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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Mark Daniel Director of Explicit Business Solutions Ltd

The Jump Start Service Was Great and Helped Me Relax and Sort Things Out

We are a new startup business and will initially be selling software to the construction industry and providing consulting services.

What I really like about the SoftwareKey System is that it's quick to setup, provides full automation when using SOLO Server for customers to download and activate software instantly and it will also integrate with FastSpring for payments.

We are in the process of launching our first product. I went with the SoftwareKey System as the system looked relatively easy to implement and the fact that the client can purchase, download and activate automatically without me having to deal with that side of things is a great time saver.

I researched a lot of different products and kept coming back to SoftwareKey for the below reasons. They have a large amount of online information including online tutorials, webinars and tips, etc. which is great. As I am totally new to the licensing of software, one massive thing for me was good customer support for which I have only read good reviews about in regards to SoftwareKey. I also found their pricing to be very reasonable - especially important to me was that I did not want to be paying out huge amounts for the software automation for downloading and activating the software. This was important to me as a new start up company and not having massive cash reserves to rely on until the product gets some traction.

I used the Jump Start Service a few nights ago to make sure I was doing things correctly etc. Dan from SoftwareKey was who I dealt with and I have got to say he was great - relaxed and helped me sort things out - no worries. So yes the customer service is great. I would not hesitate for a second in recommending SoftwareKey.

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Peter Mason Scientific Programmer, CSIRO Mineral Resources

A Powerful and Flexible Solution with Very Good Customer Service

We use Protection PLUS 5 Native along with Instant SOLO server. It's a powerful, flexible solution that gives us a lot of choice in how we would like our licenses to work, and it extends easily to a complete e-commerce solution. It's a good solution with very good customer service.

I have contacted SoftwareKey support on a broad range of issues from licensing ideas to technical Protection PLUS 5 programming problems. They always respond rapidly and knowledgeably. I have never had a box-ticking or tunnel-vision experience with them. There's a clear impression of involvement and commitment.

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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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Graeme Cox Managing Director and Co-Founder, Davco OptiSurface Pty Ltd

Getting to our first sale online was fast!

It's easy to trial, relatively low costs to get started, the support is good, the web shop being automatically set up is great. Instant SOLO Server is great, you don't have to mess around with any of that stuff. It's all taken care of.

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Timour Koupeev Vose Software, Head of Development

Team SoftwareKey's Support is Brilliant!

Our company develops software for risk management and quantitative risk analysis. We're very impressed with the license management and license activation features of the SoftwareKey System. Implementation is intuitive and well explained in the manual and samples. We are very happy with the SoftwareKey System's set of tools - we have relied on them for more than 10 years now and they have never failed us.

Their client support is also brilliant - always helpful and timely.

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Anatoliy Shishkin President, 2D Technology Group, Inc.

Confident in SoftwareKey's Products and Developer Team Competency

We are very pleased with the SoftwareKey team's dedication and professionalism in resolving complicated issues. We've been using the SoftwareKey System for several years and every time when we needed support we did get it promptly and in a friendly manner. The recent release of Protection PLUS 5 SDK expands SoftwareKey System functionality to additional platforms and processor architectures, which we are planning to start using because we are confident in the company's products and developer team competency.

Do not hesitate with SoftwareKey - it's a solid company, great competitive products and outstanding customer support.

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Sterren Fisher Lead Software Developer at Atkins Transportation

Fantastic Solutions Provider Who Will Bend Over Backwards to Help

We have been able to provide entitlement management and software protection capabilities to two new .NET software products we are in the process of launching. The SoftwareKey team really puts their customers first and responds very quickly and effectively to support queries raised. Their software is also well designed and powerfully featured.

I recommend that you take advantage of their fantastic support.

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Noel Carboni ProDigital Software

Reliable service & support

Your folks are very responsive... When we do need support, it’s always there. I’ve had really great responses from your technical folks, where they know what’s going on. They’re willing to take the time to simulate your customer’s problems. In seven years, I’ve contacted them maybe ten times total for minor things, never a failure or a crash.

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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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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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