License Statistics v6.14 introduces simplified, streamlined reporting

License Statistics v6.14 introduces simplified, streamlined reporting

November 19, 2021| | in category License Statistics No comments yet

With License Statistics version 6.14, we’re making your life even easier, with simplified, streamlined reports that more clearly divide realtime and historical statistics and reduce the number of reports, while still providing all the information you need to make wise decisions when it comes to license management.

The improvements to License Statistics reports add up to time savings and enhanced understanding, helping you to:

We understand that regardless of the benefits reaped when changing the user interface of an application you’ve gotten used to, getting accustomed to a shift can take time. To help you with the learning curve, we’ll be maintaining a legacy navigation menu, which you can find at the bottom of the regular menu, for the next few releases of License Statistics. Simply click on the link you were using with previous releases, and you’ll be automatically routed to the new page, with all settings adjusted to show the details you’re looking for.

Our goal is to continuously improve License Statistics in ways that are beneficial for you and directly address the feedback you give us. We’d love to hear how you like the new License Statistics reporting structure and the many other new features and enhancements we’ve delivered with License Statistics v6.14! As always, please feel free to contact support@x-formation.com with any questions. We’ll be delighted to serve you.

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LM-X License Manager Case Study - Schindler GmbH

LM-X License Manager – Customer Case Study: Schindler GmbH

October 18, 2021| | in category LM-X License Manager No comments yet

Client: Schindler GmbH
Problem: Lack of flexibility of licensing schemes
Solution: LM-X License Manager

Problem

A software vendor based out of Germany, Schindler GmbH is the developer of S-Anywhere, a highly regarded software platform that includes modules for maintenance and repair management, facility management, tool management and inventory recording, as well as RFID technology for planning, recording and evaluating inspection rounds.

Like many software providers, Schindler GmbH needed a flexible licensing solution that could support many different licensing models, particularly network and node-locked licensing.

Schindler GmbH tried using HASP HL dongles from Thales, but this solution fell short of serving their customers’ needs. As Markus Schindler, IT Engineer, explained, “IT guidelines of our customers often prohibit the use of hardware dongles,” because many of their customers use outsourced or virtual servers.

How Schindler GmbH Approached the Problem

Schindler GmbH realized that they needed a different licensing solution that was able to accommodate their customers’ needs. “We searched for an alternative, and X-Formation’s LM-X License Manager offered the flexibility we were looking for,” said Schindler. LM-X provided Schindler GmbH with the licensing solution that not only had all the features they needed to achieve their desired results, but made software license management easy.

What It’s Like Now

Not only is LM-X a superior licensing solution with robust, bundled features that solve nearly any licensing needs—X-Formation provides exemplary customer service as well.

Schindler praised, ”Documentation and support was very good, and X-Formation pays attention to customers’ needs.” Schindler concluded,“LM-X is flexible and offers all the license types we need. Furthermore, if we have any questions, the X-Formation support team helps quickly.”

With quality software and fast, professional support in addition to providing flexible options for dongle-free licensing, LM-X was exactly the licensing solution that Schindler GmbH and their customers needed.

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License Statistics v6.13 Introduces Custom Application Monitoring

License Statistics v6.13 Introduces Custom Application Monitoring

September 7, 2021| | in category License Statistics No comments yet

With the introduction of License Harvesting in our previous release of License Statistics, we expanded the capabilities of License Statistics to be able to monitor applications in order to detect and automatically release idle licenses, cutting down on underutilized licenses and associated costs. So why not take it a step further and deliver statistics about the applications being monitored?

With our newest development, Custom Application monitoring, we’ve done just that, evolving License Statistics from a tool limited to monitoring license servers to a system that can monitor and manage application usage. With the combination of Custom Application monitoring and License Harvesting (which can optionally be used for any monitored application), License Statistics now offers a complete solution for monitoring, tracking, reporting and managing usage of any application—even those without a license server or log file—across your entire company.

When a user starts up an application configured for Custom Application monitoring, License Statistics Agents gather the application’s usage information, such as user and host names, time and duration of usage, number of instances used, etc. The usage data is passed along to License Statistics for presentation in its usual reports, with each instance represented as a used license, regardless whether the application is licensed.

