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.