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.
profile-pic
Ashish Lal Scrum Master/Lepide Software Pvt. Ltd.

Simplified Product with Excellent Support

When it comes to streamline the customized licensing, the SoftwareKey System is your best bet. The SDK is easy to implement and doesn't take long to customize according to our needs.

Their incredible support and commitment helped us deliver licenses to our clients and distributors across the globe with the least efforts. In fact, using the Professional Services support option, they helped us with advanced licensing customization to solve some specific needs that we had.

profile-pic
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.

profile-pic
Abhay Deshpande Partner, Global Financial Datafeeds LLP

The SoftwareKey System and Support are Rock Solid!

We have been building data products for the financial market since 2008 - mostly for Indian stock markets.

SoftwareKey products are rock solid, you use them for your product protection, license management and it JUST WORKS! In last 10 years, thousands of trials & paid licenses were created & managed on SOLO Server Automation with no issues whatsoever. Their support is top-notch and always to the point. Their team understands what a customer is saying and on rare occasions when you need support, they are more than willing to help.

The SoftwareKey System made the license management aspect of our business so effortless that we were able to confidently make our software sales a primary focus.

Since 2008, we have immensely enjoyed the SoftwareKey System to protect and manage our software products. It is one of those rare companies which scores on every point!

profile-pic
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.

profile-pic
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!

profile-pic
Mark Fonseca 3000AD Systems

SoftwareKey support is second to none

I would certainly recommend the SoftwareKey System to others on the basis that SoftwareKey support is second to none. Allowing for the time difference, every e-mail I have sent – and there have been quite few – has always been answered straight away with good sound advice. Other suppliers I have dealt with sometimes take days to respond to a support call. Each support analyst is very familiar with their product and provides excellent, precise support.

profile-pic
Deb Babbitt Software and Engineering Associates, Inc.

A++++ Support from SoftwareKey

A++++ support from SoftwareKey! First your software is easy to use and flexible enough to accommodate new and legacy products. More importantly, your support team is phenomenal. The dedication you showed to solving our unique situation was more than just appreciated, it was praised. The ultimate result was a flawless installation and activation by our customers ... a definite tribute to SoftwareKey.

profile-pic
Leo Revzin Owner / Zevrix Solutions

Stellar Customer Support

Team SoftwareKey provides stellar customer support, which is fast and efficient.

profile-pic
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.

profile-pic
Bill Roach Partner / ExhibitView Solutions, LLC

SoftwareKey's service and support are truly first rate.

My company, ExhibitView Solutions, LLC, has been using the SoftwareKey System for over a year now. We used to use a very developer-intensive system for our licensing. So, when we decided to launch a completely-revamped product, I knew I needed to simplify the licensing process. After searching online, my first phone call to SoftwareKey was to discuss how their system works. I was impressed that I never felt any pressure to end the conversation during that rather long phone call. My developers were able to implement the system in under one hour after I set up a short paid one-on-one tutorial with the SoftwareKey staff.

After the initial product launch, we implemented the system into all of our 3 products. I could not be happier. I would be happy to speak with anyone about my experience and would also encourage any other software company or entrepreneur to investigate SoftwareKey. The service and support are truly first rate, and I have certainly received a great value for my money.

>