SOFTWARE LICENSING

Serco Selects Flexera Software's FlexNet Publisher as its Software Licensing Solution

By Anil Sharma, TMCnet Contributor

Serco, an international service company, has selected Flexera Software’s FlexNet Publisher as the embedded software licensing solution for its ANSWERS Software Codes.

Thanks to FlexNet Publisher, Serco will now be able to offer its nuclear sector customers flexible and customized software licensing and pricing options for the ANSWERS Software Codes while protecting the company from unauthorized software use and revenue loss, according to company officials.

The ANSWERS Software Codes, produced by Serco's Technical Consulting Services, are used by nuclear operators for activities pertaining to reactor physics, radiation shielding and dosimetry, nuclear criticality safety, nuclear well logging and liability planning.

Officials with Flexera Software said that Serco chose FlexNet Publisher for its ease of use for both itself and its customers who in turn often need to embed ANSWERS Software codes into their own products.

"To meet the varying and niche needs of our customers, our software is designed to be compatible with all technology systems, platforms and operating systems. This means that the software licensing solution we embed must also cover the entire range of technology. FlexNet Publisher met this crucial criterion," said Caroline Middlemas, ANSWERS Software Codes Business Manager at Serco, in a statement.

"Further, FlexNet Publisher has easily integrated with our software, without requiring any sweeping changes to be made to our applications or data structures, saving us time and allowing us to focus on enhancing ANSWERS Software Codes' functionality," said Middlemas.

Vincent Smyth, general manager, Flexera Software EMEA, said that the software landscape is rapidly changing, especially given trends such as virtualization, pay-per-use and software as a service license models.

Smyth said that as a result, not only are profit margins diminishing, but the market is demanding customized pricing and licensing terms, making software licensing and entitlement management even more challenging.

“Using solutions such as FlexNet Publisher can help software vendors grow their market share through flexible software provisioning, and enhance end user experience, while reigning in unauthorized application usage," said Smyth.

Recently, Flexera Software, the leading provider of strategic solutions for Application Usage Management for application producers and enterprises, announced that a leading solution provider in virtual prototyping for manufacturing industries, ESI Group, purchased FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications. Implementing the solution will enable ESI (News - Alert) to offer flexible, usage-based licensing models to customers that are using ESI's "FlexEnabled" applications.