X-Formation - Year in Review - 2022

X-Formation – Year in Review – 2022

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” — Henry Ford

At this time of year, our thoughts often turn to what we’ve accomplished, and what is to come.

As we look at our past year here at X-Formation, we’re proud of all we’ve achieved together, within our hard-working team and along with you, our customers. We are grateful for all of the suggestions and feedback that you’ve given over the past year to help us make our products the best they can be.

As the new year approaches, we look forward to continuing this collaboration and being part of what helps your business to succeed in 2023 and beyond.

Here, we recount some of the highlights from our accomplishments in 2022.

License Statistics Achievements

Our License Statistics team has been digging in during the past year, improving overall user experience and implementing new features based on customer feedback, to ensure you’re able to effectively and efficiently track your organization’s license usage.

Improved UX

Sometimes, it’s the little things that count the most. We strive to make License Statistics easy for anyone to use, and we’re constantly looking for ways to make our user interface more intuitive and ensure that gathered statistics data is readily accessible and understandable. For example, redesigned chart tooltips now include more information, such as duration of license usage, and are formatted using a labeled list that’s easier to read.

Turning attention to detail, we’ve made layout improvements that make it easier to see information about features, users and hosts, and ensured consistency of labels and content in report grids, information panels, and LDAP Schema Settings to help make License Statistics even simpler to use and understand.

More details in reports

Our comprehensive license usage tracking reports now deliver even more data about current and historical usage, helping you uncover details about available licenses, how many licenses are in use or have been borrowed, utilization percentages, total licenses used, denials, and more. In addition to expanding on reported usage data, we’ve added more information to User properties, such as complete LDAP data, that can easily be shown or hidden in report details.

Improvements for License Statistics Administration

For License Statistics administrators, we’ve added more information to license server usage and license detail grids, and added the ability to invalidate (clear) report cache, customize the LDAP Users Import interval, and receive warnings when host resources are below minimum requirements. New connection settings for Remote Monitoring let you restrict the Hostname field entry to hostname or domain, and allow you to force an HTTPS connection.

We’ve also enhanced error reporting, with improved import validation that accounts for errors that occur when importing usage and denials. The level of events tracked in the log is now customizable, so you can track all events, just warnings and errors, or limit the log to error reporting. Furthermore, we’ve made the report easier to use by improving sorting and filtering, and adding the ability to delete all grid contents at once.

In addition, to make your life a little easier, you can now reset the administrator password to the default password with the click of a button using License Statistics Manager.

License Statistics Agent enhancements

Those who use License Statistics Agents will be happy to know that we now support backward compatibility for License Statistics Agent, up to five minor versions older than the License Statistics version. The Agents grid has been improved with additions to data and the ability to disconnect all agents at one time. We also expanded email notifications by adding a new alert for outdated License Statistics Agents, so you can stay on top of your licensing needs.

Expanded support for license managers and the latest platforms

Always broadening our ability to serve our user community’s diverse needs, we’ve added support for Altium Infrastructure Server (AIS/PLS) and GHS license managers (both support remote monitoring and imports), and expanded support for Dassault license manager to allow for monitoring authorization items.

Keeping up with the latest platforms, we now include support for:

  • Windows 11
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Debian 11
  • Ubuntu 22.04

In addition to these more notable new features and enhancements, we’ve made loads of smaller enhancements and fixes that ensure the stability and quality you’ve come to expect from License Statistics.

LM-X Achievements

With all of the strides made with License Statistics over the past year taking the spotlight, let’s not forget about LM-X License Manager! Our developers have also been striving to make sure that LM-X delivers unbeatable security for your applications while ensuring ease of use for your end-users.

Take a look at just a few of the highlights from the past year’s development work on LM-X.

Expanded support

LM-X now supports:

  • Visual Studio 2022
  • UTF-8 on Windows
  • Raspberry Pi

Miscellaneous enhancements

Over the past year, we’ve made enhancements to LM-X that include:

  • Adding a warning to the license server log when an unlimited license will be reserved
  • Making improvements to license server networking
  • Reducing SDK compilation time
  • Resolving an issue with using secure store between different LM-X versions
  • Fixing an issue with the license server allocating too much memory for network buffers
  • Improving stability for systems that are not POSIX-compliant

We celebrate you!

