Autodesk® Licensing Demystified

[0:02] Hezron: Hello once again, good morning everyone and finally we are about to start our webinar for today. So welcome to today’s webinar and our webinar is entitled Autodesk Licensing Demystified: Take Control Over Autodesk Software Cost Usage Through Metering and Optimization. My name is Hezron and as you can see I am joining from home and I’ll be your moderator for today. I work with the sales and marketing team for Open iT and I’m excited to be hosting in this session and I’m pleased to introduce our speaker for today, Lemuel Enrico. So Lemuel is our solutions engineer at Open iT and he is responsible for conducting demonstrations on the technical aspects of the Open iT solutions. His expertise includes analysis and system configuration that are streamlined for the customer’s business needs and today he is going to share how metering your Autodesk software usage could help you identify the combination of Autodesk licensing models that would best fit your organization’s needs.

[1:12] Now before I hand over the microphone to Lemuel I have a few housekeeping items to cover about this presentation. So first, today’s webinar will be available after the live session, we will send out the link of the recording to the webinar attendees through email. Next we’d love to hear from you during today’s session as well, if you have questions for our speaker please feel free to send it through the raise hand tab at the right side of our screen and we’ll be answering your questions at the end of the session. If we don’t get to your question immediately today we will be sure to follow up afterwards. And last we’d like to encourage you to share today’s webinar with your social network if you’re available and to your colleagues as well. So without further ado I’d like to kick things off by welcoming our solutions engineer Lemuel.

[2:08] Over to you, can you hear us.

[2:10] Lemuel: Yeah I can hear you, how about me, can you hear me.

[2:12] Hezron: I can hear you loud and clear. I will now pause my screen sharing and I’ll let you go over with the presentation. Thank you Lemuel.

[2:24] Lemuel: All right, so yeah, thank you, thank you Hezron for the wonderful introduction. So good morning everyone and thank you very much for tuning in. Again I’m Lemuel, your speaker for today and I’d like to welcome you all to this webinar on Autodesk Licensing Demystified. And on behalf of my team we are hoping that you find this webinar helpful in managing your software assets the optimal way. And of course especially in these challenging times, I know that this is very hard for everyone so we’re sending our prayers with you for safety and we’d like to thank you for spending your time this morning to learn more on Autodesk licensing. I’m pretty sure that you’ll have some familiarity on the topics that I’ll be talking about here and we might also find a common ground on the ideas that I’ll be sharing with you since probably you’ve heard of it or read about it already. But then again there’s also information that will give you a different perspective on Autodesk licensing so without any further ado let’s begin.

[3:26] So I’m really excited to tell you guys about these three steps of successful Autodesk license management. So by the end of this webinar you’ll be able to easily define the data that are used to analyze the existing licensing situation for Autodesk within your environment since understanding which measures you need to look at is a great first step on looking for which areas you can save costs from right. And then secondly determine if the current license agreement with Autodesk satisfies both efficiency and productivity at the same time, that is of course coming from the data that we’ve gathered. And lastly we’ll be able to decide the next steps for Autodesk license optimization. So we’ll actually dive into a few report examples so you can see how you can utilize software usage metering optimization tools which can be valuable to anyone negotiating, purchasing, or just even using Autodesk licenses. And we will wrap up with some standard options and recommendations in choosing the best subscription plan for your company with various licensing challenges.

[4:31] Now I’d like to start the discussion by reflecting back on the Autodesk license changes that happened for the last four years. So giving you a little timeline right here, again some information here may not be new to us anymore. And we’re all well aware of the changes that happened in 2016 where a lot of things happened right. So year 2016 is when perpetual, our non-expiring licenses, are phased out and as we all know this is another move that is rough especially if you’re a loyal customer for several years. And this is also the year where Token Flex licensing was introduced, this one is a very unique way of licensing wherein consumption is counted per user per day and customers purchase a number of tokens and they’re allowed to use them during the contract period. Also the same year where collections are introduced and suites were taken off the market.

