Executive Series uses a concurrent user licensing model to provide a better overall value than a named user license.
User License Types
When comparing software product costs, one of the most common ways to measure the cost is to look at the price per user. But what exactly is a “user” license? Although it is obvious what a user is, it is not obvious what a “user license” really means. The two most common types of user licenses are “named user” and “concurrent user”.
Concurrent User License
A concurrent user license is for a group of uses. This allows multiple people to share a license between them. Each user can access and use the software, but only up to the number of licensed users. This means that if you have a 5 concurrent user licenses, up to 5 sessions can simultaneously access the software. However, if all 5 sessions are in use and an additional user wants to log on, they won’t be able to access the system until someone else exits the system and a license becomes available.
With this type of licensing, you can setup and provide access to more users than the licensed number of concurrent users.
Named User License
The other common license method is the named user license. A named user license is specific to a user and only that user. This means if you have a 5 named user license plan, only those 5 registered (named) people will be able to access the software. Each user who needs access to the system will require their own license regardless of whether anyone else is actually using the system. Should an employee leave the company, then their named user license must be updated/changed (if allowed) before that license is available to be used by their replacement.
With this type of licensing, you can only setup the number of users that you are licensed for.
The Bottom Line
Although concurrent user licenses typically cost more on a per license basis than named, the concurrent user pricing model is a better value for an organization. This is because a single concurrent user license typically replaces 2 to 6 named user licenses.
Any system that does specify their user license type is almost always a named user license. You may need to read through a 50-page licensing document to find this out!