Metering Hexagon PPM Apps while Transitioning to ISL

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Hexagon PPM, which offers a wide variety of software solutions including CADWorx, CAESAR II, Smart Review, Smart 3D, Intergraph Smart P&ID, etc., has effectively launched its new licensing platform called Intergraph Smart Licensing (ISL). ISL is set to replace both hardware locks (HASP) and SmartPlant® License Manager (SPLM).

Hexagon claims that ISL offers several advantages, including easy installation, use, and administration. ISL removes the requirement of maintaining an on-premise license server, thus reducing end-user costs. It also eliminates the risk of losing hardware locks, which could prove to be an expensive mistake. Utilizing Cloud-based licensing technology, ISL is designed to run in any location with an internet connection, but it also supports checking out licenses for offline use, which administrators can control by specifying how long those licenses will remain checked out while offline.

With this new innovative technology, Hexagon has advised its customers to transition from HASP or SPLM to ISL. ISL has 100% backward compatibility, which means that all software that supports either SPLM or HASP will also run with ISL.

Hexagon’s support for HASP technology ended on May 31, 2020, which effectively limited the support for HASP beginning June 2020. Hexagon has programmed HASP locks to expire on the end-of-life date, but allowed a few customers to request for an extension of the hardware lock expiration up to November 5, 2022. However, due to limited support, Hexagon will no longer be replacing faulty or damaged hardware locks beyond the end-of-life date.

On the other hand, Hexagon has not set an end-of-life date for SPLM. It will continue to provide support and certification of SPLM on new operating systems. However, software versions that have been released after May 1, 2020 will no longer work with either SPLM or HASP.

ISL has its own portal that provides limited usage reporting capabilities. This portal may not be enough to provide a clear picture of the organization’s true active usage. There is a need for a more robust software usage metering solution that could dig deeper into the license checkout duration to distinguish between active and inactive times, thus identifying the organization’s actual licensing needs.

For customers who choose to maintain HASP and/or SPLM while they transition to ISL, capturing the true license usage may become even more complicated. These customers would need a software usage metering solution that could support all these different technologies and consolidate the license usage data from many different sources to provide accurate license usage information on a single, easy-to-use dashboard.

Open iT® LicenseAnalyzer2020™ is a complete engineering software management solution that provides extensive usage metering and robust reporting capabilities. It supports ISL, HASP, and SPLM, as well as many other license managers and more than 6000 software applications. LicenseAnalyzer2020 has the capability to drill down into the organization’s software usage to distinguish between active and inactive usage. It collects usage data from a wide variety of sources to provide an enterprise-wide overview of the organization’s true and accurate software usage.

With LicenseAnalyzer2020, the usage of Hexagon PPM software applications will be accurately metered regardless of whether they are on ISL, HASP, or SPLM. Furthermore, LicenseAnalyzer2020 can provide managers with the necessary reports to see the rate at which the users adopt the new software versions that run with ISL. The managers can then use this information to provide targeted training for those who may need it, or to modify their transition plan accordingly. With these reports and capabilities, LicenseAnalyzer2020 could help in the organization’s transition to ISL to make it a much smoother and more seamless process.

Learn more about Open iT LicenseAnalyzer2020 and how it can help your organization in transitioning to ISL. Let us guide you through your engineering software management and optimization journey, and get the complete Open iT Experience!

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