[5:27] So years after perpetual license phase out users are slowly adjusting to subscription-based licensing. So fast forward year 2020 another big change happened after four years and for those who don’t know this yet I hope you’ll not be too surprised, okay, since right now Autodesk is on their way to remove their multi-user subscriptions which are basically transforming everything to Named User. Now on top of that they also declared a price increase to those who will not commit to transition or for those who will stay in their current plans. Autodesk’s transition to Named User for the customers in order to have these benefits: optimize license cost by having visibility into the usage data, so no need to manage your own license servers according to them, and no longer tracking an anonymous serial number, so dedicated access for all employees who need licenses, no more downtime waiting for licenses, and tailored support and learning content for employees based on insights.

[6:32] So to give us an idea on where the trend is actually going and what everyone thinks the most logical reason behind this decision, these are the amazing statements about the mass migration to hosted environment which also affected the traditional way of software licensing. So as Cisco said, cloud data centers will process 94 to 95 percent of workloads in the year 2021 which leaves almost nothing left for on-premises data centers. So what’s happening here now folks is software companies are moving towards a subscription and service model pricing. So in other words we can expect that not only Autodesk but the whole software ecosystem in general will move to cloud licensing because the cloud has an enormous impact on how software is purchased, delivered, and deployed which will transform the entire technology economy.

[7:21] Now Autodesk announced plans for worldwide changes to licensing the first quarter of year 2020. So before the phase out customers under multi-user subscriptions have five to seven months ahead to plan for the transition. So again collecting all of these evidences in one context these changes have already been made. So at some point it is necessary to make a leap of faith and let’s all move forward okay. And after a lot of different reactions and deliberation in the end it is a done deal and time to get on with things together. And let’s all figure out how to best utilize this new scheme. So as the famous quote says change is the only thing that’s permanent right.

[8:10] But for those who are under multi-user license agreement this change appeared to be very dramatic as they are not quite sure on how to proceed along the road. So a lot of questions and concerns were asked in several online forums. Questions such as what about my existing multi-user licenses, what about my new options, and how do I prepare for this transition. So these are the questions that we will try to answer as we go along this webinar.

[8:41] Now let’s start with the first one, what about my existing multi-user licenses. You’re probably asking yourself what can you do about it, is there any chance I can still use it. So the direct answer for that question is yes you can still use them right now but up until a period of time only since it is impossible to renew them after August 2021. And if you’re using multi-user access right now you should be aware of these four facts and important dates that everyone should know about. Since Autodesk announced this themselves, again you can still utilize multi-user licenses up until August next year. And Autodesk have announced that multi-user subscriptions will continue to be sold up until August this year due to the COVID-19 situation since according to them they do not want to introduce a change at a time where business as usual is hard enough. So also the same date where trade-in offers are introduced in order to assist with the transition from multi-user to Named User. So regarding the trade-ins we will discuss those on the next slides. And for those customers who will proceed with the transition they will pay the same renewal price so rest assured that it will be consistent up until the year 2028 with ongoing discount.

[10:10] So about the available options that we have, which brings anxiety for those customers who are nearing their renewal date with the upcoming transition. Autodesk offered to help their customers by bringing in these two options and that is the maintenance trade-in and the term trade-in. And to discuss the difference between these two, the maintenance trade-in is for those few customers who haven’t yet moved from perpetual to subscription and they can start as early as May 2020. For the multi-user trade-in however this will start on August 2020 which will address the transition from multi-user to Named User standard subscription.

[10:51] And to understand how this trade-in works, for the maintenance trade-in, again just to address those few customers who haven’t yet switched to subscription, as of May 7 2020 maintenance customers have two choices. So option A they can switch to subscription upon renewal at a current maintenance price so customers don’t have to pay any additional fee for this trade, so this is absolute one to one trading. And option B they can stay on maintenance but they have to agree with a 20% price increase upon renewal and I think that would be the last chance for the trading since on May 7 2021 all maintenance plans would be retired.

