I have to admit that I really dislike programs that require a license. I hate the fact that our products require licenses. Unfortunately, people cheat and I really like having a job and being able to support my family.
Our licenses are difficult right now. We sell a product mix that includes Alteryx, a Guzzler data set and an Allocate data set. It requires 3 different licenses that are installed in 3 different ways with 3 different serial numbers. I can't keep track of it all - I am certain our customers are cursing every time they get a new license file.
Starting with the next release of Portfolio & Alteryx, we are going to have a new system for licenses. All of our products will ship with a single License Manager application so that the process is the same regardless for which application or engine a license is being installed. The biggest difference that customers will see is that we will be shipping a package of licenses for various engines in a single file. That means that for installing licenses for Alteryx, Guzzler & Allocate you will receive a single file in an email that should install with a simple double click (no unzipping is needed). As long as any one of the SRC engines has been installed, it will install all the licenses even if the associated application has not yet been installed. Hopefully this will make it much easier for customers to get our products working. It will also show you all the licenses that are installed for all your SRC products in a single place.
We are making some changes to allow licenses to be installed when you do not have administrator access to your machine (although the license will only work for you) as well as some improvements with installing licenses on Vista. Licenses will transfer between versions of our applications without having to reinstall.
So hopefully, when you get your new licenses, they will be seamless to install and cause less pain. It might get us 1 step closer to the ease of use of not having any licensing at all.
Ned.
