Autoneum
28% savings on engineering software license costs overall
Location: North America
Industry: Automotive
Employees: 12,800
Product used: OpenLM On Premise Enterprise Solution
Main software monitored: Dassault & Siemens CAD
License managers monitored: FLEXlm, DSLS, LM-X, RMS
Founded in Switzerland in 1901, Autoneum is a global market and technology leader in acoustic and thermal management for vehicles and partners. It develops and produces multifunctional, lightweight components for optimum noise and heat protection. The products and technologies make the vehicles lighter, quieter, and more environmentally friendly, while enhancing driving comfort. Autoneum is present in all key automotive markets, operating 53 production facilities worldwide.
The challenge
Like many large organizations, Autoneum is constantly looking to optimize operational efficiency. With software accounting for a significant part of its spending, the engineering application license is very strict, and Steven Bryant, IT Operations Manager for North & South America, has been looking for ways to augment software license administration and streamline production processes.
The biggest issue is managing a lean environment. I want to pay only for the minimum licenses needed to complete the job and not have any extra. This approach is different to the old style of one or two extra when activities ramp up. Now it’s much more strict. I have to prove that every license I have gets used,”
Steven says.
Autoneum achieved a 28% reduction in software license spending through reporting, giving us the confidence to reduce and not harm our business
Stretching software licenses to their limit while keeping productivity at 100%
Cost reduction and production efficiency were key when deciding on the number of engineering software licenses. Therefore, Steven Bryant started investigating how he could bring transparency to license usage, monitor engineering software utilization, and eliminate unnecessary software license costs.
“For my company, the most expensive decisions are made around Dassault & Siemens CAD software. If you drop a license, it’s very expensive to put it back, so you must make sure you know the usage before making decisions, and OpenLM ensures this for us.”
Autoneum gains control over its software assets with OpenLM
To gain complete control over its software assets, Autoneum chose OpenLM versatile engineering software license monitoring solution, which collects and delivers accurate data on license usage, license activity, the number of true denials, and the features engineers use within the application.
At the first stage, Steven and his team deployed the OpenLM solution to monitor the FLEXlm license manager but quickly moved to add additional license managers to the monitoring solution after seeing that OpenLM supports more than 60 license managers.
“My needs came from first monitoring FLEXlm services and while searching for a responsible reporting tool, and also from an expert in this specific solution, I found OpenLM, which then met the rest of my licenses management needs as well,” Steven says.
Now, Autoneum uses OpenLM to monitor license managers such as Flexera Flexnet (FLEXlm), Dassault Systèmes License Server, Sentinel RMS Safenet license management system, LM-X (the management software developed by X-Formation), and others.
Autoneum reduces 28% on CAD license software cost with OpenLM
With OpenLM on board, Steven Bryant talks about outstanding results. “Autoneum achieved a 28% reduction in software license spending through reporting, giving us the confidence to reduce and not harm our business.”
Engineering software licenses add much to the total software costs at organizations, so having access to accurate information at the time of the renewal was critical. “Maintenance on these CAD licenses, even Visual Components Virtual licenses, can be as large as 4k, so we dropped two here of one model and also three of another based on the reporting, which paid for OpenLM the first time the yearly maintenance came due,” Steven added.
Alongside gaining complete control over its software assets by identifying and reclaiming unused licenses or software features, as well as monitoring the software licenses deployed, Steven and his team use the OpenLM solution to manage service continuity of essential engineering applications, ensuring that the right number of licenses are renewed. With a quick at the OpenLM license usage and activity reports, Steven Bryant was able to confidently plan the engineering software procurement to cut software spending, while keeping productivity at 100 percent.
Furthermore, with OpenLM on board, Autoneum engineers have full visibility of license usage. They use this information and call up the communication channels to harvest unused licenses from team members. “Minimum license strategies require everyone to work together. So, the OpenLM client helps my team know who is using what license. Having OpenLM allows my teams to view who has licenses currently, and they can communicate to request the other get out. Those teams understand what is needed versus what is wanted, and, luckily, they get along,” Steven continues.
Whenever the Autoneum North America team had questions or faced new challenges when adding a new license to the monitoring system, the OpenLM outstanding support was there to help. OpenLM support engineers are available 24/6 via email, phone, or Live chat.
“Working with OpenLM makes you feel like you have your own license expert on the staff,” Steven concludes.
