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The theory behind Autodesk Flex—using tokens to purchase 24-hour blocks of software usage—makes great sense for any business where its users dip in and out of different software products.
With a traditional subscription, the ‘dipping out’ means you are effectively paying for downtime. The practice of using tokens potentially avoids this waste, but may not be as straightforward as it sounds unless you have a very firm handle on who’s using what and when.
CQFlexMon gives you the essential visibility to balance usage and payment as precisely as possible.
Flexibility with licence payments brings an opportunity to get tighter in your finances than ever before. It means you can match the tools your team needs to their real-time requirements—that time in the week, or that moment in the project—rather than having applications sitting there open and used. Like a dripping tap, if the water flows you pay for it whether you used it or not. Flexibility enables you to turn the tap on when you need to and turn it off when you don’t need any water.
All you have to do is plan for when you need to turn the tap on or rather, on a drier note, plan for when the software will be used. Once you plan effectively, the need for constant policing is removed. It can be automated, but automation is only effective if you set the ground rules.
With the introduction of Autodesk Flex tokens, enabling you to “pay as you go for occasional product use”, there is a real opportunity for companies to save money by examining their approach to user-assigned licenses. Known simply as ‘Flex’, this payment option covers an enormous range of Autodesk products you can explore here.
While there are still many customers working with the Network Licencing model (multi-user subscriptions). The move to User-Assigned (Named User) licenses is here. This change came fully into play on February 2023. I outlined the impact it may have on your business in a recent blog: ‘How does the move from Network Licenses to Named User Licenses affect me?’
Autodesk Flex brings a whole new set of considerations into the mix regarding your efficient managing of licensing.
Do you really want to be checking every user, every day, to ascertain software usage patterns? Conversely, do you want to let things settle into their own pace and then have the suspicion that perhaps you’re over-paying for software usage?
The very point of any software is that it removes the tedium and complexity of repetitive tasks. This point is lost if the same software forces you into a policing role around your teams; and the bigger the team, the more effort you will have to put in to make sure that the software you’ve invested in is actually bringing a decent return on investment.
Symetri have developed a software feature within CQFlexMon (our proprietary software licence monitoring tool) that enables you to gain full and ongoing visibility of how the value your software brings—to your projects, workflows, and business—is the best it can be:
As I mentioned, using Autodesk Flex does involve you setting your own ground rules as to how you intend to use the tokens. The way that payment works is that you pre-purchase tokens and then consume as you go.
The CQFlexMon Manage Autodesk module provides two fundamental steps:
Step 1: Data Collection and Usage Analysis
Symetri evaluates your usage of all Autodesk applications to provide a detailed report assessing usage against your licensing arrangement. Included in this foundational (and then rolling) report—which will also inform decisions around the User-Assigned licenses —are details on:
Step 2: Keeping track
Things change constantly. For example, as people leave, others arrive. CQFlexMon enables you to spot the inactive licenses thereby enabling you to transfer licenses between lapsed users and starters. Keeping track is an obvious requirement but it’s not so obvious how to do it. In a small company this is not a major issue but for the bigger organisation it can be an extremely challenging task.
If you have pre-purchased a large amount of token’s it can be easy to lose the thread as to who is using what and when. People may have started off as obvious candidates for token use, but then become busier and busier; still using tokens.
Behaviours such as this go against the need of flex tokens. Our report will highlight such anomalies, enabling you to rectify them. Other users may simply have forgotten what their usage is and how it is facilitated.
Through regular reporting on your usage status across all team members and locations, CQFlexMon Manage Autodesk makes it easy to work your licensing model in direct response to proven and anticipated software usage.
When it comes to Autodesk products and how to best fund your usage of them, CQFlexMon helps you make sure you make the right choices.
If you want to discuss your choices, and how to make them smarter, please get in touch with us at info@symetri.co.uk.
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