Software sales at U Waterloo Successfully moved software sales online Handle purchases from university accounts Integrated with our Active Directory and SCCM infrastructure for automated software delivery Integrated with our license servers for concurrent licenses for scientific software

Triplicate Forms Software sales used to be done in person Required a three-part form with copies distributed Manually entered into a database in batches Did not track who would use the software or what machine it was for

Copying discs We were in the business of copying and producing DVDs Labour-intensive Often wasteful since you prepare multiple copies in advance and they occasionally become out of date

Thin laptops Once Apple stopped putting DVD players into computers, demand for other means of getting software increased markedly

Deploying Software Introduced SCCM into our environment and started deploying more software Increased use of security groups to target machines for deployment

The Move Waterloo purchased buildings and IST moved Perceived as far away (500m but you have to cross the tracks

Sales numbers

Technology mySQL / php – Built on top of an old special purpose web app SCCM Network shares

IST Webstore IST Webstore sells software to – Employees (Faculty, Staff, Grad Students) – Paid from a university account (AFF) – For Research, Teaching or Admin – None of our licenses allow commercial use Access to campus-licensed free software – Free meaning no charge – There is still a license agreement – Employee use on university-owned computer

Concurrent Licenses Started with MATLAB Cheaper – Concurrent is cheaper than single-user – Bulk purchases are cheaper – License is oversubscribed (more users than seats) Requires yearly maintenance payments Need to buy additional seats

Software Management Central IT group offers SCCM to areas that want to use it Integration allows SCCM to automatically deploy to machines that have purchased software Other areas could build their own integration with Active Directory security groups

Software download Managed machines don’t need to download Other downloads hosted on a network share – Robust permissions – Fast network access and storage – No user interface to speak of – Familiar to those who use network drives – Easily handles very large files

Research Software Some research software cannot be used for university administration so should not be offered to staff

Administrative Software Some software should not be purchased using a research account This requirement only applies to a small number of over 3000 different types of funding so was ultimately dropped Office of Research has financial compliance staff responsible for monitoring and training account holders on their requirements

Campus Licenses No cost-recovery Licensed to all university-owned machines We are tracking who obtains the software and that they have agreed to the terms Download accessible until midnight Can use “Get Access” button on Download tab to renew access

Purchase Process 1.Purchase licenses Visit 2.Authorize users or computers To be added to a license server To be deployed automatically Which purchase goes with which machine 3.Deploy or Install on machine Automatic: Managed machines with SCCM Manual: Download from a network share

Who can purchase Financial Requirement: Purchases must be approved by someone with signing authority on the account IST Webstore Requirement: Purchaser must be in the same OU as the account Delegated authority handled by entering another person’s ID in “Who authorized this purchase”

Purchase Scenarios Professor using a research grant Graduate student entering a purchase on behalf of their supervisor / Principal Investigator Staff Member buying software using a research grant Technical Staff buying software for their department using operating funds

Scientific Software We sell MATLAB to researchers for $75 per user per year Concurrent license is oversubscribed (900 users paying for 300 seats) Maintain a list of authorized users

License server integration Webstore application hosts a web page that generates the list of authorized users in the appropriate format for the license server License server runs a script to retrieve the webpage at set intervals License manager runs a reread command to load new list of users

Yearly Renewals When the deadline for license renewal hits, old purchases no longer show up in the authorized users list There is no downtime if people renew before the deadline Users who have not paid are forced to pay for the software

Database / Data Model Purchases Licenses Software Users Machines Software Downloads Software Deployments

Purchases A purchase is one financial transaction, for one software license Purchaser information (name, dept) Account number Quantity, Unit Cost, Total License ID to relate to Licenses

Licenses Valid certain dates (from, to) Cost Related to one piece of software

Software One piece of software with particular rules Can be marked for use in Research, Administration, Teaching, or Campus License If there are two site licenses or sets of rules for one software package (e.g. MATLAB, ArcGIS), each gets its own row in Software

Users Purchase User Name Expiry Date (based on the license purchased, but can be calculated or modified independently)

Machines Purchase Machine Name Expiry Date (based on the license purchased, but can be calculated or modified independently)

Software Downloads Software Name Security Group Name User is added to security after purchase or software assigned to them

Software Deployment Software Name Security Group Name Flag for automatic If automatic, machine is added to group after being assigned Otherwise, end user has option to add machine to group