FlexNet Operations

FlexNet Operations® gives software producers and high-tech manufacturers the power to support new revenue models easily and efficiently. Available either as an on-premise application or as an on-demand service, FlexNet Operations helps you grow revenues by quickly creating product configurations to meet market demands, cuts operational costs by automating the generation, fulfillment, and activation of entitlements, and improves customer satisfaction by providing a consistent experience and a 24/7 self-service web portal for your end users.

 
Managing entitlements isn’t easy. Homegrown tools might work initially, but can rarely grow to meet your changing needs. FlexNet Operations gives you a single solution for all your entitlement needs, now and down the road.

Only FlexNet Operations can view and administer entitlements across all your license generators, whether they support FLEX, homegrown, or any third-party technology.  It helps you increase your upgrade revenue by proactively tracking and reporting on entitlements, version levels, expiring licenses, and support contracts regardless of the technology used.

FlexNet Operations is a core component in Flexera Software’s Entitlement and Compliance Management Solution, which helps increase revenue by simplifying customer relationships.

Save time and eliminate manual effort

• Ease the pain of mergers and acquisitions by managing every license key generator and technology with a single system
• Help facilitate revenue recognition and reduce manual effort by automating entitlement management tasks
• Streamline operations by integrating FlexNet Operations with your ERP and CRM systems
  

Cut costs and improve customer satisfaction

• Slash inventory costs by using license management to create new product configurations as needed
• Cut support costs by enabling customers to manage entitlements 24/7 with a self-service Web portal
• Enable customers to track which division or location within their company owns licenses, so they can share as needed
  

Make the most of revenue opportunities

• Boost sales by creating new product configurations and license models on the fly
• Maximize revenue by giving Sales real-time data on upcoming renewal opportunities

On Demand

Create New Product Configurations
FlexNet Operations On-Demand lets you capitalize on new revenue opportunities by rapidly and easily creating new product configurations and enables license models that your customers want – without involving IT or development staff. As a software vendor or high-tech manufacturer, you can now deploy a new product in just a few hours. Thus reducing time to market and staying ahead of the competition. 

Unify Customer Experience for Diverse Licensing Technologies
FlexNet Operations On-Demand unifies entitlement management and license lifecycle processes across FlexNet Publisher, homegrown and third-party licensing technologies streamlining the entitlement management task for all products regardless of licensing technology used. Improve customer satisfaction by offering a consistent and sought after customer experience. 

Customer Self-Service for License and Entitlement Management
Reduce your support costs and improve your customer satisfaction by providing a 24x7 self-service portal for your end customers to generate software licenses and to self-administer license returns, re-hosts, upgrades, and renewals. 

Channel Self-Service
Improve your channel performance due to better tracking; lower costs to serve the channel. With the ability to track and report on entitlements sold through channel partners, large channel partners with their own order management system can also associate their order information with an entitlement, and search for and track entitlements through the partner’s order ID. Not only will your end-users be able to self-serve their license needs, but also your channel partners as well. 

Grow Revenues Through Try and Buy
By enabling Try and Buy, you can increase revenues by making it easier for your existing customers and prospects to try software products before they buy. FlexNet Operations On-Demand streamlines the process for the end-user to generate a Try and Buy without involving you, thereby lowering barriers to trial and adoption. 

Maximize Up-Sell and Renewal Revenues Through Entitlement Reporting
The license tracking tool helps you increase upgrade and maintenance renewal revenues by letting you proactively track entitlements, version levels, expiring licenses, and support contracts (regardless of the technology used) and take advantage of automated alerts to notify your customers before they expire. 

Minimal IT Involvement and Management
FlexNet Operations On-Demand is a hosted service, therefore your operational costs are predictable and you know you are covered since we take on the management of the service for you. It enables your IT teams to focus on your corporate strategic priorities! 

Hands-Free Product Activation
Product activation makes electronic software licensing invisible to your end customers ensuring a seamless customer experience and zero customer support calls. In addition to activation, you can enable a hands-free experience for license return and license re-host while enforcing business policies for these activities. 

Role-Based Access
Easily define each user's access rights to FlexNet Operations On-Demand, so only allowed personnel can perform authorized tasks. 

On Premise

Enable New Revenue Models for High-Tech Manufacturers
FlexNet Operations supports high-tech manufacturers’ entitlement management needs by efficiently creating new product offerings and managing FlexNet Embedded licenses. Now as a high-tech manufacturer you can increase your revenues by quickly and efficiently penetrating new markets with new product offerings that meet consumer demands. 

Allow Software Producers and High-Tech Manufacturers to Grow and Track Channel Revenues
As a software producer and/or high-tech manufacturer, you can track entitlements through the entire distribution chain. FlexNet Operations gives you complete view into channel activities permitting to increase channel revenues by tracking and measuring performances and adopting incentive programs to attain revenue goals. 

Grow Revenues from Bundled Products while Ensuring Seamless Customer Experience
Software producers and high-tech manufacturers can now better monetize maintenance programs by automating rules based on maintenance status and by providing upgrades and renewals in bulk for large customers. 

