Featured Article from Software Monetization

Software licensing and monetization is a tricky prospect for any business in today’s complex technology economy. A comprehensive approach is required to ensure businesses are getting the most return from their software solutions and that their customers are gleaning the most satisfaction and value.

Gemalto (News - Alert) specializes in solutions to help businesses navigate the licensing system and integrate new practices within existing infrastructure and operating procedures. One of the key components and differentiators of Gemalto’s approach is its extensive consulting portfolio, vital to ensuring success throughout the software lifecycle. The company breaks up its services into three main areas based on its Sentinel software monetization solutions.

In addition to Sentinel Training, which provides one to two days of standardized product training courses, the company also offers Sentinel Licensing Consultancy throughout an entire project, both on site and remotely. But one of the most critical components of Gemalto’s consulting services is its Sentinel Workshops, which supply individual guidance for companies over a one- to two-day period.

Designed specifically for SMEs, Sentinel Workshops enable companies to work with a pre-sales consultant to explore and define their specific requirements. This lets businesses pinpoint which solutions will work best for them and figure out the budget and resources they will need to meet their goals. The Workshops also include targeted training and a choice of modules designed to reduce implementation time along with the learning curve for staff. Sessions typically include live presentations, implementation guides, how-tos and best practices tips and conceptual discussions.

What sets the Sentinel Workshops apart is that each one is designed to align with specific business requirements and structures. Gemalto works closely with each customer to define procedures and outcomes, involving certain departments and personnel as needed. The goal is to ensure all company stakeholders understand the opportunities of maintaining a licensing system and can launch and manage the project. This planning stage also ensures costs and implementation times are minimized and that the licensing system can be integrated efficiently and effectively.

The next part of the workshop is the Training Modules portion, consisting of five main components to get companies up and running with their new licensing systems. The Sentinel JumpStart module helps companies install, run and configure their licensing systems and also includes a managed service option to enable cloud-based services. The License Enforcement Consultancy portion addresses all licensing components used by a company’s customers, like monitoring the use of the license in different versions, form factors and models and all of the software components that activate the license.

The Entitlement Management Consultancy module addresses central administration of licenses and rights. The training is designed to help participants understand the process of entitlement management and ensure it is deployed properly. The Development/Proof of Concept module helps businesses draft a concept based on their specific requirements as well as finalize their technical proof of concept. The goal of this portion of the training is to help companies harmonize their technical and businesses needs with the capabilities of Gemalto’s offerings.

And finally, the Migration training module ensures a smooth switch-over to Gemalto’s solution in the most efficient way possible. The training addresses which data, functions and work stages of the existing system will need to be adopted as well as how this will happen practically on both the client and server side. The module will also look into what may be slowing down current performance and require improvement as well as what the nature of enhanced processes will be. Finally, the training will address how improved functions can be used practically and what possible implementation of absent elements will look like.

By offering comprehensive consulting services like the Sentinel Workshops, Gemalto is able to provide clients with a customized training and implementation process designed to meet their specific business and technological needs throughout the deployment and migration process. That level of services is extended to ongoing management and monitoring of the Gemalto solutions, ensuring they continue to meet the needs of specific businesses throughout their software lifecycles.