Managing Product Versions
After you have implemented your initial licensing plan, you need to continue to review and update it to allow for changes in your company’s software applications, in customer demand, in the market, and other considerations. For example:
>Your company develops an enhanced version of an existing Product and you want to offer the new versions for sale instead of (or in addition to) the original Products.
>You want to offer your existing customers the opportunity to replace their current version of a Product with an upgraded version that has additional Features.
>Feedback from your customers indicates that they want to purchase a specific Product with different license terms than you are currently offering.
In circumstances such as these, since you cannot change the properties of an existing Product after it has been ordered, you can define a Modification Product based on the Base Product.
A Modification Product is a modified version of an existing Product, containing changes such as:
>A software upgrade
>Extended license terms
>Added or removed Features
You can define several Modification Products for the same Base Product, with different Features, memory and/or license terms.
NOTE You can also define Modification Products based on an existing Modification Product.
Defining a Modification Product
Before you start to define a Modification Product, ensure that you have the following information available:
>The name of the Product that is being modified
>The Batch Code associated with the Product that is being modified
>A Product Name that identifies the Modification Product and is unique in the selected Batch Code (mandatory). The maximum length for a Product Name is 50 characters.
>A description (free text) that provides additional information about the Modification Product, for example, the changes it includes (optional)
>The details of the required changes, including Features to be added or removed, memory and license term updates, or any combination of these.
Specifying License Terms and Memory for a Modification Product
To change the license terms for each Feature in the Modification Product, you can:
>Change the expiration date for an Expiration Date license type by adding or subtracting days from the original expiration date. If the existing expiration date has already passed, the new expiration date will be the current date plus the number of days that you add to the Feature. (The expiration date for a Time Period license type cannot be modified.)
>Change the number of remaining executions for an Execution Count license type by adding or subtracting a number of executions
>Change the settings for concurrent instances, if appropriate.
>Overwrite the license terms including selecting a new license type.
>Change memory segments or data.
>Cancel the license.
You can leave the license type value and the concurrent instances settings unchanged at this stage, and specify that they will be changed when each individual order for the Modification Product is processed.
Example: Defining a Modification Product
Scenario: When the Product Manager of HQ Software originally defined the HQ Design Pro Product (in the example Example: Specifying License Terms and Protection Levels ), the REPORT GENERATOR Feature was not yet available.
This Feature has now been developed, tested, and protected, and has been included in an enhanced version of HQ Design Pro (v.2.0). This version of the Product is ready for sale to new customers, and can also be issued to customers who hold current licenses.
Accordingly, the Product Manager for HQ Software defines a Modification Product for the HQ Design Pro Product, named HQ Design Pro v.2.0.
When the Modification Product is defined, the REPORT GENERATOR Feature is added to the Product, with the same license terms as for the other Features.
Issuing Modification Products
Modification Products can be included in orders in the same way as the original Products.
For example, if the Modification Product is intended to replace the Product in Sentinel protection keys that have already been deployed, it can be included in a Protection Key Update order. When the Protection Key Update is applied, the data for the Modification Product is added to the data for the original Product in the Sentinel protection keys.
For additional information on defining and producing orders, see Sentinel LDK Entitlements, Production, and Development Tasks.