Introduction

A Global Integrator delivers security solutions for a major Retail Client expanding across Europe. The Client has an aggressive rollout plan, adding five new locations annually to its existing 10. The security solution includes a BI tool from a global Manufacturer to manage operations and provide valuable insights. The software licenses for this tool are sold on a yearly basis, and are managed by the Integrator on behalf of the Client, as part of the holistic solution.

As this case study will show, the management of these SaaS licenses can be anything but hassle-free for the Integrator, and perfectly highlights the problems that Sharlic is set to solve.

The Problem

On January 1, 2023, the software licenses for the BI tool across six countries expired. While existing sites continued to function, as they were put in a grace period, no new licenses could be added to the BI tool cloud until all expired licenses were renewed. Previous warnings of the expiry were unfortunately missed, and the global project manager at the Integrator was made aware of the situation only 8 days later, when an installation project of a new site was haltered and delayed by the inability to install the BI tool. Despite initiating the purchasing of licenses from a central level rapidly thereafter, it took another 21 days until all six countries had completed all manual steps, the licenses were renewed and the delayed installation project could finish. At this point the Client had already been forced to open the new site but had been unable to receive any BI data for the launch day and a few days thereafter, damaging the reputation of the Integrator.

Structural Challenges

The main reason that the purchasing and distribution of licenses took so long is that while the BI tools cloud is managed from one Central team, each license must be purchased by a local team in the corresponding country, as they own all operating costs for the sites in their respective country. As these licenses are sold by the Manufacturer through partners in a sales channel, each country needs to reach out to their Distributor, who then needs to reach out to the Manufacturer. As this needs to happen in each country where the Client is present, this problem will only continue to grow the more the Client expands over the world.

Process Inefficiencies

The multi-step process to acquire and activate licenses, including the Central team at the Integrator, the Manufacturer, multiple local teams and multiple Distributors, is fragile, with delays in any country directly affecting the entire global rollout. The problem is worsened by the fact that the local teams rarely use the BI tool themselves and therefore have no robust processes setup to handle these renewals. In addition, notifications sent to the Central team by the Manufacturer are sometimes missed or not passed on, further complicating the process.

Key Issues Identified

• License Delivery Delays: Delivery of licenses from the Manufacturer to the Integrator sometimes take days, as a new license key needs to be generated and distributed manually through the channel.

• Process Fragility: The multi-step process required by every country increases risks of delays, and each country becomes a single-point-of-failure for the entire solution.

• Inconsistent Process Efficiency: The manual process opens up for inconsistencies in how each country handles the license renewal, leading to potential pitfalls even though the process might be well-defined in theory.

Conclusion

Sharlic is well aware of the complexities and inefficiencies involved in managing software licenses, particularly in scenarios like this one faced by the Global Integrator. These challenges—ranging from process fragility to inconsistent efficiency—are not unique to this specific case but are common issues in the industry. Sharlic’s deep understanding of these problems positions us as an ideal, trusted third-party solution provider. By providing robust and scalable Subscription Management, Sharlic can automate the manual processes of today, to ensure smoother operations and to allow Integrators and their clients to focus on growth and success without being bogged down by administrative hurdles.