I have not received a substantive response from my Bentley account manager or sales person after 3 weeks, so I am posting here. I will take a response however Bentley chooses to respond.
Given the new licensing terms for SELECT subscribers, how can I control my software costs?
Can Bentley provide a HASP key for each seat of AutoPIPE I wish to continue using?
The open ended, blank check agreement which Bentley is implementing is not acceptable. I will not require my end users's to call all people in our organization to verify how many keys are being used so we don't exceed our allotment and trigger a new bill from Bentley. Our software budgets are set ahead of time. It's not like an electric bill where we use what we use and then pay after the fact. Bentley shall continue to limit our software usage to the prepaid number of seats if they are to maintain our business.
[Edited for typo]
I will attempt to address some of your concerns:
Unknown said:Given the new licensing terms for SELECT subscribers, how can I control my software costs?
The following news article provides pertinent information about understanding and monitoring usage, an important first step in managing it. Limiting access to products will help address overuse. This can be done by removing AutoPIPE from workstations that do not need it and by limiting access to the license itself by using Custom Activation Groups.
Unknown said:Can Bentley provide a HASP key for each seat of AutoPIPE I wish to continue using?
AutoPIPE has been licensed exclusively by the SELECTserver licensing system for several years now. So a HASP key is not a viable option, unfortunately. An account manager can provide the SELECT and non-SELECT licensing options available to you.
A Custom Activation Group does not solve my problem.
My setup is very simple. One license for one piece of software, 4 engineers. To date, we were allowed one copy of the program to be open. When one of us is using the software the rest of us are locked out of it. This is what we want and what we bought.
Under the new terms, we will no longer be locked out or otherwise notified that we are doubling up on the license until we get a bill from Bentley after the fact. In effect, it gives each engineer in my organization the ability to unwittingly purchase a software lease from Bentley.
Is this true?
Unknown said: A Custom Activation Group does not solve my problem. My setup is very simple. One license for one piece of software, 4 engineers. To date, we were allowed one copy of the program to be open. When one of us is using the software the rest of us are locked out of it. This is what we want and what we bought. Under the new terms, we will no longer be locked out or otherwise notified that we are doubling up on the license until we get a bill from Bentley after the fact. In effect, it gives each engineer in my organization the ability to unwittingly purchase a software lease from Bentley. Is this true?
It is 100% true. Check the forums, there are multiple topics with numerous responses about this very user unfriendly way of licensing. EDITED: Let me rephrase....it is a very user friendly setup because you have access to the program whenever you want. For those that manage budgets and are responsible for making $ it is terrible in so many ways.