Custom Application monitoring makes it easy for your company to stay on top of:

  • Who is using the application, and where and when it’s being used
  • How often your company is using the application overall, so you can eliminate software that’s not being used
  • Whether the application is being used according to your company’s set rules; for example, limits based on working hours (used in combination with License Harvesting, you can even force an application to be unavailable outside of specified hours)

What’s more, setting up Custom Application monitoring is a breeze. See the License Statistics documentation for complete details, and as always, please feel free to contact support@x-formation.com with any questions. We’ll be delighted to serve you.

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LM-X License Manager Case Study - Enventive Engineering Inc

Customer Case Study: Enventive Engineering, Inc.

July 30, 2021| | in category LM-X License Manager No comments yet

Enventive Engineering, Inc. finds the full-featured, low-cost license management software its customers need with LM-X License Manager.

Client: Enventive Engineering, Inc.
Problem: Lack of critical features in its existing license management software.
Solution: LM-X License Manager

Problem

Enventive Engineering, Inc., helps mechanical product industries benefit from the most recent advances in variational computation by making complex tech simple to use. Companies use Enventive tolerance analysis software to accelerate and simplify their product development process workflow to foster innovations and build the mechanical products of the dynamic data and AI century.

At first, Enventive used an economical license manager for its software products, which worked well enough until customers insisted they needed floating licenses to best support their team-based approach to using the software. The old license manager could not support floating licenses, nor could it support the need for annual licenses with a customizable renewal date. Enventive’s customers wanted the ability to purchase new licenses on different dates while maintaining a single renewal date for all licenses.

Enventive realized that it needed a truly full-featured and flexible license management system. However, the license solution it was considering was not only expensive, but the product vendor was well known for devoting little time and attention to the needs of small businesses. It was crucial that Enventive provide its customers with the licensing options they needed. It also wanted a flexible solution that would grow with it, and a vendor that would be responsive to its needs.

How Enventive Approached It

After extensive research, Enventive found one licensing product that outshone the others: X-Formation’s LM-X License Manager. LM-X offered the features the company needed, with greater flexibility and a lower cost than comparable products.

Enventive was delighted with the results of its evaluation. Ralph Gifford, President and CEO of Enventive Engineering, said, “With LM-X, not only did we get all the features we needed, we got a responsiveness to requests for other features that was unbelievable. All we needed to do was mention that we’d like to see a particular feature, and the next thing we knew, X-Formation was handing us a new version of LM-X with the very features we’d asked for.”

While LM-X provided customizable renewal dates and a choice of node-locked and floating licenses, Enventive was particularly impressed with two other key features: Borrowed Licenses and Grace Licenses (both used to make licenses available when users are disconnected from the network). “It’s of the utmost importance that your licensing solution works for your customers,” Mr. Gifford explained. “Our customers see that we have the ability to offer these licensing options, and they are really impressed.”

What It’s Like Now

The LM-X License Manager helped Enventive supply its customers with the licensing options they needed at a lower cost than it would have paid for any other comparable solution. For Enventive and its customers, LM-X License Manager proved to be the best license management solution thanks to its extensive feature set, flexibility, pricing, and product support.

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A Year of License Statistics in Review

A Year of License Statistics in Review

July 8, 2021| | in category License Statistics No comments yet

The past 12 months have seen major upgrades and enhancements in License Statistics, including powerful new features and redesigned monitoring tools for increased control and usability. Here’s why you should be using the latest version of License Statistics.

Over the last year, we’ve delivered important updates and enhancements to License Statistics to help you get even better control over your software license budget. The latest version of License Statistics includes:

  • License Harvesting with automatic license release.
  • The License Statistics Agent, enabling new features such as Autodesk named user license tracking.
  • Feature and User Reservations.
  • API enhancements.
  • New and enhanced reporting tools.

Here’s what you need to know about the key features released in the past year.

License Harvesting with Automatic License Release

License Harvesting helps you eliminate the extra costs associated with purchasing spare licenses by monitoring users’ machines to see when licenses are unused (e.g. due to meetings, coffee breaks, etc.). Every company has peak days when the highest number of licenses are used. License Harvesting helps you monitor and respond to such peaks by reducing idle license consumption and automatically return those licenses to the available pool.

