Perfection in Software Protection, Licensing and Cybersecurity

Software Monetization is the capability to effectively maximize your software revenue by meeting market demands. As such, it is the combination of entitlement management and piracy prevention. The entitlement management is the foundation upon which license management is built. It includes in fact the definition of software SKUs, the definition and the enforcement of license policies, backoffice functions, like license generation, tracking and transaction management, as well as usability functions, like the transfer or the upgrade of licenses, usage auditing and more. This webinar is loaded with new perspectives from Frost & Sullivan Industry Analysts for the growth of your business. Software monetization is the key strategy to grow your top line revenues while controlling bottom line costs. The 3 S’s of Wibu-Systems unveiled: seamless, secure and scalable technology. Real business usages you can apply to increase the strength of your application and multiply licensing models.

The embedded device market is several times larger than the B2B software market; even though the adoption of commercial License Management solutions is significantly lower today, this segment is growing fast as software plays a growing role in embedded product. Wibu-Systems’ CodeMeter® technology offers software publishers a seamless, scalable and most of all secure platform, providing the most stringent security protocols meant at safeguarding your IP and multiple licensing models that adapt to your distribution channels. This webinar is loaded with new perspectives from Frost & Sullivan Industry Analysts on the security of embedded systems. As cyber-physical systems are introduced in manufacturing, security and safety become vulnerable under the cyber-attacks to embedded software, machines and plants. See through referenced success stories how Wibu-Systems CodeMeter® can safeguard intellectual property, reinvestments in research and development, and even jobs.

The embedded device market is several times larger than the B2B software market; even though the adoption of commercial License Management solutions is significantly lower today, this segment is growing fast as software plays a growing role in embedded product. Wibu-Systems’ CodeMeter® technology offers software publishers a seamless, scalable and most of all secure platform, providing the most stringent security protocols meant at safeguarding your IP and multiple licensing models that adapt to your distribution channels. This webinar is loaded with new perspectives from Frost & Sullivan Industry Analysts on the security of embedded systems. As cyber-physical systems are introduced in manufacturing, security and safety become vulnerable under the cyber-attacks to embedded software, machines and plants. See through referenced success stories how Wibu-Systems CodeMeter® can safeguard intellectual property, reinvestments in research and development, and even jobs.

A professional license management system is the backbone of any software publisher’s business. Its goal is to free up your time from routine or menial tasks, provide a reliable source of alerts for you to intervene in person where you have to, and allow you to customize the widest array of factors possible to meet all your customers’ needs. Such a system goes beyond a ‘set and forget’ concept and rather offers a fine-grained degree of personalization at any time. We believe that CodeMeter License Central serves this scope and, during this masterclass, we will show you how it can make your life easier. This masterclass is all about setting up automated routines in CodeMeter License Central that can cover many of the ordinary and extraordinary incidents in your software publishing life: Basic processes in CodeMeter License Central Automated processes that the ISV can configure in CodeMeter License Central Transfer licenses into a new CmContainer Recover lost licenses New in release 3.20: Delete lost licenses Recover lost CmContainers Lock lost CmContainers Automated processes that the ISV can trigger manually Automated updates New in release 3.20: Withdraw licenses New in release 3.21: Replace licenses Reset all licenses in a CmContainer Special automated processes Push updates without a renewed license request file Acknowledge the actions performed Automated processes that are only possible from a CmActLicense to a CmDongle Don’t get stuck in a rut. Master CodeMeter License Central license automation and gain precious hours for what matters the most in your software publishing business

Typically, we elaborate on techniques that make managing licenses and entitlements a seamless journey for ISVs and their customers. However, there are special conditions that may present themselves during the license lifecycle when you want to take deliberate actions aimed at locking down your licenses swiftly and permanently. Let’s see what these scenarios may be: You realize that a hacker is attacking your software; with unlimited time on his side to perpetrate reverse engineering and analysis, he may gain some ground; when you put a limit on the number of attempts he can try, you may save not only your intellectual property which is being targeted, but your entire business. A CmDongle containing a valid license goes missing; whether it was lost or stolen, or the customer is actually trying to mislead you to get a new license for free, you can lock down the license associated with the dongle before shipping a new one, just to make sure that, in case the old dongle resurfaces one day, you still have only a single active license in the field. A CmActLicense is no longer accessible; whether the computer really needed software or hardware maintenance and the customer could not disable the license before the crash, or the customer is cheating on you, you have the means to lock down the license and protect yourself should the license ever become active again online. There are multiple avenues to lock licenses down. Join us to discover them all and be ready to apply them when needed. CodeMeter offers the unique ability in the global market to lock licenses down: For the first use case listed above, you can opt for AxProtector, which is enabled by default, and needs just one click to activate the feature that will come to your rescue. When hardware or software based licenses are compromised because a dongle went missing or a soft-license is no longer accessible, you still have a one-click option with CodeMeter License Central, which is preset by default. If you don’t have a CodeMeter License Central installation or your customer is permanently offline, you can also use CodeMeter API; in both cases, you can create and distribute a software update that includes a blacklist of the compromised CmDongles and CmActLicenses; upon installing the new version of your software, the license that was reported as compromised to the ISV is locked down, whether the customer goes online or stays offline after performing the update from a DVD or USB memory stick. The lock-down can also be set to occur several days after the update to make sure there is no immediate correlation between the two actions. For accidental cases of license lock-downs, CodeMeter naturally also includes a way to remove locks at any time.

