OpenLM Core Software

Negotiations with 3rd party vendors have gone very easy knowing exactly where and how often their tools are used in our organization. I can honestly say we have saved millions of dollars knowing which licenses were needed in which locations.

Pros

openLM gives great insight into license usage across any size network. Without this tool, we would have no idea how many users are running engineering applications, for how long or which locations need which software the most. In the past few years, they have added a great number of features. If you provide any budget for CAD, FEA, or any other critical software, this is an indispensable tool that will pay for itself in the first year.

Cons

OpenLM is based in Israel so support times used to take a few days. While support is responsive, the typical request is for log files which can be quite large and contain a great deal of sensitive information. We have several support requests where we determined the problem was a database issue and could not be resolved.

Very efficient system that helps us manage our software licenses on a daily basis. We use their active agent tools which offer a great way to actively save and release idle licenses.

This is perfect for keeping track of my group's ArcGIS license usage. Though the web interface for the SaaS offering could use some improvement, the pricing is very reasonable, the monitoring capabilities are extensive, and the support team is super responsive. I originally had some trouble with using the software, but the OpenLM team was willing to have multiple calls with me to guide me through my issues - not many companies do this. It should also be noted that the SaaS option lacks some key features that the On-Premise version offers, so be aware that there are downsides to the convenience of SaaS. Even then, I believe their SaaS offering is still pretty new and they are constantly making improvements to it.

Price - costs considerably less than the "top of the range" competitor.
OpenLM is constantly improving.
Good range of monitored license types.
Has become more robust and tolerant of target server availability. The broker should not be considered an optional component, it is a must. A server could be unavailable for data collection for several months, the broker will store the usage data and transmit it when contact is renewed.
As it is a web app response time when reporting can take some time.