Automatic remote license release for LM-X and Flexnet license servers was introduced in License Statistics v6.10. This gets idle licenses back into the available license pool just after the Agent has closed the end-user application. No more waiting or manual intervention required – simply set it and forget it.

See the License Harvesting documentation for more information.

The License Statistics Agent

License Statistics Agent is a License Statistics add-on tool that enables client usage monitoring for software using locally running applications that must be tracked on the clients themselves. License Statistics Agent communicates between these applications and License Statistics, running as a service in the background.

License Statistics Agent currently supports monitoring for Autodesk license usage and Autodesk named user licenses, and is currently available for Windows installations.

See the License Statistics Agent documentation for more information.

User and Feature Reservations

Customer enhancement requests are one of our top priorities. Several customers had requested a way to view User and Feature reservations to further simplify software license asset management tasks. The User and Feature Reservations pages were the result.

The User Reservations page provides an overview of all reservations across all features and license servers for a selected user or group. You’ll find the User Reservations page under the Users section in the left navigation pane. (See the documentation for User Reservations for details.)

The Feature Reservations page provides an overview of all reservations for a selected license server and feature. You’ll find it under the Features section in the left navigation page. (See the documentation for Feature Reservations for more details.),

API Enhancements

Not only did we release a significant update to the License Statistics API with API v2, but we released the first version of API v3.

With API v2 came enhancements making it much cleaner and easier to use. New endpoints were implemented to make it even more extensive. The API v3 release lays the groundwork for future API enhancements and releases. It includes extended reports that allow extended selection of all license servers and features.

See the API documentation and interactive API tool documentation for more information.

New and Enhanced Reporting Tools

We were also quite busy this past year building new reporting tools and enhancing / extending current ones.

User Usage History report now gives you the ability to view license usage history by a selected user or group (available only with the new licensing model). The report makes it easy to select the user/user group for which you want to view usage history and specify time intervals to include in the results.

We are devoted to simplifying your license administration tasks through detailed reporting and complete automation of routine tasks – including recapture of idle licenses that would otherwise cost you hundreds of lost productivity hours every month.

As always, please contact support@x-formation.com with your questions. We’ll be delighted to serve you.

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License Statistics Case Study - LuK

Customer Case Study: LuK

June 9, 2021| | in category License Statistics No comments yet

LuK leverages License Statistics to reduce software license costs by analyzing floating versus single license use provided by License Statistics comprehensive data gathering solution.

Client: LuK
Problem: High Software License Costs
Solution: License Statistics

Problem

LuK, a member of the Schaeffler Group, is an renowned manufacturer of clutch and transmission systems, torque converters, and dampers for cars and tractors. One in every four new cars produced in the world carries a LuK clutch.

Founded in 1965 and headquartered in Buhl, Germany, LuK Has more than 9,500 employees at 18 sites around the world, producing 14 million clutches, 4 million lock-up clutches, and 5 million dual mass flywheels.

The Schaeffler Group is comprised of the well-known brands LuK, INA, and FAG. It is a leading manufacturer and supplier of ball and roller bearings, clutch and clutch releasing systems, and engine and transmission components.

LuK not only produces automotive hardware. Its 50-person software engineering team builds software for transmission technology using such specialized software tools as MKS, ETAS, Doors, Matlab, and Tricore. IT Coordinator Oliver Winkler wanted an accurate picture of floating versus single license usage to know what mix of licenses they really needed.

How LuK Approached It

X-Formation offered LuK a trial period to determine whether License Statistics would solve its business problems. “The trial was easy-going and we saw a lot of impressive new features, which led us to the decision to invest in it,” said Winkler. “The Web-based standard reports, easy installation, and straightforward configuration were what sold us on the product.”

After only six months’ use of License Statistics, Winkler had collected enough statistical data to precisely identify which software tools could be covered by floating licenses and which needed single licenses to support power users.

