Stoneridge
Empowering end users with CAD application licenses using OpenLM
Location: USA, Novi, Michigan
Industry: Automotive
Employees: 4 800
Product used: OpenLM On Premise Enterprise Solution
Main software monitored: AutoCAD, NX, Catia (CAD
applications)
License managers monitored: FLEXlm, DSLS, LMX
About Stoneridge
Stoneridge, Inc. is a designer and manufacturer of highly engineered electrical and electronic systems, components and modules, primarily for the automotive, commercial vehicle, motorcycle, agricultural and off-highway vehicle markets.
Since 1965, Stoneridge has designed and manufactured advanced, award-winning technologies for vehicle OEMs, including driveline and transmission actuation systems, vision systems, emissions control systems, safety systems, security and monitoring systems and much more.
There was no central knowledge repository of what we owned and where licenses were hosted from, or what type they were
PLM Architect
The challenge
As a global company with a large software stack, Stoneridge wanted to have full transparency and visibility on the software assets it owned. They wanted to know which engineering software was licensed per division, the license types, and the location of the license servers.
says Eric Wines, PLM Architect at Stoneridge.
OpenLM has the greatest amount of capability to support all the floating license types we had to manage
PLM Architect
Aside from visibility, Stonebridge also wanted to streamline their software asset management by being able to see the big picture: they wanted insights into real-time license consumption, which licenses were in high-demand, and which were under-utilized. All that should be in a single dashboard for easier license management than the one used in-house.
Consolidating global licenses in a single dashboard
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, Eric 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.
The reporting capabilities show us which licenses are in great demand and which are under-used for increasing (or) decreasing in license and budget balancing exercises
PLM Architect
“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,”
Eric 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.
The results
OpenLM engineering software license monitoring and management solution allowed Stoneridge to ensure it was not under- or over-licensed. Using OpenLM reports, the company was able to map all their software assets and license types, and have all the data in one central “knowledgebase” – OpenLM EasyAdmin – where anyone from the engineering team or IT support could immediately check current and historical license usage for reporting.
Optimizing the Stoneridge license inventory
One of the immediate results of having OpenLM monitor license consumption was that they discovered licenses that were either not in use or were generating low usage records. “The reporting capabilities show us which licenses are in great demand and which are under-used for increasing/decreasing in license and budget balancing exercises,” Eric explains. This helped Stoneridge optimize their software assets and budget.
ROI