Just like the hacking scene has its script kiddies, leisure-time hackers, professional hackers, and all-stars, the software protection world allows you to opt for a homegrown solution, implement a cheap product, select a fully dedicated technology that has been leading the global market since decades, or even go the extra mile. It’s easy to agree that protecting is better than having your head in the sand, but in essence, there is no absolute right or wrong approach: The means of protection need to be appropriate for the value and appeal of your software. With CodeMeter AxProtector and its variants, you already have a set of tools that allows you to easily safeguard your compiled applications. No automatic hacking would work, as the overall goal of AxProtector is to automatically encrypt your application code and insert countermeasures against standard hacking techniques. To increase security even more, you can additionally encrypt individual functions with IxProtector and implement customized checks with CodeMeter Core API. Now, with CodeMoving, we make a leap into optimal protection: CodeMoving lets you move essential code into a CmDongle for execution far away from the prying eyes of would-be hackers. Once you move fragments of code into the CmDongle, you make the mischievous exploit simply impossible to achieve.

Over the years, the evolving needs of your business and your customer base are pretty likely to outgrow the structure of the licensing system you originally put in place; let this be a defining moment to optimize your processes and create a future-proof sales model. There’ll be many challenges you will find yourself facing, including the migration of existing data, especially if you still have to support already delivered software. Most probably, you’ll have recourse to two systems that you might be running in parallel for a defined transitional period. Even though the possible migration scenarios are plenty, two basic approaches have emerged: You keep relying on the license lifecycle management system in use and start delivering CodeMeter dongles as the underlying identification factor for licenses; upon reaching a critical mass, you make the full switch to CodeMeter License Central. You decide in favor of an immediate switch to CodeMeter License Central for the creation of new licenses, which will make it necessary for you to set up a compatibility mode that is able to handle licenses for the software that is already in the field  

There was a time when traditional software publishers could generate substantial revenues with simple one-off sales. As the digital market kept growing and users became more skilled and demanding, the whole process had to be redesigned to lower the upfront investment, instill a sense of trust and dependability between supplier and buyer, and produce recurrent and dynamic income. In the industrial realm, this topic has become more relevant and pressing, driven by recent developments in machine connectivity, the globalization of manufacturing processes, and the interest in customized manufacturing for production runs of maybe even only single pieces. While subscription models have customers paying a constant fee for every subscription term you set, regardless of whether they actually use the product or service, pay-per-use allows them to pay on the go for the machine lease, the consumables, the raw material, or the software package they specifically requested, at the time they really need it. The risk for you? The lower initial revenues when you first introduce this model are more than compensated for as the relationship with your customer deepens and you adjust your offers to their requirements. Best practices recommend introducing this model gradually alongside existing systems and fine-tuning the process as you analyze customers’ behaviors and spot specific patterns. CodeMeter License Central offers licenses with unit counters and automated processes, which makes pay-per-use models just as simple to handle as permanent or subscription licenses. You are still free to choose your favorite secure element for storing the licenses: CmDongle, CmActLicense, or server in the LAN or in the Cloud. The processes to create or renew licenses are easily integrated or automated. Automatic billing is just one step away with the streamlined integration of CodeMeter License Central into all mainstream ERP, CRM, and ecommerce platforms. In this one-hour session, we will go through the whole lifecycle from a number of success stories that will get you inspired to the whole set of actions that will get you started. Here are the main topics we’ll be discussing with the live audience:  Application of pay-per-use licensing models in different scenarios For software For machines For materials For building plans Technical implementation with CodeMeter Mapping out a pay-per-use license Licenses per action Licenses per term License creation License renewal Downstream billing Controlling the use of consumables Sale of own material Licensing of third-party material Opportunities and challenges relating to pay-per-use licenses First, think. Second, believe. Third, dream. And finally, dare. With CodeMeter, you have a powerful ally.