This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

HELP! – Bentley‘s software licensing policies?

HELP!

Is your company a victim of Bentley‘s software licensing policies?

We used to be happy with the SELECT subscription‘s Trust
Licensing 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 it
meant 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“ have
overflowed.  Since we felt that we were
not using the software that much,  we examined
the records stored on the SELECTserver user login to see what the actual usage
was.  We looked at every new record for a
day, each of which meant that a license was being pulled out of the pool, and
its Stop Time to see how many licenses were being used at the same time.  We found out that we were only using the
licenses 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, 2
InRoads, 1 Geopack and 1 Bentley Building Mechanical Systems license) and for
this particular day we only used a maximum of 10 licenses simultaneously.

Alas,  Bentley does
not allow us to use our licenses in this way! 
Instead, they count the licenses being used „within the hour“ so they
count 16 licenses being used on this particular day instead of 10.  So if someone uses a license in such a way
that 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 the
hour, 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 license
as 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 have
purchased every second?  In our case
Bentley wants us to own MORE than 10
licenses 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 whole
new sinister meaning.

Is it only us?  Have
you looked at your true usage for your overflowing „buckets“ (or your peaks)?  Have you had to pay for more licenses in
order to keep the „buckets“ from overflowing even though your true usage has
been much less?  Please share your
experiences.  What is your „bucket“ usage
vs. the true usage?  Our max is 16 vs. 10.  For this Bentley wants us to suffer, i.e. for
the way we use our licenses.

We don‘t think it‘s fair that you can‘t use your
licenses every second of the working day in any way you like without paying a premium
for extra licenses that you don‘t use. 
Every other vendor we know of allows you to use your licenses every
second of the day.

Is your company a victim of Bentleys software licensing policies.zip
Parents
  • If you want to limit the number of licenses being used in your organization you need some sort of "license overage control tool". Launch your applications through another application that checks whether a license is available before launching the actual requested application. That way there are no nasty surprises at the end of your quarter.

    Just offering your users a choice of what application to launch after double-clicking a dgn already goes part of the way in preventing accidental overage.

    The downside is that everyone who uses a Bentley application needs a connection to a central server to be sure you're not unintentionally overfilling your buckets. Bentley, rightfully, allows usage of the software without being connected, filling the buckets within 30 days after the fact. Unconnected usage always leaves the possibility of overage.

    Whether the hourly buckets are a "fair" implementation of pooled licensing is another matter, and at the sole discretion of Bentley so not much anyone else can do anything about.
Reply
  • If you want to limit the number of licenses being used in your organization you need some sort of "license overage control tool". Launch your applications through another application that checks whether a license is available before launching the actual requested application. That way there are no nasty surprises at the end of your quarter.

    Just offering your users a choice of what application to launch after double-clicking a dgn already goes part of the way in preventing accidental overage.

    The downside is that everyone who uses a Bentley application needs a connection to a central server to be sure you're not unintentionally overfilling your buckets. Bentley, rightfully, allows usage of the software without being connected, filling the buckets within 30 days after the fact. Unconnected usage always leaves the possibility of overage.

    Whether the hourly buckets are a "fair" implementation of pooled licensing is another matter, and at the sole discretion of Bentley so not much anyone else can do anything about.
Children
No Data