Risks with a “Do It Yourself” Approach to Software Licensing

SoftwareKey works with a wide range of businesses, budgets, licensing requirements, and staff skill levels.  Frequently, we find that customers underestimate the level of detail involved in successfully launching and maintaining a licensed application throughout its lifetime.

Consider What You Don't Know

When it comes to software licensing, as with so many things in this world, often you don’t know what you don’t know.

The correct implementation of licensing is essential to the smooth operation of your software product.    By opting for the most professional and secure implementation and design, you can be confident that your investment will lead to profits.

Do It Yourself Approach Works Well With Simple Licensing

Most customers who have simple licensing requirements, or those who have senior-level staff with licensing experience, can implement the SoftwareKey System inside of their software using our Do It Yourself approach.   And you can always contact us if you get stuck: we’re happy to answer simple questions under our Standard Support plan.

Consider These Risks with Do It Yourself Approach

BUT, remember that there can definitely be risks if you choose the Do It Yourself approach, especially if your staff is new to software licensing technology:

  • Trying to bring together multiple different licensing models in the same application can create inter-dependencies that are easy to miss or not realize until it is too late.  What may seem simple can become complex very quickly.
  • Responses to questions posted to our Standard Support staff will come from one of the many skilled people on our team. However, on this level you do not benefit from a central project manager who understands your licensing goals in detail. And unfortunately, answering questions in piecemeal bites without understanding your overall goals is possibly going to result in extra time being spent by all parties involved.
  • You don't want to be surprised if a flaw in your implementation is discovered after the software is released.  Patching security or implementation flaws on released software can sometimes involve significant time and money, and may even generate customer dissatisfaction.
  • Finally, even during normal operations, licensing flaws can sometimes open up exploitable holes that could allow customers or hackers to steal your software more easily.
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Graeme Cox Engineering Director, DAVCO Farming

They Put in Overtime to Help Us with a Critical Issue

SoftwareKey has been an important part of our business in terms of securing our intellectual property with their software protection and allowing us to implement a pay as you use business model which is a first in our industry. Their support is always responsive and when we recently had a critical issue that was preventing the release of our latest version of software, they worked over many hours to track down the problems and solve it. This was a great relief and allowed us to ship our product and keep the sales coming in.

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Jason Grabowski Owner / Baseline Achieved, LLC

I Feel Like an Important Customer, Not Just Another Number

Customer service was absolutely the most important feature I was looking for. I knew that whichever licensing solution I selected, I would be partnered with that company for a long time! Tanner and the team at SoftwareKey were awesome. I used two hours of Jump Start services to get everything up and running, and a third hour to review everything and to make some tweaks to my licensing strategy. Now I am up and running and couldn't be happier! And I know that the SoftwareKey team is just an email away to answer any of my questions as they come up. SoftwareKey offers a complete licensing solution that is easy to implement. And if you are a coder that is not familiar with licensing, they offer great customer care to get you up and running.

In my opinion, what separates SoftwareKey from other licensing solutions is the customer care. They are very responsive to emails and they offer an excellent Jump Start service to get you up and running. They want my business and they are willing to work with me and support me to keep it. I feel like an important customer with SoftwareKey, not just another number. Not to mention that the licensing solution is great as well!

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Ian Mead IDM Computer Solutions, Inc.

Quality product - easy to use

SoftwareKey has provided IDM a 21st century software license solution that is on par with any major publisher we know of... that includes quality and excellent customer service and support. Easy to register, extensible to multi-platforms, and easy for our users to stay current!

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Chao Han President, VirtualGrid

Excellent Service

I would like to thank the SoftwareKey team for the excellent service we received during the past years. I won’t hesitate to recommend your services to others!

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Henry He Overland Conveyor Company Inc.

Brilliant!

Thank you! I'd also simply like to say you guys have been amazing, I've sent multiple tickets the past few weeks and the promptness and fullness of your replies has been brilliant!

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Stuart Nielsen Chief Information Officer / Tools4FIM (OXFORD COMPUTER GROUP)

Support like this is hard to find.

Over my 25 years, of all the companies I have encountered, Mike and his team rank in the top five in customer support, responsiveness and help. I suppose in this day in age that is probably the highest commendation that I can give Mike and his team.

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Brooks Wait Owner & Certified LabVIEW Architect, Brooks Consulting LLC

Invaluable Customer Support!

I wrote a custom software dialog that gives our user the ability to evaluate our software or activate it, which is an advanced application that requires API calls and custom modifications to the license to activate both licenses. The SoftwareKey API has lots of options, so I worked with Tanner to activate their software and another licensed feature needed for our custom software licensing use case. Tanner's knowledge and support was invaluable throughout the process. I don't believe I would have been able to accomplish this task in an efficient manner without him.

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Clint Monari Lead UI Developer, Bridge Software Institute

SoftwareKey's support is extremely responsive!

The SoftwareKey team has been extremely responsive in assisting us with implementation of cloud-controlled network licensing. They've answered our questions and helped with troubleshooting on multiple occasions, including outside of normal business hours.

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Noel Carboni Owner, ProDigital Software

I'm Proud to Include Their Technology in Our Products

We started using the SoftwareKey System in 2009 and within a few days we had implemented the full Protection + Automation bundle in our graphics products. We've never even considered another solution since. The folks at SoftwareKey have always been responsive and genuinely helpful. They truly have an entrepreneurial spirit and I'm proud to include their technology in our products.

We have a growing internet software business where customers purchase and activate software licenses online, 24 hours per day. All in all, our customers experience a slick, integrated, and automated process.

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Andre Martinez Executive Business Services, Inc.

Flexible and Stable for Thousands of Users

We have used Protection PLUS for many years with thousands of users, and it has been a very flexible and stable product. We recently encountered an issue requiring FIPS-compliance in our software in order to participate with some US government contracts. We contacted SoftwareKey support to inquire about a FIPS-compliant version of Protection PLUS. Even though it required a special build of their library, they researched the issue and provided a solution very quickly. This was a big deal for us to support some large companies evaluating our product.

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