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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Ann Rutter Product Development Manager / The Electric Quilt Company

Getting a real person on the phone was easy

A very, very strong aspect of the company [SoftwareKey] is the customer support which follows the purchase of the product. Getting a real person on the phone was easy and the expertise I was met with was great.

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Bernice Kelly Owner, School by Design

Expert, Timely Support Even with 13H Time Difference

The most impressive feature of SoftwareKey is the quality and expertise of its support. As an Australian business, email was the common interaction. All questions were answered in a timely, respectful, expert and comprehensible manner whether simple or complex. As educators, these were qualities we most notice and most value.

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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.

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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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Jerry Kramskoy CEO/CTO MusicIncite Ltd

Support is Excellent - They Genuinely Want to Help

Based on my experience, I would definitely recommend The SoftwareKey System, especially as the cost is very reasonable. From an integration viewpoint, this was straight-forward, starting from the supplied SDK, and modifying to suit. There is a lot of flexibility in the system, meaning we can consider feature-unlocking based on license type sold, while shipping one executable. That's a big win. Support is excellent ... these guys understand what support really is. They genuinely want to help.

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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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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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Ian Batey CEO, IDMB Advisory LTD

Best IT Support by a Country Mile

Every time I raise a ticket with SoftwareKey, it gets dealt with promptly and with insight. Your team should be congratulated on such a consistently good performance. TRUST me, I deal with a number of IT support sites and yours is the best by a country mile.

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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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Nancy Canty VP of Product Management, Blue Ridge Networks, Inc.

The SoftwareKey Team is Always Committed to Our Success

We've been using the SoftwareKey System for several years. We engaged SoftwareKey as part of our development team to extend their standard system functionality to meet new requirements as well as design a scalable hosting platform. This project was a major success, and we were impressed with the depth and breadth of their team's technical abilities.

We later used SoftwareKey to create a subscription version of our product and provide a deep integration with our ecommerce system. They defined an elegant solution, completed their tasks quickly, and provided clear documentation. The SoftwareKey team was committed to the success of each project, leading to smooth product launches.

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