What It’s Like Now

“We were able to achieve significant license cost savings by adjusting the number of floating licenses,” Winkler added. “At the same time, I was able to quickly and in accurate detail see what licenses were required at any given time to prevent development delays.”

Thanks to License Statistics, LuK now effectively monitors its license usage to accurately plan license purchases while avoiding development process disruptions.

Winkler concluded, “We have used License Statistics for evaluating our software tool licenses. We have never experienced a problem with it and the level of support is very good.”

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License Statistics Case Study - Leitner Technologies

Customer Case Study: Leitner Technologies

May 27, 2021| | in category License Statistics No comments yet

Leitner Technologies boosts productivity, reduces licensing costs thanks to effective license management solutions enabled by License Statistics.

Client: Leitner Technologies
Problem: Low Productivity and Out-of-Control Cost of CAD/CAM/CAE Software Licenses
Solution: License Statistics

Problem

Leitner Technologies, established in 1888, is one of the leading manufacturers of ropeways, snow groomers, wind turbines, and urban transportation systems. Leitner has approximately 130 CAD Workplaces supporting 2D/3D CAD production, and uses a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) System for collaboration. Most CAD licenses are shared network licenses, with 3D CAD licenses being the most expensive.

Because licenses were being purchased ad hoc to cover productivity problems caused by inconsistent access to critical software. Frequent, small purchases were expensive and caused budgeting challenges.

“Our license purchases were reactive,” said Moritz Amort, Leitner IT Engineer. “We bought additional licenses when users started complaining about license shortages, or we bought a bundle because a certain number of additional Workplaces had to be installed,”

Leitner discovered the source of the problem: They had no means to optimize and effectively manage their shared network applications while meeting user demand for access. Complicating matters, the company lacked the ability to appropriately budget and distribute licensing costs based on the needs of each of their business divisions.

How Lietner Approached It

At first, Leitner was forced to estimate how many licenses each division needed based on the number of installed clients for that division. Because not all clients had the same demand for licenses or usage requirements as others, the license partitioning scheme was inefficient and more costly than it should have been.

Seeking a full-featured and affordable license management solution, Leitner evaluated X-Formation’s License Statistics monitoring software. It surpassed Leitner’s expectations, Amort explained. “We chose License Statistics over the competition because the software met all of our requirements right out of the box.”

Once it put License Statistics into production and began monitoring actual license usage throughout their divisions, Leitner was pleased with achieving an effective license management solution that met all their needs. “Unlike our past reactive license purchasing practices,” Amort continued, “License Statistics now makes it possible for us to monitor our license usage over the year so we react proactively to anticipated license shortages. License Statistics enables us to buy additional licenses right when we need them, saving on license and maintenance costs, as well as minimizing the troubles of license shortages.”

What It’s Like Now

Not only did License Statistics ensure Leitner always had sufficient licenses at the best cost, but it solved the problem of accurately determining per-division costs. Amort said, “With License Statistics we can now monitor the real usage of each license for every user and partition the costs in a more realistic and fair way.”

License Statistics solved Leitner’s issues surrounding both license purchasing and cost allocation. The company can ensure its users are optimally productive at the lowest cause thanks to more effective and accurate planning made possible by License Statistics.

Amort concluded, “We have been fully satisfied with License Statistics. Not only does the software solve our business problems, but the support during and after the trial period and the documentation are great.”

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License Statistics v6.12 Introduces API v3, Enhanced UI Capabilities

License Statistics v6.12 Introduces API v3, Enhanced UI Capabilities

May 12, 2021| | in category License Statistics No comments yet

First release of License Statistics API v3, enhanced UI responsive design, and ability to control user session length among the new features and enhancements included in License Statistics v6.12.

The License Statistics v6.12 release continues adding new features and enhancements to the administration UI, and brings with it the first release of the latest License Statistics API. New features and enhancements include:

  • Support for remote monitoring of CodeMeter Network License Server.
  • The ability to control user license session length under Administration.
  • First release of License Statistics API v3.
  • New and enhanced UI features:
    • The ability to maximize content such as grids and charts to take up the full size of the application window.
    • The ability to select all license servers and features on the License Servers – Current Usage report.
    • Improved UI responsive design.