Without you, our customers, we would not be where we are today. Despite challenging economic times, we have been blessed to celebrate a long working relationship with many of you for 5, 10, or even more years. On behalf of our entire team—many of whom have also been with us for over a decade—I wholeheartedly wish you and your families the best, as we look forward to shared successes in the coming year.

Happy holidays to all, and a prosperous New Year!

Henrik Goldman
X-Formation Founder and CEO

X-Formation - Year in Review

X-Formation – Year in Review

“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” — Joshua J. Marine

It’s been an amazing year, full of challenges and successes. Here at X-Formation, our team has been working hard to improve and expand on the capabilities of License Statistics and LM-X License Manager, devoted to helping your business prosper with effective, cost-saving license management solutions.

Now that the year is coming to a close, we’d like to thank you, our customers, for your continued cooperation. We cannot do this without you. All the improvements and new features we’ve delivered during 2021 are based on your invaluable feedback.

Let’s reflect on what we’ve accomplished together over the past year, as we set our sights on making the coming year even better.

License Statistics Achievements

License Statistics users have seen many major new features over the past year, with some of the most significant among them Custom Application Monitoring, streamlined reports, and support for two additional license managers.

Read on to find out more about these capabilities and how they can help you to stay on top of your license management.

Custom Application Monitoring

Many of our customers have been seeing immediate benefits from employing Custom Application Monitoring to track license usage for their end-user applications, even when the application has no license server or log file. We implemented this feature in response to your needs to expand your license tracking abilities and make informed decisions when budgeting for desktop applications.

This new feature leverages License Statistics Agent to gather usage information—such as the time and duration of usage, number of instances used and by which users and hosts—for any user that starts a configured application on any end-user host. The agents then pass the data along to License Statistics for presentation in its usual reports.

With Custom Application Monitoring, you can learn everything you need to know about the usage of any end-user application, helping you stay on top of all your license management needs.

Simplified, streamlined reports

Less is more, with streamlined statistics reporting that both reduces the number of reports and more clearly divides realtime and historical statistics.

With this new structure, you can more quickly drill down to answer specific questions, such as who is consuming licenses in realtime; which users have been denied access to licenses and when; and how one feature’s license usage compares to others.

This all adds up to time savings and enhanced understanding of your license management needs, so you can zero in on how to best optimize your licenses to increase productivity and reduce costs throughout your organization.

Additional support for license managers

With the addition of support for two new license managers, bringing the number of supported license managers to nearly 30 different types, we’re broadening our ability to serve our user community’s diverse needs. Our newly supported license manager types include:

  • Zoo License Manager, with support for remote and imported data sources; feature versioning; and license borrowing (imported data only)
  • CodeMeter Network License Server (remote data sources only)

Once again, we’ve been listening to what you need and responding with all of these valuable new developments, along with the multitude of other fixes and enhancements made to License Statistics in the past year.

But wait—there’s more!

LM-X Achievements

X-Formation’s developers were also bustling during this past year to make sure that LM-X License Manager is reliable and packed with all the features you need to license your software with flexibility and confidence. Among the LM-X team’s most significant accomplishments are the addition of a new “upgrade” license type, support for Linux ARM, and a plethora of stability and performance improvements.

You can find out more about these LM-X advancements below.

Upgrade licenses

Our new “upgrade” license type supplants the “additive” license type, as a much-improved solution. Upgrade licenses let you add licenses for software features that your customers buy after the initial purchase of a license, without changing the original license.

Upgrade licenses increase the license count of exclusive licenses by a particular number of licenses, while simultaneously being completely transparent to the client. This approach allows for greater flexibility in handling license add-ons than were possible with additive licenses, because additive licenses are seen as a separate license pool of the same feature.

We hope you’ll find life a little easier when it comes to license upgrades for your customers, thanks to this new feature.

