How long will it take to get up and running? Without a doubt, this is the question I get asked the most as a software licensing solution consultant.  Instead of simply giving you the obvious answer nobody wants to hear (yes that answer is “well, it depends”) I will simply answer the question.

Answer:  With an out-of-the-box implementation (like we offer here at SafeNet,) you can probably be “up and running” within a couple weeks. Seems like an unrealistically low estimate, you say? Correct.  It is.

If you are looking at the problem as “getting up and running”, you are probably approaching it using a technical lens.  The key thing I try to get my customers to understand is that most of them don’t have a technical problem.  Instead, they have more of a business process challenge on their hands.  Technically, an average developer can implement our license enforcement libraries into their application fairly easily.  Technically, installing and configuring the EMS (entitlement management system) back-office to generate software license keys properly isn’t all that difficult.  You are “up and running” in a couple weeks.

The real question is “how long should we expect it to take to roll out a new licensing program?” Now that is a much different beast compared to “getting up and running”.  The point here is that there has always been a gravity towards the enforcement technology and many companies realize the hard way that they need to view the project much more holistically. Companies who realize this early on are better positioned for success compared to companies who are looking at licensing as a technical project. I encourage my customers to take the perspective of their customers.  What is the end-user experience from the time they place an order through the time they get the software activated and beyond?   Taking that viewpoint will unlock a myriad of things to consider.

If we approach the problem from an end-to-end program perspective, most mid-sized companies are looking at a 6-9 month implementation on average.  Lean on the expertise of companies like SafeNet to guide you through this journey and optimize your implementation cycles.