In this article we will talk about how you can use OpenLM to facilitate the creation of your Autodesk named user license procurement plan as a result of the transition from floating (multi-user) licenses to named user subscriptions.
Executive summary
We have already discussed the challenges of the Autodesk transition to a named user subscription and why it is important to understand a critical parameter, the user/license ratio, when drawing up the procurement plan. Now it’s time to discuss how OpenLM can help you in transitioning from Autodesk multi-user (floating) licenses to named user subscriptions.
Transitioning from Autodesk floating (multi-user) licenses to named-user subscriptions is a big decision for every organization regardless of its size, because that will make or break the workflow within the organization’s various departments. So, what’s the best way to prepare for this? Open up your license monitoring and management tool (e.g. OpenLM) and generate reports to obtain the data you need to back up your named user license procurement plan.
So, does this mean that you should take the list of users from last month who actively consumed Autodesk licenses and get a named subscription for them? Is the Autodesk transition that simple? Of course not! You need a lot more information to make a decision.
Metrics to see how Autodesk floating licenses are consumed
Decide on the time span you want to look into, start applying filters to the database, and let OpenLM provide the data you need for the transition. In this case, the more you had OpenLM deployed, the better; however, if you have only (e.g.) two months’ data, that will be a good start to get an overview of how Autodesk licenses are consumed within your organization.
Next, you want to know how your licenses are being used. To see the big picture, you need to look into the key metrics:
- the inventory of the license pool;
- the number of actual users;
- the user/license ratio.
Why are these important? Because you need to know how end users are using the Autodesk multi-user (floating) licenses. That’s the main question here: are we fully utilizing our licenses, or just 50 percent?
How to use OpenLM to ease the transition
License usage
To get this data you will be looking at three reports OpenLM provides to pave your way for the Autodesk transition: license usage, denials, and license activity. The visualization of license consumption will help you understand the license consumption habits of your end users. The data you will get is based on actual license usage measured by our system.
The license usage report accounts for the consumption of single or multiple-feature licenses with respect to the total number of licenses. It plainly presents license consumption patterns over configurable periods and sample resolutions. This report is available in three different formats, according to the tabs in the display pane: as a table, a chart, or as a heatmap diagram.
License activity
When you have the above data, you then need to get data about the number of users actually consuming an Autodesk floating license. This is different from the total number of users, and OpenLM is here to help you clarify this via the license activity report. Using the same time span, and the same license servers, you can instruct OpenLM to show you the total number of usage time in hours. This will help you spot the end users who have access to the Autodesk product but haven’t used it so you can remove them from the procurement plan, because now you know that these people don’t need a license.
The license activity report will help you understand how many engineers you serve with that Autodesk multi-user license pool. It will also help you obtain the user/license ratio, an important parameter of the Autodesk transition we talked about previously.
Conclusion
There are certain levels of users at every organization, so you can use OpenLM to understand the license consumption habits of all active end users. Our solution will help you understand what they are doing with the Autodesk license they check out. To get a clear view of a user’s activity, we recommend taking into consideration the number of sessions. Select the package you are analyzing and click “Group by user.” If you filter by total usage time (hours), OpenLM will display the name of all the users consuming the license of that Autodesk software package, and you can then finally identify who is actually using the software and who is not. If the usage time of the selected period is less than one hour, you could skip buying a license for that user.
These are just the first steps of the preparation process. OpenLM provides you with the insights you need so you can analyze them and make well-informed, data-driven decisions. That’s how you can ease the Autodesk transition from multi-user licenses to named user subscriptions.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us today! Also, if you haven’t started monitoring your Autodesk licenses, you still have time to deploy OpenLM so you can have the data prepared for analysis. Sign up for OpenLM Cloud!