Support for Linux on ARM

Many customers have asked for support for the Linux ARM 64-bit platform, and we’ve delivered. Linux ARM has been gaining in popularity for high-performance computing (HPC) due to the platform’s exceptionally low energy consumption while maintaining high processing power.

Stability and performance improvements

Over the past year, we’ve made huge leaps in stability and performance. You’ll find that the license server is able to serve many more clients under even greater loads, and LMX_GetLicenseInfo handling performance has been particularly improved.

We do it all for you!

With all the hustle and bustle of bringing 2021 to a close and ushering in 2022, we are filled with gratitude for all of our customers. You bring purpose and satisfaction to every day, knowing that our work is helping to make your business thrive.

With the pandemic continuing to bring challenges into both our business and personal lives, our sincere wish is that you enjoy gathering with your loved ones over the holidays while staying safe and healthy, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with you in the coming new year.

Happy holidays, and a happy and prosperous New Year!

Henrik Goldman
X-Formation Founder and CEO

Public holiday notice for 2023

Dear Customers,

We wish to advise that our office in Krakow will be closed on the following days during 2023:

January 6 (Friday)
April 10 (Monday)
May 1 (Monday)
May 3 (Wednesday)
June 8 (Thursday)
August 15 (Tuesday)
November 1 (Wednesday)
December 25 (Monday)
December 26 (Tuesday)

Our sales staff will be unavailable on this day, including both phone and email, so responses to your queries may be delayed.
Thank you for your understanding,

X-Formation Team

The Founding of X-Formation and How the Company have Replaced the Word “Failure” with “Lessons”

Today, we spoke with Henrik about the founding of X-Formation and all the lessons learned in the years the company has been around.

Henrik Goldman founded X-Formation in 2004, and over the past 15 years, the company has come a long way. We have expanded our headquarters and are opening an R&D office. Today, we’re going to look at how far we’ve come and the things we have learned over time through an interview with our founder.

Interviewer: How did you get your idea or concept for X-Formation?

Henrik Goldman: “The idea came about when I was looking at professional products in the field. I was so frustrated about the poor quality of them, it got me saying to myself, ‘I know I can do better.’ The motivation was to give customers better value for their money. For 15 years, this has been the motivation and still is. What’s important to us is giving customers a quality product with good and fast support so they know they found a good business partner.”

How many employees do you have?

“25 people, mostly engineers. We’re an engineering driven company listening to customer requirements and transforming it into solutions.”

What is your ultimate goal or mission for your software licensing programs?

“The goal is to make a difference for customers. It’s a success for me, as the owner, and the team to see customers keep using the software for over 10 years. Collecting as many happy customers as possible, making lives easier for customers, and ensuring that we can be part of their success are all great goals of ours.”

Why do you think X-Formation has been so successful?

“Because of our customer focus. Not many software companies are able to survive for 15 years. In the beginning, many customers asked me personally if the company would still be around after 5 years. 15 years later, I’m sadly not able to answer that since those customers’ companies don’t exist anymore. For those that still do, we’re proud to be part of their success story.”

“Constant focus on the customer and ensuring their happiness is what makes the difference. We’re small compared to many large players, which makes it very important for us to be agile.”

What has been your biggest success with the company?

“To survive for 15 years and to celebrate it with some of the largest companies in the world, many of whom are our customers. Companies generating billions in revenue keep trusting us every day. We’re grateful for that. Having more than 600 companies as our customers keeps us going and growing.”

Have you had failures? How do you learn from them?

“Sadly, most failures have been customer disappointments due to growing pains related to unfit hires. While we strive for the best, it’s not always possible to succeed. Sometimes a bad hiring decision has had an avalanching effect down the line. For that, I’m truly sorry.

The best way to get around this is to quickly resolve whatever problems arise in order to regain trust. Always react fast.

“Fast reactions. Reacting quickly to any problems allows you to correct your mistakes quicker and right your wrongs. Today, I’m proud to be working with a team where all core members have been working with me side-by-side for over five years. It’s remarkable how many good things come out of working with people who you can trust and rely on.”

