Software Licensing
Software suppliers usually grant the institution a licence for the exclusive use of the software application based on one of the following:
specific named users;
a total number of users;
a number of concurrent users;
unlimited users for web access; or
a site licence.
Firstly, 'exclusive use of the software by the institution' is likely to mean that the institution as a corporate identity (i.e. including associated organisations) will be able to use the software for operational purposes, but will not be allowed to make modifications to the software's programming code or the system's database(s).
Some software suppliers offer different licences that allow the customer to modify programming code for elements such as screen formats and reports, and others even allow modifications to the database(s) under strictly controlled conditions, but all licences of this nature must be separately negotiated and agreed and are likely to cost considerably more. It is important therefore to negotiate the best price for licences to allow sufficient numbers of staff to use the system for operational purposes and a much smaller number of its technical specialists to modify relevant aspects of the system, and should be vigilant not to buy too many of the wrong types of licence.
With regard to user licences, 'specific named users' is unlikely to be a viable option for education organisations, particularly for a large institution-wide system, because there are potentially huge overheads associated with maintaining a list of named users especially when turnover of staff is high and even more so if the organisation goes through a restructuring process.
A licence for a 'total number of users' is also unlikely to be a viable option for an institution in these circumstances because the total number would have to be estimated at the outset and would have to include every person ever likely to use the system even on a casual basis. Again, the overhead of maintaining a record of the number of users able to access the system, including every new employee, would be prohibitive.
A licence for a 'number of concurrent users' is much more suitable in these circumstances, indeed it is probably the most common type of licence offered by suppliers. The number of concurrent users can be estimated as the number of people likely to be using the system at any one time. This does not require a record of users' names nor does it need to include every person ever likely to use the system. It is simply an estimate of the number of full-time and casual users likely to be accessing the system at the busiest time of the day and the safest estimate to give is the number of PCs, terminals or workstations available to be used. The number of concurrent users can be increased beyond that specified in the licence, however this may incur an additional licence fee.
You need to be cautious where the supplier ofers different types of user licence e.g. 'full' and 'casual'. It is rare for any users in education, even administrative staff, to spend all day heavily using one application and there is a danger of being 'oversold' licences. For example you may want to look at maximum likely concurrent usage rather than total number of user accounts.
Systems are now becoming more easily accessible due to wider use of
the Internet
organisational intranets
web browsers
java applets
portals
As a result of this widening of accessibility you may find the most suitable type of licence for your organisation is one which allows 'unlimited users' access to the system. With this type of licence user access to the system would be under the control of the education organisation.
A 'site licence' is particularly appropriate for software such as development tools because it allows any number of people to write software and build systems using those tools as long as those people belong to the institution. It is less commonly used for software applications. It is common for there to be special agreements between suppliers and other sector organisations for software and/or hardware to be provided to the education community and care should be taken when negotiating site licences, in particular, that there are not similarly advantageous agreements already in place.
You should be aware that copyright and all other rights pertaining to the software will be strictly reserved by the supplier and your organisation must not copy the software or documentation for use by any third party, although you will have the right to duplicate the software for back up and archiving purposes and to transfer the software to a back up computer in the event of computer malfunction.