Before upgrading to License Statistics v6.12, ensure your environment meets the following requirements:

  • As of Java JDK v16, the deprecated protocols TLS 1.0 and 1.1 are no longer supported.
  • The minimum supported version of MySQL server is v5.7.28.
  • License Statistics API v1 was deprecated as of License Statistics v6.8 and is being removed in the current release. Use the stable API v2 instead.

Details on these new features and enhancements are provided below. For complete information on all features, refer to the License Statistics v6.12 Release Notes and associated v6.12 documentation.

Remotely Monitoring CodeMeter License Manager

License Statistics v6.12 now enables you to gather usage statistics on the CodeMeter license manager using remote data sources.

As we learn of new and popularly used license managers, trust us to give you the support you need for them. See the License Statistics documentation for currently supported license managers.

Setting User License Session Length

The ability to set user Session length is now available in License Statistics v6.12. You can set a maximum license session length when you add or edit a user and user authentication is enabled (the default).

Use the “Session length” slider on the User Management page in the Authentication Settings section to set the number of days that the session will last after users log in. The session length defaults to 1 day and has a maximum of 356 days. The session length you set is saved automatically.

License Statistics - Authentication Settings

See Managing License Statistics Users in the v6.12 documentation for more information.

License Statistics API v3 First Release

The first release of API v3 includes extended reports that allow extended selection of all license servers and features. The following reports are affected:

  • Features – Usage History
  • Features – Current Usage
  • Features – User History
  • License Servers – Current Usage

NOTE: We’ve provided this first API v3 release to lay the groundwork for future API features and enhancements. It is still under development and we reserve the right to release breaking changes as the API continues to evolve. For production environments we recommend using the stable API v2 release.

User Interface Enhancements in v6.12

Several new user interface features and enhancements have been added in the License Statistics v6.12 release.

  • You can now maximize content such as grids and charts to take up the full size of the application window for a better view.
    • Most content can be expanded to take up the entire License Statistics application window by clicking theExpand iconexpand icon at the upper right corner of the page. Maximizing the content is particularly useful for viewing reports that have a large amount of data, more easily viewing data on a phone or tablet, or setting the view up for a screen capture.
    • When you expand content to maximum size, the navigation panel and other content of the page, such as selection controls, will not be visible. To return the page to its normal layout, click theRestore iconrestore icon at the upper right corner of the page, or press Esc on your keyboard.
  • The ability to select all license servers and features on the License Servers – Current Usage report.
    • The License Server and Feature pick lists at the top of the License Servers – Current Usage report now include an “All” option. To see all features for a selected license server, select “All” from the Feature pick list. When you select “All” from the License Server pick list, the Feature selection defaults to “All” as well.License Statistics - License Server usage
  • Improved UI responsive design.

The X-Formation team is devoted to simplifying your license administration tasks through detailed reporting and complete automation of routine tasks – including recapture of idle licenses that would otherwise cost you hundreds of lost productivity hours every month.

As always, please contact support@x-formation.com with your questions. We’ll be delighted to serve you.

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License Statistics - Customer Case Study - SKODA

Customer Case Study: Skoda

April 30, 2021| | in category License Statistics No comments yet

Through better planning made possible by using License Statistics to gather more accurate usage data, Skoda achieved a 373.79% ROI and significantly cut license costs.

Client: SKODA ICT S.R.O.
Problem: High Costs of CAD/CAM/CAE Software
Solution: License Statistics

Problem

Skoda ICT s.r.o. provides ICT services for SKODA HOLDING a.s., which manufactures and repairs commercial vehicles (electric locomotives, subway, railway wagons, tramways, trolley buses) and manufactures steam turbines and related parts.

A global business slow-down led Skoda to focus on prudent use of resources. Stanislav Cechura, IT Engineer, said, “During the current economic downtime, all companies are increasing their focus on minimizing costs and on effective use of expensive licenses.”

Skoda knew it could better manage use of costly CAD/CAM/CAE software licenses if it had a more effective way to monitor and evaluate license usage. The license management tools supplied with the CAD/CAM/CAE products it used did not provide the detailed information needed to make solid decisions about how many licenses they actually needed. Though they added custom scripts to import simple reports on license usage, those reports were not enough.