What would you tell someone looking to get started in the industry or just with their dream?

“Don’t wait, just start! Learn as much as you can, and keep learning every single day! I always say that if you have a talent then it’s your duty to make the most use of it. I am lucky to be in the software industry. An industry I love, and that I find as much a hobby as it is work.

However, success is hard. Work smart.

We’re happy to announce a new website!

New, even more user-friendly layout!

In order to make your time on our website more enjoyable we cut out the unnecessary sections. We didn’t change any urls or the navigation logic. Everything is there in the same place you left it but now it’s better looking!

We also revamped the content!

No one likes to read long descriptions. That’s why we also streamlined our content. It now flows seamlessly with the layout. We used more bullet points so it’s much easier to follow and compare different products. You can even read all about what we have to offer on a single page and then navigate from there to learn more details!

If you haven’t tried License Statistics or our other products yet, it’s a perfect time to do so! Head on to our new License Statistics page.

Case Study: License Statistics helps Walter Leisinger AG keep track of historical license usage data and optimize license purchases accordingly

About Walter Leisinger AG

The Walter Leisinger AG is an engineering company with around 25 employees and over 40 years of experience.

The company’s core activities centre around surveying, planning, and civil engineering. Being familiar with local and regional conditions, Walter Leisinger AG is capable of offering individual counselling and solutions tailored to the specific needs of their customers. Thanks to following high standards of performance and quality management based on ISO, the company can boast a loyal, long-time customer base and is proud to be keeping up with latest industry trends and developments.

The Business Challenge

The company, like many businesses today, wanted to shift their focus on minimizing costs and on effective use of expensive software licenses. Before choosing License Statistics, they didn’t know how many licenses they were using. Walter Leisinger AG wanted to ensure that they had the right number of licenses to accommodate their operations and they wanted to optimize usage of licenses; therefore, the company was looking for an effective license management solution that would help them estimate license costs and plan purchases according to actual license use.

Solutions other than License Statistics were not supplying all information they needed; for example, they didn’t provide storing usage history for monitored applications. License Statistics made all the above possible out of the box and delivered many more powerful features, increasing productivity and the ROI of software investment.

The License Statistics Solution

Walter Leisinger AG chose License Statistics, because the software meets, at an affordable price, their requirements for monitoring license usage over a longer period of time (for example, over a year). License Statistics proved to be a full-featured license monitoring solution that helped them monitor historical data and make well-informed purchasing decisions based on such observations.

Summary

Thanks to License Statistics, Walter Leisinger AG can effectively monitor their license usage and accurately plan license purchases. The company is satisfied with all features of the product, as well as with the high level of technical support provided by X-Formation.

Case Study: RMC chooses easy integration and superior customer support with LM-X License Manager

About RMC

RMC delivers engineering consultancy services for the oil and gas (O&G) industry. With a wealth of experience dating back to 1980s, RMC is able to provide engineering consultancy services even for most demanding and complex industrial and commercial projects.

Currently, RMS is focused on developing the PCS (Pipe Calculation System), an application that provides pipe stress engineers with an interface for a finite element solver (Simulia Abaqus). PCS offers an easy-to-use interface that provides geometric modeling of pipe geometry, post-processing templates, report generation, as well as a number of other features used for finite element simulation of large piping systems.

The Business Challenge

RMC was facing many integration issues with third-party software providers delivering their APIs on a custom python kernel, which proved to be challenging for them. The company needed a licensing solution that would address their licensing needs and would offer a solution capable of integrating some custom APIs.

The LM-X Solution

LM-X License Manager fit the company’s requirements for the software well because it has all the needed features , works without hassles, and the support is excellent. According to RMC, LM-X provides first-class license management utilities even when it’s implemented in fairly uncommon software environments, which is exactly what they were looking for in a software license management solution.

Summary

RMC has been satisfied with the solution they’ve found with LM-X License Manager because LM-X was easy to integrate with their own solutions. They also discovered that X-Formation understands them and is able to address their unique needs by providing effective and quick customer support.

For RMC, LM-X License Manager proved to be the better license management solution, with better flexibility, features, and great technical support.

