System Design
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Software and device companies often have outdated licensing systems that are difficult to maintain and do not meet current needs. Flexera Software provides consulting services to help design modern licensing solutions. Their System Design process involves workshops over 1 week to gather requirements and use cases, followed by a 3-4 week design phase where Flexera consultants help create specifications for a new licensing system integrated with customers' products and systems. The output is a blueprint for the licensing solution.
System Design
- 1. Software companies and intelligent device manufacturers often have homegrown licensing, entitlement management and delivery solutions that become increasingly difficult to maintain or older systems that do not meet the needs and requirements of today’s dynamic environment. Introduction of new licensing, entitlement management and delivery technology can be difficult; especially when integrating with back office systems. Plus, at many organizations, product teams are typically staffed only to the point of producing core functionality and not for extensive licensing development Flexera Software Global Consulting Services has extensive experience helping organizations design state-of-the-art licensing solutions. The System Design engagement empowers organizations to create a blueprint for their licensing system solutions. How System Design Works System Design is a weeklong series of discovery workshops, followed by a three- to four- week design cycle. The workshops, which include requirement gathering and use-case analysis that will define the resultant solution, are conducted with customer stakeholders and organized in a top-down fashion to gather business, product, back-office and technical requirements as well as prospect-to-support use cases. During the design cycle, a Flexera Software consultant leads the organization through the process of creating, reviewing and revising solution requirements and design specifications. These requirements and specifications will be used as the basis for the building, testing and deployment of the final licensing, entitlement management and delivery solution. The final licensing solution is designed to be integrated into customer products and interfaced into customer office systems, including client-side, server and entitlement system interfaces. The result of the discovery and design sessions is a blueprint for the license, entitlement management and delivery solution that includes technical requirements, use case analysis, gaps and a high-level design. System Design is part the Design phase of Flexera Software’s High Output Entitlement Management Deployment Methodology (figure 1) to deploy high-value solutions in the shortest amount of time. This methodology uses the Flexera Software Success Framework (figure 2). DATASHEET System Design Improving Business Growth, Operational Efficiency and the Customer Experience Figure 1: Flexera Software’s High Output Entitlement Management Deployment Methodology Education & Assess Policy Operational Model Evaluate & Plan Design Build, Test, Deploy 2 Weeks Go Live 8-10 Months 3 Months • Assessment Report • Context Setting • Policies • Operational Model (Use Case Catalog) • Reference Architecture Benefits of System Design: • Proven methodology: Our process for discovering your requirements and use cases has been honed with years of experience and used successfully with a wide variety of customers • Faster Time-to-Market: Any licensing solution is complex. By leveraging our years of experience we can save you costly trial-and-error time involved in coming up with the right solution on your own. • Better Deployment: Our subject-matter experts can supplement your team during the critical early phases when so much data is being brought together
- 2. System Design Objectives There are three objectives to System Design: • Gather business and technical requirements • Analyze licensing, entitlement management and delivery, and related use-cases • Develop a high-level design for creation of a common licensing system, integrating licensing into your products and enabling automated activation of the licensing Delivery Approach The engagement is delivered by two Flexera Software Consultants (typically one principal consultant—usually a solution architect) and one senior consultant (a product expert) in three phases: Phase I: Advance Preparation and Planning This phase involves workshop agenda refinement (Flexera Software) and several pre-workshop questionnaires (customer). Phase II: Discovery Workshops This phase includes a series of workshops based upon our Flexera Software Success Framework. The workshops typically involve from 16 – 30 stakeholders from various groups. Typical topics include: • Business objectives and drivers • Product overview and positioning • Product use cases • Sales channel models • Maintenance and support models • License models, product structure and bundling • Compliance approach • Enforcement and license technologies • Prospect-to-support business processes (use cases) Prospect-to-Support Systems Processes Enforcement Compliance Strategy Product (Line) Strategy Structure License Metrics Revenue Generation Model • Recurring vs. Up-front Revenue • Perpetual, Subscription, Utility, etc. A unit of Usage to Apply Pricing • Simple, Fair, Scalable, Measurable • CPU, Server, named user, etc • Use Model Compliance Approach • Philosophy Vision • User Experience Technology Considerations • Common License Layer • License Key Methods Structure License Entitlement Fulfillment • Business Systems Integration • Business Processes Commercial Structure • Product Taxonomy Structure – Products, Bundles, Suites…. – Upgrade, Upsell, Update, etc • Commercial Units Revenue Model Commercial Intent Compliance Enforcement Entitlement Management Delivery License Model Product Market Climate Corporate Business Drivers Principles Customer Needs Figure 2: Flexera Software Licensing, Entitlement Management and Delivery Success Framework