How SKODA Approached It

Skoda chose License Statistics because the software met, at an affordable price, most of their requirements for monitoring license usage on their individual software applications. Cechura explained, “License Statistics helps us to stay on top of our license requirements. This is vital for planning extension or reduction of the number of licenses we’ll need in the future, helping us save license costs. The detailed monitoring of used licenses allows us to better divide the software costs for the individual companies of the Skoda holding and to find possible reserves.”

What It’s Like Now

Through better planning made possible by using License Statistics, Skoda was able to cut their license fees and achieve an ROI of 373.79% with a 500-user License Statistics license.

X-Formation’s expert support team helped Skoda overcome initial problems with LUM server monitoring, and now, after using License Statistics for over a year, they are trouble-free and satisfied with the product and the level of support.

 

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Support for Autodesk Feature Collections Debuts in License Statistics v6-11

Support for Autodesk Feature Collections Debuts in License Statistics v6.11

March 31, 2021| | in category License Statistics No comments yet

Autodesk Feature Collections support, Zoo License Manager support, and a redesigned license server administration interface lead the pack of new features and enhancements delivered by License Statistics v6.11.

The License Statistics v6.11 release brings with it new features and enhancements that further streamline license server monitoring and administration tasks. The new features include:

  • Support for Autodesk feature collections.
  • Support for Zoo License Manager.
  • A redesigned license server administration interface, including:
    • Support for multiple data sources for a single license server.
    • New Single License Server grid allowing you to manage all servers independently from data sources.
    • New add/edit license server form.
  • Added ability to import usage data from LM-X log files and FlexNet debug log files.
  • Redesigned data importing, including:
    • Ability to import data using API endpoints.
    • A simplified two-step wizard to configure import settings for each file.
    • Four strategies for merging imported data.
  • The host IP address is now included on applicable reports.

Discover what the new features will do for you below.

(For details on all features, refer to the License Statistics v6.11 Release Notes and associated v6.11 documentation.)

Manage AutoDesk Feature Collections

The License Statistics v6.11 introduces Feature Collections support for the Autodesk License Manager.

Collections allow you to separate specific Feature usage reporting based on which package the Feature belongs to, rather than combining all usage of that Feature in a single report. You get more granular information about how your licenses are being used – and whether you’re getting the value for them you expected.

By default, Features do not belong to a Collection until you add them in the Gathering section as you create a license server. Once you have enabled Collections for a license server, features for that license server will be reported based on their Collection name.

Refer to the License Statistics Features Collections documentation for further information on Autodesk Feature Collections.

Zoo License Manager Support

You asked, and so in License Statistics v6.11 we added support for the Zoo license manager used with the popular Rhino 3D modeling software.

Remote and Import data sources are allowed for generating reports, and log files can also be imported. License Statistics v6.11 supports feature versioning and license borrowing for imported data.

As we learn of new and popularly used license managers, trust us to give you the support you need for them. See the License Statistics documentation for currently supported license managers.

Redesigned License Server Administration Interface

The License Statistics v6.11 release brings a License Server Administration interface redesigned to streamline administrative functions. Included in the redesign: You can now specify multiple data sources for a single license server. A simplified single License Server grid now allows you to manage all servers independently from their data sources.

A new add/edit license server form is also included in the release. On the reporting side, the host IP address for each user consuming a license is now identified in applicable reports.

New Data Import Features

Not only can you now import usage data from LM-X log files and FlexNet debug log files, but the entire data importing interface has been redesigned both for usability and added functionality.

You can now, for example, import data using API endpoints, giving you more flexibility in the way you bring data into your organization’s dashboards and custom reports. A simplified two-step wizard now guides you through importing settings for each file. There are also four new strategies for merging imported data to give you more flexibility.

The X-Formation team is devoted to simplifying your license administration tasks through detailed reporting and complete automation of routine tasks – including recapture of idle licenses that would otherwise cost you hundreds of lost productivity hours every month.

As always, please contact support@x-formation.com with your questions. We’ll be delighted to serve you.

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