage. But for a method of counting usage to vary so much from actual usage, it certainly suggests that either a smaller "bucket" increment makes sense or that overages that occur due to this "accounting" method might be granted a bit more leniency.
It would be nice if we could set some variable and if set, the product always attempts to check in upon start and if successful, reports the available licenses, according to its current data with a dialog box to confirm you wish to continue if an overage is likely. And a second button to list users and PC's on record as having a product open. Such a setting could allow usage even if no connection was made
Charles (Chuck) Rheault CADD Manager
MDOT State Highway Administration
To be honest I don't 'get' the bucket hours thing.
Unknown said: It would be nice if we could set some variable and if set, the product always attempts to check in upon start and if successful, reports the available licenses, according to its current data with a dialog box to confirm you wish to continue if an overage is likely. And a second button to list users and PC's on record as having a product open. Such a setting could allow usage even if no connection was made
Now this is a good idea. May stop some of the over usage if it could be implimented.
Unknown said: For some reason, I cannot add to the existing thread of the same name as my Subject.
Full disclosure, the original thread was locked temporarily, mainly because we were seeing off-topic "contributions" that are not conducive to our forums -- the decision to do that is not something that will be discussed. We have since "joined" the two threads, changed the title of the result to be more on-topic, and unlocked the thread for the express purpose of continuing the discussion in a professional manner.
Also, please be assured that we are not ignoring the constructive feedback in this thread. We appreciate your understanding (in advance) regarding this.