Dongles are a powerful, but under-utilized technology. They can actually be used to help your company make money through its licensing policies. Yet, few companies consider their dongles as "revenue generation tools". But, they are. At KEYLOK, we believe that our dongles have value far beyond piracy prevention.
Most companies use very few capabilities of their dongles. Typically, organizations expect their dongles to do one thing - prevent piracy by checking for the dongles existence at application start-up and intermittently thereafter. Although this has substantial value, it represents less than 10% of the technology's capabilities.
The following examples illustrate how your organization can maximize the value of its dongle technology by making intelligent use of the products' diverse license management and enforcement capabilities; and ultimately, generate more license revenue. We will describe how our customers experience remarkable flexibility in determining how to be paid for the valuable intellectual property they have created, without restrictions due to licensing enforcement limitations.
License Model # 1- Ship Product Suite Once and Manage On-Going Usage and Licensing with KEYLOK
Many of our customers ship their complete product suite to their customers, without fear of the end-user pirating the unlicensed components. They simply turn features and upgrades on and off, add/delete users, add/delete modules, control number of times accessed, modify and enforce termination dates, and manage other configurations - all remotely through a simple email sent to their customer.
The business benefits experienced by using these KEYLOK license management and enforcement capabilities are:
- effectively enforcing their licensing policies remotely
- increasing their flexibility in creating licensing models
- shipping their product one time, regardless of features licensed
- reducing administration expense
- eliminating shipping additional CDs
- reducing customer support expense
- protecting their intellectual property
License Model #2 - Use KEYLOK to Manage and Enforce a
Usage-Based Licensing Model
For some KEYLOK customers, a pay-per-use licensing model is the best solution for their business. It enables their end-users to pay only for the software they use, linking actual usage with license fees. It eliminates the traditional licensing model that often forces a customer to pay for software they don't use or want.
With this license model, KEYLOK is used to capture, monitor and replenish end-users' software usage fees. Users are charged based on actual usage of the software by purchasing license fees up front. KEYLOK is then configured with the amount they have purchased. As they use the software, the KEYLOK counter is decremented. If the amount decrements to zero, then the user is prevented from using the software until they renew their license. To replenish their account, the end-user simply calls or emails the vendor and the dongle is "refilled" directly over the phone or via email.
Some of our customers even bundle their annual maintenance and support charges into their usage fees, creating a simplified, all-inclusive license fee structure. The result is a model that minimizes customer support's involvement and eliminates costly administrative expenses.
The business benefits experienced by using these KEYLOK usage-based license management and enforcement capabilities are:
- responding to their customer's need for a usage based license model
- enabling their customers to pay only for the software they use
- simplifying their licensing model
- minimizing customer support involvement
- minimizing administration costs
- protecting their intellectual property
License Model #3 - Use KEYLOK to Enforce Licensing Restrictions on Demonstration or Evaluation Software
By utilizing demonstration software in your company's sales campaigns, you're capitalizing on one of the most effective sales tools available, your own software. Yet, many companies are hesitant to use this cost-effective practice because of the high piracy risk with under-protected demonstration software. However, this concern can be mitigated or even eliminated by creatively using KEYLOK to enforce licensing restrictions on demo software.
For little expense, our customers ship their complete product suite in the form of demonstration or evaluation software to prospective customers. They remotely control everything the user can and cannot do with the software, such as:
- monitor and regulate access to their product features
- control the number and type of approved users
- set and enforce the number of times a module can be accessed
- enforce expiration or termination dates
- even control printing
Furthermore, when the user licenses the software, the production license components can simply be turned-on remotely, without shipping another CD.
With KEYLOK, our customers capitalize on this cost effective and highly successful sales tool. They confidently manage and control the licensing of their demonstration software while eliminating the risk of jeopardizing their intellectual property.
The business benefits experienced by using these KEYLOK license management and enforcement capabilities are:
- reducing sales expense by eliminating costly on-site demos
- reducing development and administrative costs by maintaining and shipping one CD for both demonstration and production purposes
- giving their potential customers a valuable, hands-on experience with their product
- enabling maximum exposure to their products while successfully protecting them
License Model #4 - Use KEYLOK to Control Promotional
Trials of Your Software
Our customers have even effectively used KEYLOK to manage licensing for their marketing campaigns. In other words, KEYLOK is being used to maximize the value of their intellectual property by controlling licensing for sales promotions.
As an example, our customers offer their existing customers a free, hands-on trial period to evaluate a particular feature or module. Since the end-user already has the full product suite, they simply unlock (via email) access to the promotional feature for a specified period with KEYLOK. Then, KEYLOK is used to turn on the feature, control the expiration date, control number of users or usage (the number of times the modules are accessed). When the user decides to buy, the production license is simply turned-on remotely, via email.
This same concept can be used effectively for prospective customers too, exposing them to just a module or two of interest versus the entire product suite.
The business benefits experienced by using these KEYLOK license management and enforcement capabilities are:
- maximizing their existing customers' exposure to new product features
- enabling customers to try features at their own convenience
- utilizing inexpensive dongle technology to augment a highly effective marketing campaign
- reducing cost of sales
- protecting their intellectual property
As an organization that has created a valuable asset in the form of intellectual property, you have a choice. You can use your piracy protection devices (dongles) for just that - piracy prevention, or, you can capitalize on this vastly under-utilized technology and use its sophisticated features to:
- drive the creation of your licensing model
- enforce and manage this model
- respond creatively to your customer's licensing needs
- reduce sales and administrative expenses and
- increase revenue
Most companies let the limitations of their licensing enforcement capabilities determine their revenue model. But it can be the other way around - you can maximize revenue through creative license management. Your company doesn't have to give away valuable pieces of its intellectual property because they have no practical and enforceable method of controlling its distribution.
Used creatively and intelligently, KEYLOK can help your organization realize more revenue from its valuable intellectual property than conventional licensing methods.