[11:30] Now for multi-user licenses this one is a different story. With the time-based subscriptions the length of terms are also compromised due to the big transition to Named User so we’re only left with single year terms up until August this year. And of course multi-year agreements of two or three year terms are no longer available as of February this year. All right, take note on that.

[12:03] And now let’s go to the most interesting part, the multi-user trade-in that will happen starting on August 2020. This will focus on all customers with multi-user network or network maintenance plans. And if you choose to switch early you’ll be able to trade in one multi-user license for two standard Named User licenses. And if you reject the offer and stay with your current plans you’ll be forced to switch one multi-user license to one standard Named User upon your next renewal. So this is Autodesk’s way of saying that if you don’t renew right now on your upcoming renewal you lose the chance for a good trade or a good deal, something like that.

[12:42] So one last question begs to be asked and that is how do we prepare for this transition. If we internalize these upcoming changes it will become clear that the move to Named User type of licensing is something that the majority of organizations and users are dealing with. So changes have come but that is not the actual real problem. Not having the right reporting tools and analytics to evaluate the new licensing options is a problem that will make the transition harder. So when planning for a software purchase licensing should be reviewed analytically. So before anything else let us first turn on the lights and let’s all escape the anxiety within ourselves. So now that we have a clear view ahead of us and we now know what the problem is there’s actually more to gain than to lose.

[13:37] So software metering and optimization tools are extremely helpful for having full control on your software expenses and companies who don’t have the clear view of their current license necessities will have a disadvantage to those who have proactively adapted well to optimization. So in any case the point is software metering is a big component in helping managers decide on the most cost effective option available without sacrificing productivity in the process.

[14:11] So there are a lot of levels on how deep you can analyze license usage. So with this graph that I’m going to show you, you will have an understanding on how helpful software management tools are. And with this gray and green line this is at least information that may exist even without any software metering tools and this signifies the number of licenses that are purchased and installed. And as you notice the number of licenses are increasing as we go along in time so at this point it is quite impossible to tell whether these licenses are being used efficiently. But upon implementing a metering tool in their environment additional data is shown by this blue line. So we can now exactly identify how many licenses are being used simultaneously and with this clear vision of license usage we can tell that at some point where the maximum licenses are being reached there’s probably a lot of phone calls about the denials that users are getting which explains why they kept adding and adding more licenses over time.

[15:07] Now most license monitoring tools may settle with this data since having this kind of vision is very impressive but for us we can actually meter even deeper than that with our level 2 solution. So we can determine how many licenses are being used actively. So by looking at this additional data we can say that there’s still a lot of room for optimization. Now what’s even more impressive is we can do license harvesting for those users that are considered inactive for a period of time and reports like efficiency and heat map are very important reports that you need if you wish to stay with your concurrent licensing. But we don’t really recommend going in that direction of staying since because of the consequences that Autodesk are giving their customers and of course eventually everyone will have to move to Named User whether they like it or not.

[16:00] But just to give you an idea on how hands-on and flexible software management tools are in dealing with customers’ licensing challenges, here are just some solutions provided to the customers with very great value. Now in addition to reviewing reports and presentations of just historical data it is also useful to have the ability to set up dashboards with alerting based on current and real-time information. So instead of being just reactive we approach license management proactively. And with the ability to easily set up alerts like this one that I’m showing, the license utilization approaching maximum, wherein if the threshold is breached it will send alerts to the subscribed email. So this feature would be very helpful for license managers in order to prevent unforeseen circumstances such as denial of service which may prevent productivity in the workplace.

[17:04] All right now that we started talking about denials, Autodesk is also known for their last mechanism called cascading sequence. So it’s also good to have the capability to differentiate true from false denials and that would of course require creating a specialized solution in handling the cascading mechanism of Autodesk. All right and of course that would be better if you can see the reason behind each denial of service.