- 3. System Design Phase III: Design Cycle During this phase, the organization will create, review and revise requirements and design specifications. The specification will include topics such as (but not limited to): • Requirements • Business and technical use-case details • Product configuration • Systems architecture • License system(s) • License models • Compliance • Activation utilities • Gaps Project Timeline System Design occurs over four to five weeks in the following sequence: Deliverables At the conclusion of System Design, the organization will have blueprint for a license, entitlement management and delivery solution that includes technical requirements, use case analysis, gaps and a high-level design. This engagement is usually performed as first phase in a two-phased approach that results in the delivery of a common licensing system. (See Related Services) Primary Audience Customer resources required for this engagement include one executive sponsor (usually VP or higher) and multiple stakeholders to attend one or more of the workshop sessions. Attendees include stakeholders from the following groups: • Product marketing • Product development • Sales operations • Customer support • Order management • License operations • Supply chain operations • Finance Related Services System Design is part of an overall methodology to produce a high-value licensing, entitlement management and delivery solution in a minimum amount of time. This engagement is usually performed as the first phase in a two-phased approach that results in the delivery of a common licensing system. The second phase is either the Common Licensing Framework Build and Assist engagement or the Entitlement Hub Build, Test and Deploy engagement. Prerequisite services for this project include the following offerings: • License and Compliance Policy Design: this service empowers organizations to create official license policy documents • Operational Model Design: this service assists in the creation of an operational model and use-case document System Design is a critical pre-requisite for the following: • Common Licensing Framework Build and Assist: this services helps organizations implement the Common License Framework and complete the integration into their products • Entitlement Hub Build, Test and Deploy: this service takes the entitlement management system from high-level design to deployment – Workshop planning and scheduling – Pre-workshop questionnaires PREPARATION AND PLANNING (2 DAYS): – Requirement gathering – Use-case analysis – Creating, reviewing and revising solution requirements and design specifications WORKSHOPS (1 WEEKS): DESIGN (3-4 WEEKS):
- 4. Copyright © 2012 Flexera Software LLC. All other brand and product names mentioned herein may be the trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. FX_SD_ECM-System_Design_Sept12 Flexera Software LLC 1000 East Woodfield Road, Suite 400 Schaumburg, IL 60173 USA Schaumburg (Global Headquarters): +1 800-809-5659 United Kingdom (Europe, Middle East Headquarters): +44 870-871-1111 +44 870-873-6300 Australia (Asia, Pacific Headquarters): +61 3-9895-2000 For more office locations visit: www.flexerasoftware.com Licensing, Entitlement Management and Delivery Services and Solutions Applications no longer just help the business, they run the business, and to software vendors and, increasingly, intelligent device manufacturers, they are the business. To compete and win today, software vendors and intelligent device manufacturers must go to market faster with differentiated product offerings, ensure they are fairly compensated, make every dollar spent count and retain every single customer. All of this must be done while facing substantial hurdles. Flexera Software has long been the global leader in Application Usage Management. Over 3,000 software vendors and intelligent device manufacturers rely on our comprehensive licensing, entitlement management and delivery suite of software licensing, entitlement management, electronic software delivery, software updates and compliance management solutions as core components of a strategic solution for Application Usage Management: FlexNet Producer Suite for Software Vendors and FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers. Flexera Software is unique in its ability to offer a comprehensive and integrated solution spanning the full lifecycle of business processes. These solutions provide critical business intelligence to sense market change and develop the appropriate course corrections and are designed to deliver the flexibility to quickly adapt to your evolving business needs. Together they transform numerous tactical tasks to address today’s strategic needs, delivering continuous software compliance, information at the point of action and optimized usage and value for your products. About Flexera Software Flexera Software is the leading provider of strategic solutions for Application Usage Management; solutions delivering continuous compliance, optimized usage and maximized value to application producers and their customers. Flexera Software is trusted by more than 80,000 customers that depend on our comprehensive solutions- from installation and licensing, entitlement and compliance management to application readiness and software license optimization - to strategically manage application usage and achieve breakthrough results realized only through the systems-level approach we provide. For more information, please go to: www.flexerasoftware.com