Cadac Takes a Unified Approach to Licensing
Many software companies today are turning to software monetization as a means of creating a more unified licensing experience. This is because the alternative – building an in-house license management solution – is an inefficient way to run a business, and can lead to licensing inflexibility and even revenue loss. It stands to reason that the fewer back-office systems a company has to manage, the better able it is to innovate and maintain its competitive advantage.
Cadac Group, a leading provider of digital design information solutions, decided to streamline its back-office operations using Sentinel EMS with Cloud Licensing. We spoke with Jeroen Allebé, Territory Sales Manager at Gemalto, about Cadac’s remarkable back-office transformation.
LEAP: What would you say were the main licensing challenges that prevented Cadac from adapting to customer and market needs?
JA: Cadac had its hands full running three different licensing systems in parallel, which can be challenging at the best of times. It also had to contend with licensing inflexibility and struggled to match the right feature bundles with the right prices. High operational costs proved to be another blocker to innovating new and existing products.
LEAP: What was required to turn these challenges into business opportunities?
JA: Cadac knew that in order to achieve operational efficiency, it would have to consolidate its legacy licensing systems into a single platform; one that could support its entire portfolio of cloud-based solutions and traditional software applications, and provide easily adaptable licensing and pricing models.
LEAP: Did Cadac ever consider building a licensing solution in-house?
JA: Yes, at first. But after weighing up the pros and cons of such an endeavor, it became clear that a commercial solution was the way to go. It made sense for Cadac to entrust its licensing and entitlement management to Gemalto as it was already a satisfied Sentinel RMS customer and knew that it was in safe hands.
LEAP: Has Cadac seen any improvement to its back-office operations since implementing Sentinel EMS with Cloud Licensing?
JA: Perhaps the most significant change has been the centralization of its licensing systems; it now manages all on-premise and service-based product licenses from a single web-based interface. By integrating the licensing process with its CRM system, Cadac has the flexibility to offer new feature bundles at competitive prices. And the money it saves on reduced operational costs, it can pour back into the business.
LEAP: A key benefit of the Sentinel range is usage tracking and reporting. How has Cadac managed to leverage this capability?
JA: Usage tracking and reporting is great because it lets you drill down into metrics such as license activation and feature usage. Having visibility into how software applications are consumed enabled Cadac to not only build a product roadmap closely aligned with its customers’ needs, but also to capitalize on upsell opportunities.
LEAP: You must be pleased with the success of this project.
JA: I am, of course, but Gemalto’s Professional Services team deserves much of the credit. The team ran a workshop for all of Cadac’s stakeholders that helped to align the company’s needs with the Sentinel technology. This made replacing its entire licensing infrastructure with Sentinel EMS and Cloud Licensing quick and painless, and allowed for seamless integration with Cadac’s products.
LEAP: Do you have any parting thoughts for our readers?
JA: I would advise software vendors and intelligent device manufacturers to take a leaf out of Cadac’s book and create a unified, operationally-efficient back office. That way, they can focus on their core competencies and maintain a competitive advantage through continuous product innovation.