[17:26] So inventory reports for Autodesk are also crafted to be useful since they include every single detail of each purchased application which includes the version, installation host, and even operating system. And this report helps to track if all the licenses that are purchased are all installed. But then again since Autodesk will retire serial numbers and they’ll be focusing more on people it would be important to look at reports on user level detail. And thankfully Open iT can do that for you. So in this instance we are using Power BI for reporting and this is a dashboard that’s specifically made for Token Flex licensing. I hope that rings a bell. So as mentioned the integration to business intelligence tools is just one functionality that a good software asset management tool could have especially if they want to do forecasting and maybe simulation of token costs based on historical usage. And in this example we try to get the best out of Microsoft Power BI’s reporting interface which results in this presentation quality graphics. And shown here is a dashboard for summarizing the distinct users by module and package which is followed by a breakdown of daily distinct users by module. So slicers are also utilized so if customers want to compare weekdays or even weekend work patterns that is also possible here.

[19:03] All right so Autodesk also offers different types of licensing as well as different packages for their products, one of which was Autodesk suites. Although suites are no longer available for purchase and renewal, remaining customers that still have this kind of package still prefer to use this because of its benefits and its self-optimizing capabilities. Unfortunately organizations that still use suites are experiencing problems with identifying which products are being utilized. This is occurring because the suite doesn’t really specify which products are being used at a time and for organizations it is important to identify which products are utilized by the users in order to help them properly manage their current software assets and effectively plan for their next Autodesk purchase. So with the gathered data from different sources we can then match a user’s workstation details and license details on an hourly level and this allows us to start determining which of the products is being utilized on the suite.

[20:19] All right so we are about to wrap up this webinar and this is something that I want you guys to really listen to carefully since everything that I’ll show beyond this point should help you in your decision making if you wish to transition from multi-user to standalone licenses okay. So this is how it actually works in a real-life scenario. So from our discussion earlier we know that multi-user license seats can be exchanged for two Named User licenses right. So from a realistic set of data here shown in an actual report we have here an Autodesk server that has three different kinds of AutoCAD applications but for now we’ll be focusing on AutoCAD 2014 all right.

[21:06] So if we visualize the data we have nine floating licenses that are being shared by 45 distinct users. Now we can also notice that there’s a minimal number of denials, it’s probably sufficient. Now if we apply the trading logic that would be 18 users who will have their own standalone licenses. And if we remember correctly we have two options here, we can stay with our current floating license management or we can switch to Named User but that would require buying more standalone licenses for everyone and the company might have to spend additional dollars for it. Or we can have a complex agreement with Autodesk with mixed license types. So in this situation you may have to choose to give power users their own license, maybe just the top 18 users that use AutoCAD every day, and maybe purchase network licenses for those users that use AutoCAD occasionally. But that’s just another idea that we can explore if we’re really struggling with budget right now or if the transition is too drastic.

[22:20] Now let’s scale this up to add even more complexity and at this time we’re looking at the AEC collection and this time much more expensive than AutoCAD of course since AutoCAD is just a part of it. So we have 649 users that are using this collection. So from this trade-in from 23 floating licenses you will have 46 standalone licenses from your previous contract. Well we know that collections work like a package which is composed of different sets of applications right. So just to differentiate suites from collections, collections are not self-optimizing and they don’t really upgrade from individual licenses to collections automatically. And on top of that there are also some situations where users are checking out collections but they’re only using a single application out of the package. So we can agree that it is not quite used efficiently in those situations.

[23:22] And if you look closely at their license usage data we can observe that those people work in teams and they can be classified on the applications that they’re using. So if you try to sort them out the AutoCAD team might probably be composed of 330 people, majority of them are using AutoCAD, and we have the 3ds Max team, we have the Revit team, Navisworks probably fewer, and we have the ReCap team, and maybe those people who really need the whole collection should be composed of 110 people only.

[24:03] Now reporting about packages together with their individual features underneath is something that we’re capable of doing. So this report is being used by our customers for their negotiations. And Open iT can do that both in real time and historical data. Right now the most important measure that you should have is the number of distinct users per package and per individual application. So if you have the data down to the user level detail it would be seamless to do a cost analysis just like this one.

