Software entrepreneurs who are developing their first time application have the luxury of building-in their software licensing and protection solution from the outset. They most likely will choose to work with an external vendor to design a modern protection and license entitlement management mechanism that is flexible and scalable to meet their dynamic licensing requirements.

However, that’s not the case with ISVs with mature applications who may feel like they are stuck with a rigid, antiquated system that they built themselves or are using a vendor’s solution that no longer fits their needs. Or, perhaps they may be unhappy with the support provided by the vendor.

We frequently speak to ISVs who are dissatisfied with their current licensing and protection solution. When we ask why they don’t take a look at migrating to a more suitable solution, many are hesitant because they believe the licensing migration would be too complicated and costly or are simply unsure of how the process could be implemented efficiently. Fortunately, that doesn’t have to be the case.

For example, the migration to the CodeMeter licensing, protection and security platform from another vendor, with the help of a professional services team long experienced in guiding these transitions, can be straightforward and relatively painless. We’ve demonstrated the process time and time again.

It has been our experience that the most important factor in a successful migration is the upfront work involved in understanding the comprehensive requirements of the solution, both short term to make the transition process as seamless and efficient as possible, and long term to ensure that the solution is flexible enough to enable the ISV to deliver different license models as needed. For example, we start by understanding the importance of integrating strong software protection against illegal copying or reverse engineering. We also gain an in-depth understanding of your licensing goals: is the licensing process the same for all of your products? Do you need to create new licenses for older versions of your products? Do you have a long term strategic product development plan? Do you envision entering new markets?

Once we understand and jointly agree on the requirements, we determine the optimum migration strategy that is customized to your unique products and business situation. The process could take any number of different paths. One scenario is to allow a transition period in which parts of the old system continue to be used, while the installed CodeMeter base is slowly expanded until it is ready for a complete switch-over in the second phase. Another strategy is to migrate individual products to CodeMeter while the bulk follows later.

If you are considering a look at new licensing and protection solution, I invite you to read an article that appeared in our most recent KEYnote magazine. The article, Switching to CodeMeter, describes in detail several different migration scenarios that have proven successful over the years.