Case Study: Pemex Exploracion y Produccion uses License Statistics to explore areas for savings

About Pemex Exploracion y Produccion

PEMEX Exploracion y Produccion, part of Pemex, the Mexican state-owned petroleum company, is dedicated to the exploration and production of hydrocarbons across Mexico. Company’s main activities involve oil and natural gas exploration and exploitation, conveyance, storage in terminals, as well as first hand commercialization. PEMEX Exploracion y Produccion dominates the rankings in offshore hydrocarbons production and scores very high in crude production and crude reserves.

The Business Challenge

Before discovering License Statistics, PEMEX Exploracion y Produccion didn’t use any license management solution. However, with the increase in reserves and production of hydrocarbons, the company began to recognize the need for an efficient license monitoring software with powerful reporting capabilities that would effectively measure and manage license usage and optimize software costs.

The License Statistics Solution

PEMEX Exploracion y Produccion chose License Statistics, because X-Formation’s software monitoring tool turned out to be a flexible and adaptable solution that let them measure the volume of demand for software products to optimize investment costs. Through better planning, the company was able to stay on top of its license requirements. What PEMEX Exploracion y Produccion appreciated most about License Statistics was its ability to show license usage based on how many licenses were used for how long and the percentage of utilization for these licenses.

Summary

License Statistics proved to be a reliable technology for measuring the utilization of licenses and providing effective and precise measurement that allows to make well-informed decisions regarding software spend during the entire process in PEMEX Exploracion y Produccion. In addition, License Statistics’ pay-per-use option enables them to appropriate license costs for each of their divisions based on real license usage.

Get to know License Statistics

X-Formation moving premises

Dear Customers,

 

We’re excited to inform you that we are in the concluding stage of relocating to the new office, which is more suited to our needs and will let us grow even further in the future.

Due to moving to sparkly new office space, our telephones will be offline on 20 February 2015 until the end of the day. Also, please note that answers to your emails may be delayed on this day.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

 

Kind regards,

X-Formation Team

Here we grow again!

EARLIER this year we celebrated X-Formation’s 10th anniversary in business and its successful transition from a youthful start-up to a company with an established track record of more than 500 Customers , to whom we are genuinely grateful for their contribution and collaboration with us over these amazing 10 years.

We take pride in our “can do” approach and our ability to provide reliable software licensing solutions and solid, unflagging support, because we know that being able to deliver on promises and meet customers’ needs translates into our ability to retain so many of them. Our customer retention rate is a stunning 96%+, and the goal is to keep it that way.

As our customer base grows, so does our staff.

We continue to add talented individuals to our team—this year we have expanded our engineering staff and support crew. As our team grows, so does our overall skill level, and we become stronger and therefore able to provide even more sophisticated software licensing solutions and superior level of support to our customers.

Our multinational team, which is made up of almost 25 people, is comprised of passionate individuals with diverse backgrounds, each of whom is committed to embrace a collaborative approach to working and serving our customers.

IN THE WAKE OF our growth and expansion over the past years, as well as our increased team size, we realized that we needed to have more space for our employees. This is why we bought new real property which is almost double the size of the one where we work now. The new seat will get the super modern setup and will undoubtedly be one of the best-designed, inspiring offices in Europe’s Silicon Valley, Cracow .

With this great change, which is one of the biggest oneson record, we are planning to further increase our performance and enhance our three end-to-end software licensing solutions: License Statistics , LM-X License Manager and License Activation Center (LAC) so that our customers can continue increasing their productivity and boost business operations.

Some even more ambitious plans are in the offing, and we will keep you up-to-date on the latest news and events at X-Formation. Suffice it to say that we stay focused on keeping an eye for ways to reach new markets and grow further.

Follow us on our website and Facebook to get the latest updates and know what changes are on the cards.

Thank you for you support! But for you, we wouldn’t be here now. The credit for all our remarkable success goes to the trust we’ve been able to gain thanks to our valued Customers.

On this occasion, we would also like to wish all our Customers Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and a lot of success and prosperity in the coming year.