[24:42] So just to put the discussion in dollar perspective again, using the data that we have, if we calculate the number of individuals that are left out of the trading right that would be 603 people. Now multiplied by the cost of a standalone Architecture, Engineering, and Construction collection that would be $1.7 million or maybe even more than that.

[25:14] So now if we tried to sort users out by teams accordingly with the prices of individual standalone licenses, the same example but this time a different path of action, in total that would be $1.1 million only. So displaying them side by side we’ll know which one is more cost effective with the more than $600,000 difference. So the point of this exercise is in any case you will still spend a considerable amount but we just want to help you cut costs by being equipped with data for negotiation and at the same time for you to get the best out of your software purchases.

[25:53] Now this is also probably worth sharing. We have these customers with license monitoring tools that are able to get these impressive savings by just having proper knowledge in analyzing Autodesk licensing and of course in software usage in general. So we’re helping these customers for several years now and since before they’ve accumulated these huge savings, a lot of confusion didn’t really help them in finding the missing pieces of the license optimization puzzle.

[26:26] So let’s talk about the future of Autodesk. We still have this new license lineup that we should be prepared about. So in the near future Autodesk mentioned that they will soon release the following variants: we have Standard, Premium, and Enterprise. So a license monitoring tool would be helpful in these scenarios.

[26:43] So long story short here’s the summary of what we learned today. So Autodesk declared a transition to Named User which remains the hottest Autodesk topic for 2020 and they’ll be retiring plans based on serial numbers. And they also announced that multi-user licenses end of sale was supposed to be happening in May but Autodesk gave us an extension until August because of the pandemic. And to answer the questions that we had earlier, what about my existing multi-user licenses, yes you can still use them but it can’t be done after August 2021. So about our new options, Autodesk gave us maintenance and multi-user trade-ins, maintenance plans to subscription would be one to one trading and multi-user to Named User would be one to two trading.

[27:48] And now the most important question of all, how do I prepare for this transition. First of course you should know your budget right, you should ask yourself how much am I willing to commit with this change. And of course specify which of these applications your environment is using so you can prepare by being aware and be equipped with distinct user information for each package and application. So do you really need packages or just individual applications. So now I want you guys to think about this all right. Here’s the timeline of the trading dates and it’s moving obviously and we’re getting near. Currently we have three months to prepare for the multi-user transition so the sooner you have our agents installed and collecting data the sooner it can help you provide something accurate for decision making. So the more data the better it is for analysis.

[28:50] Okay so that’s it for my webinar. I hope everyone learned something valuable today right. I would be happy to take any questions if there’s anything you need clarifications on and I’ll be giving the floor back to Hezron. Thank you very much everyone.

[29:08] Hezron: Thank you Lemuel, that has been very helpful. And hi again this is Hezron. So at this point in time we are going to collect your questions, we are currently collecting all of your questions and inquiries. Feel free to raise your hand in our GoToWebinar platform and we will answer them one by one with the best of our ability. If we won’t be able to answer all of them today we will surely get back to you through email and perhaps either Lemuel or maybe I myself will follow up on your inquiries. So let us see, there are several inquiries here so let me read a few. Lemuel can you hear us.

[29:48] Lemuel: Yes loud and clear, I can hear you.

[29:51] Hezron: All right so let me see some of the questions here because I think since you are the one who shared the Autodesk solutions you have the best knowledge to share or answer about this. So we have one question here, they have mentioned that they have an upcoming renewal on late July and that would be six weeks to two months of data collection and maybe this is referring to how much data collection is needed for the analysis you have mentioned in your most recent slide right, that the Autodesk renewal is moving. So maybe the question here is how much data is needed if the upcoming renewal will be on late July before they can do the analysis and recommendations.

