Critical flexibility needed for “BYO License” on BIMcloud SaaS

[Francois Swanepoel]

Critical flexibility is needed for “BYO License” on BIMcloud SaaS

I post this wish after @SeaGeoff outlines how & why BYO License is not working as we need to to work in his comment about this feature of BIMcloud SaaS.

This is a critical issue with the current setup of “BYO License” on BIMcloud SaaS that is extremely limiting our ability to deliver service to our various clients.

A limitation we never had on BIMcloud with WIBU Keys & even Soft Licenses.

Graphisoft, please make the “BYO License” feature on BIMcloud SaaS to enable us total freedom to join multiple BIMcloud SaaSs, BIMcloud On-Premise & BIMcloud Basic, without the hassle & loss of productivity that is forced on us by your current BIMcloud & Cloud Licensing works currently?

[SeaGeoff]

Thanks for taking the lead @Francois Swanepoel. For reference here is my recent expexperience with BYO licensing:

I recently started a contract position with an Archicad-based firm in Seattle. Part of my offering is I bring my own license. When the firm's SSA terms came due this month they converted their perpetual licenses to Collaborate subscriptions, just like I did last December. They were not using BIMcloud (SaaS or Basic) before now.

I helped set up BIMcloud SaaS for the firm. That was easy and straightforward. The connection between cloud licensing and BIMcloud works well. On my end I enabled the Portable License option (the new name for BYO License). This allowed them to invite me as a Member from their company portal. That too went off without a hitch and I appeared as a user in their BIMcloud almost immediately after accepting the invite. So far so good, right?

The problems arise when it comes time to get to work. Once I join their BIMcloud I cannot login to my own. This is not new, and I expected it, but it makes working as consultant/contractor very difficult. What if I need to access one of my projects to aid the firm(s) I'm working for? What if I am consulting with two or three firms at the same time? So much for Archicad Collaborate.

This is just another blow to Graphisoft's reputation and makes you look greedy. Please reconsider this policy.

[rakurs]

Wow. I was not aware of this. I might end up in the same situation, and while I am not a consultant or a contracted architect in more than one outside firm, and my own projects are all stored locally (actually, in the non-Graphisoft cloud), this might be a really big issue in the near future. 😕

[SeaGeoff]

Crucial to this discussion is the fact this is business decision by Graphisoft &/or Nemetschek, and in fact may not be entirely intentional but rather a byproduct of the new cloud licensing. Changing course does not require the months or years needed to develop new Archicad features. It only requires the willingness to accept how hostile and unfair it is and make amends accordingly.

[rakurs]

I see it that way, too. I have seen software solutions which pose problems when you want to assign two licenses to the same user. You just can't do that. And there are some use cases where someone might want to do that, however expensive it may be. The situation described would actually require something similar, and for what reason? It seems to me that the end result is not intentional, but simply not predicted by the developers. I hope, at least.