topic Re: Goverment Purchasing and Desktop Subscription in Perpetual License Changes (Read Only)

Goverment Purchasing and Desktop Subscription

AllenJessup — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 12:28:21 GMT

I'm relived that this change will not affect us at the moment - IDSP on Maintenance Subscription. However if we were affected I can see a number of problems I would encounter. Our purchasing department never wants to "rent" anything especially for a period of more than 3 months. It's already a yearly fight when they want our Software budget reduced by 10% when ofter Maintenance Subscription goes up by 10%.

I'll be looking for post by other government agencies to see how they handle the new license model.

Allen

Re: Goverment Purchasing and Desktop Subscription

CatsChaiTea — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 00:01:46 GMT

Thanks Allen for describing your concerns. May I ask to which government you belong?

Re: Goverment Purchasing and Desktop Subscription

AllenJessup — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 11:42:56 GMT

Hi Cat,

I work for Rockland County, NY in the Highway Department. I will admit that most of my concerns are from internal sources. The PTB seem to be provincial in their thinking. We're not allowed to use any web based software of storage. They're hung up on the concept of ownership. They question who would have the ownership of anything not on our network.

Thanks for asking.

Allen

Re: Goverment Purchasing and Desktop Subscription

felice.s — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 13:27:54 GMT

Hi @AllenJessup, sorry for the lateness of this additional reply... Desktop Subscription versus ownership of a perpetual license... there is no difference in ownership of your work product. Ownership is yours, either way.

Regards,

Felice

Re: Goverment Purchasing and Desktop Subscription

AllenJessup — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 14:13:34 GMT

Hi Felice,

Thanks for the reply.

Can you explain that in more detail. I'm fairly sure that our Purchasing Dept. would consider anything that will stop functioning if a Subscription payment isn't made would be a lease situation not ownership.

As mentioned above. I don't have to deal with this now since we have perpetual licenses of IDSP. I just wanted to remind Autodesk that Government functions differently than private industry. I know you have a single source reseller for government purchasing so they should have some idea of how strange things can be.

Allen

Re: Goverment Purchasing and Desktop Subscription

felice.s — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 19:35:27 GMT

Hi Allen, the comment about ownership was about the work product you create (drawings, for example, using the software). Desktop Subscription does not change those ownership rules. You're not referring to ownership of the software product itself, are you? Perhaps you are questioning how you can own the work product if you cannot access it once the Subscription expires? Any specificity in your quesiton will help me get a clearer answer from our legal department. Thanks!

Re: Goverment Purchasing and Desktop Subscription

AllenJessup — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 19:44:22 GMT

@felice.s wrote:

You're not referring to ownership of the software product itself, are you?

Yes. I can only speak for our purchasing dept. But they are very resistant to leases and rentals. Their theory is that if something is vital to a departments function it should be owned. If it's not vital it shouldn't be purchased. I'm not saying they never would agree to Desktop Subscription. I'm just pointing out that there would be some difficulties if we had to go that route. I don't know about other government agencies but I do know that government purchasing in general is a bit weird.

Allen

Re: Goverment Purchasing and Desktop Subscription

dgorsman — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 15:52:38 GMT

In theory, if they (various levels of government) consolidate their licensing, then the token based licensing would be right up that alley. Even an Enterprise-level network licensing system would be appropriate. Both of them aren't under the Subscription/rental-model system for now, nor do I see that changing in the near future.

Pursuading them to do so might be a job in itself 😄 But aren't there tax implications for purchase versus lease/rental which might sway some opinions?