Entitlement management is a term that often comes up in relation to software licensing, access entitlements or authorization. This short article explains the definition of entitlement management, how it works and what are its benefits and best practices.
Introduction to Entitlement Management
The definition of entitlement management is the act of administering access to software, systems, devices and other types of digital content. Entitlement management systems enable you to grant, enforce, issue, revoke or resolve a user’s access to said resources. Ideally it is done with a designated entitlement management solution (more on that in a second). Furthermore, take the time to learn more about access management by reading our guide to Customer Identity and Access Management.
Depending on what type of entitlement management system is used, you might hear words like access rights, authorizations, permissions or privileges mentioned. Essentially all of these are just different names for the same thing and they all have the same goal: to make sure only authorized users have access.
VIDEO: Learn how our customer MAXON changed their whole sales process from serial numbers to online entitlements by using 10Duke Enterprise.
How Does An Entitlement Management Solution Work?
In the context of software licensing, an entitlement management solution is a real-time system of managing how the rights to use licensed software are assigned. Software licensing and entitlement management are closely related.
For example, a large enterprise might purchase 100 licenses to a particular piece of software. A good software license entitlement management system ensures that the software is only being used by the right people, in the right places, at the right time and therefore does not breach the terms of the software agreement.
A software license entitlement management system enables software providers and system administrators to automate time-consuming, manual tasks, as well as eliminate human-error by activating and provisioning entitlements to software applications from a single platform. Typically the solution will utilise a centralised interface in order to centrally manage licenses and/or assign entitlements, therefore ensuring that licenses are managed in an efficient way.
While it is possible to use an ERP or CRM system to manage things like entitlements, these systems are generally built to manage hardware assets – and digital assets like software are very different. You’ll most likely have to customise the systems to do things like linking assets to entitlements, tracking devices, storing activations, tracking all license and entitlement lifecycle events and dealing with data and reporting. This means high development and consulting costs in order to support the system in carrying out functions that it was not designed for.
Entitlement management is a term that often comes up in relation to software licensing, access entitlements or authorization. This short article explains the definition of entitlement management, how it works and what are its benefits and best practices.
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How Can An Entitlement Management System Help With Software Monetization?
An entitlement management system can be used by end customers, in order to provision entitlements internally and by software developers as part of a software monetization solution. When used as part of a software monetization platform, an entitlement management system will also usually allow software developers to repackage software applications and offer new feature sets in order to adapt to market changes over time or serve new customers.
Modern entitlement solutions also continuously track and monitor the performance of each application to see which products or product features produce the best results. Ultimately, this helps software developers understand how customers respond to different types of licensing or feature sets, which products bring the highest revenue, and which products, if any, should be eliminated.
With an entitlement management solution in place, time-consuming manual tasks can be automated for greater accuracy and reduced costs. A self-service web portal can also allow end users to perform a variety of tasks themselves, cutting down on support calls and improving customer satisfaction.
With the right entitlement management solution, every step of the license, entitlement, and software delivery process can easily be automated in a transparent and end-user friendly way.
10Duke is an entitlement management software vendor. Our main product 10Duke Enterprise is a software entitlement management solution designed primarily for software vendors to control access to desktop, web or mobile applications, digital content, devices or data sets.
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Are you a software developer looking to sell more? Learn more from our guides:
Should You Build Your Own Licensing System or Buy It From a Specialist?
Software Monetization Guide – How to Monetize Software?
Software Licensing Guide – Why is it so important?
Why Software Companies Should Consider the Subscription Business Model
What is a Software License Manager? [Guide]
Software Licensing Solutions – Guide
Software Licensing Models – Ultimate Guide to Software License Types
Customer Identity and Access Management – What should a good CIAM solution provide?