“Shopping Cart”-Style Product Activation
FlexNet Operations’ new shopping cart style product activation feature will enable you to further increase customer satisfaction level. Your customers will now find it easy to activate a series of products all at once. 

Device Lifecycle Management
As a High Tech high-tech manufacturer, you now have the ability to improve customer satisfaction and reduce cost by turning “on” or “off” capabilities based on the customers’ entitlement. If your customer chooses to “add-on” to his/her device, he/she can see the upgrade done seamlessly without having to return the device. 

One System for All License Generators and Technologies
FlexNet Operations offers a single system for managing and tracking entitlements across all your license key generators (FLEX, homegrown, or third-party). 
 
Detailed Entitlement Reporting and Tracking
FlexNet Operations has rich reporting and tracking capabilities, giving you detailed insight into who is receiving entitlements for what product, what entitlements are being returned and re-hosted, what platforms customers own, and much more. 
 
Track and Report Using Customer Hierarchies
Provide your customers with the ability to track which division or location owns the licenses, so they can share or redistribute them as needed. 
 
Automate Licensing Tasks
Reduce or eliminate manual data entry and facilitate revenue recognition by automating entitlement tracking, license tracking, license creation, and license fulfillment. 
 
Create New Product Configurations
Quickly build and deploy new product packages and license models without involving IT or development staff. 

 
Proactive License Tracking
Better capitalize on revenue opportunities by proactively tracking license entitlements and support contracts and notifying customers before they expire. 
 
ERP and CRM Integration
Reduce or eliminate costly and time-consuming manual processes by integrating FlexNet Operations with your ERP and CRM systems.
 
Self-Service Customer Web Portal
Reduce support costs by providing a 24x7 self-service Web portal that your customers and channel partners can use to manage license delivery, returns, rehosts, upgrades, and renewals. 
 
Hands-Free Product Activation
Your customers can automatically activate products without contacting your customer support staff. 

Batch Activation and License Rehosting
Enable customers to activate, redistribute, and rehost licenses in bulk across multiple license servers simultaneously. 

Customer Data Collection
FlexNet Operations helps you better understand your customers (even those that purchased through resellers) by tracking end-user demographic data during the activation and registration process. 
 
Disconnected Usage Enhancements
Collect and send data from the customer during the activation process even when customers are disconnected. 

Enhanced Data Mining
Gather detailed data around the number of activations, type (manual or online), and more, so you can improve support by troubleshooting and better anticipating customer questions. 

Enhanced Fulfillment History
Better understand customer activity by tracking data on the reason for a license's return, repair, and more. 

Custom Attribute Searching and Reporting
Define, search for, and report on custom attributes that you care about – including customer demographic and product-specific data – for both FlexNet, homegrown, and third-party technologies. 

Robust Infrastructure Support
FlexNet Operations supports Oracle® and SQL server databases, multiple browsers, and a wide range of operating systems.  
 
Control Access to FlexNet Operations
Easily define each user's access rights to FlexNet Operations, so your personnel can only perform authorized tasks.

This document shows the technical specifications for FlexNet Operations On-Premise.

Server Requirements 

It is recommended that each database and server be installed on a separate host. A full installation of FlexNet Operations with Reporting functionality would comprise at least 5 separate hosts.

Server Requirements (for each server)

For Windows

• Pentium class computer with a processing speed of 2.8 GHz (or more)
• 2 GB of RAM
• At least 1GB free disk space.
  

For Linux:

• Pentium class computer with a processing speed of 2.8 GHz (or more)
• 2 GB of RAM
• At least 1 GB free disk space.
• Current directory (.) must be in the path of the user who starts FlexNet Operations (the FlexNet Platform Server)
  

For Solaris:

• Sun Fire v440 (or greater) Server with two 1.2GHz Ultra SPARC IIIi processors
• 4 GB of RAM
• At least 1 GB free disk space
• Current directory (.) must be in the path of the user who starts FlexNet Operations (the FlexNet Platform Server)
   
  

Supported Operating Systems 

For FlexNet Operations Server:

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP4
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition, SP2
• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server (32-bit only)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (requires UAC disabled)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4 or 5 (32-bit only)
• Solaris 10
• While not recommended for production use, we also support vmWare ESX Server
  

FlexNet Operations Reporting is supported on Windows only
 
Supported Databases 

It is recommended that each database and server be installed on a separate host. A full installation of FlexNet Operations with Reporting functionality would comprise at least 5 separate hosts.

• Oracle 10g or 11g Enterprise, Express or Standard Edition
• SQL Server 2005 or 2008 Enterprise, Express or Standard Edition 
   
  

Web Browsers 

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or later
• Mozilla Firefox 1.5 or later 
   

Java Client 

• Sun JRE version 1.5 
   
  

FlexNet Licensing Module 

• FLEXlm v6 through v9
• FlexNet Publisher 10.x
• FlexNet Publisher 11.x up or later
• FlexNet Embedded 1.0 or later 
   
  

Supported LDAP Directory Server 

• Windows 2000 Active Directory