[30:41] Lemuel: All right so I’m glad actually you asked that since I probably didn’t make it clear earlier. So this six weeks to two months of data right, that would be enough. So our standard proof of concept is 30 days so Hezron can correct me on that and if we have more than two months of data that would be perfect, that would be accurate. All right so the answer to that question is yes that would be enough for analysis.

[31:08] Hezron: All right thank you. So Lemuel is right in the technical perspective and also in commercial perspective I think 30 days is enough. Lemuel is our expert so I will trust him on his answer. Thank you Lemuel and we have one more question here. If my next renewal happens to land this coming June will I be able to negotiate directly for a multi-user two to one trade-in for Named User license or will I have to wait for August to apply for the multi-user trade-in. So is that clear or should I repeat the question Lemuel.

[31:58] Lemuel: I didn’t catch actually the last part but yeah you may repeat it Hezron.

[32:03] Hezron: All right. If my next renewal happened to land this coming June so it will be roughly two months from now, will I be able to negotiate directly for a multi-user two to one trade-in for Named User license or will I have to wait for August to apply for the multi-user trade-in.

[32:22] Lemuel: I think this one is kind of a complicated situation right but I think this question is more for Autodesk’s agents. I actually have no idea if this is possible but we have this one customer from the US, this one is an aerospace customer, and they already had a quotation on how much it would take them to transition everything to Named User and to show you guys it would take I think $3 million approximately or maybe more than that. But yeah the starting date for multi-user trading is August 7 so that would be late June, that would be two months. So to answer your question it depends on your Autodesk reseller actually and if you want to know the complete reference you may visit Autodesk’s terms and conditions, you can see it there, everything detailed regarding the transition to Named User. So I think that would depend on your reseller or agent.

[33:30] Hezron: Yeah that’s right and maybe to add as well I think an expert on Autodesk licensing or an experienced person who can help in identifying how much an organization will have to take, and just like the presentation that you have shared earlier, I think an expert can help. And maybe people from the software asset management or license asset management industry can help. Maybe you can help them. I know you have made a lot of reports about this.

[33:59] Lemuel: It’s all about the data, it’s all about the data.

[34:03] Hezron: That’s right, that is right. So yes that is right. I think we are down to our last questions, there are a few more questions coming in but if we will not be able to take them in, again we are going to send them to you, maybe I will send them directly to you or Lemuel will send them as an answer. But here is a very quick question, how much will an Autodesk metering tool cost me just like what you have presented. So this is a very direct question, so do you have an answer for that or should I take the answer.

[34:39] Lemuel: It’s kind of dangerous for me to answer though.

[34:43] Hezron: All right so yeah I think that is a question for me. I think the investment depends on the proposed level of solutions, especially for us at Open iT it will depend on the level of solutions that we are going to offer the organization or the customer and it will also depend on the unique number of users. But as a baseline I think by experience we can start using an Open iT ROI analysis, that is a service we can start as low as $5,000 US dollars and we can build on that as time goes by. It will all depend on the negotiation of the organization. And anyway our target and our goal is to help the organization manage the Autodesk licensing and the changes that are happening. So I guess that’s it. I hope that is a good answer. So as a baseline our $5,000 Open iT ROI analysis is a good start but yeah it will all depend on the level of solutions that we can offer. So if you are interested just let us know, you can contact us directly or you can send more questions at sales@openit.com. So that’s it. So yeah I hope we were able to answer all of your questions. Lemuel do you have any questions for us maybe before we end.

[36:16] Lemuel: Not for me right now.

[36:19] Hezron: All right, thank you very much Lemuel and I had a terrific time with you guys. If I was not able to get to your questions and there are follow-up questions, again send us your questions, we are free to answer back and we will answer back as quick as possible. And I hope we had a lot of great interaction in this webinar. So as promised we are going to send you the recording of this webinar 24 hours from now and I hope this has been helpful. Surely we are looking forward to working with you in the future but of course our priority now is to be safe so keep safe everyone and I hope you are going to have a great day. So goodbye for now.

[37:04] Lemuel: Bye, thank you for attending, have a great day. Thank you everyone, bye bye.