I would like to create usage reports based on individual user names

[johnevans]

In the Reports are in Autodesk Account I can view/create reports that show application usage. This is fine at a high level. But it would be much more useful if I could view/create reports by individual or multiple user names. This should be possible as your software has to be assigned to individual users. So why can't I report on individual user's usage?

[Emily.M.Svensson]

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback! We are unable to provide individual user reports right now because the user ID's are encrypted to comply with global privacy regulations. In the future we intend to enhance reporting with additional information such as end-user details so we will pass on your request to the appropriate team.

Thanks!

Emily

[Mark.Lancaster]

@johnevans 

Not sure if this will help you or not but review the last segment of our blog article https://synergiscadblog.com/2019/08/02/autodesk-account-reporting-seat-usages/

[Janne_Boman]

Ok I see the proposal. This is an issue because no one will have time to do that workaround. We are dealing with quite large user base in our company, several hundreds of users. This means that we cannot optimize our seat count leaving us the only option to just guess or buy more. I was expecting more.

[johnevans]

Sorry Mark, the workaround is too long winded for even an SME business like the one where I work. For big companies it's a non-starter.

Licence assignment is at the user level, but reporting is not. If this is due to GDPR and all that, then this is an example of GDPR going too far and preventing businesses doing their job.

We really should be able to track usage at the user level, otherwise we may just as well be licensed by company i.e. I'll rent 10 licences by company name rather than by user name. Of course that would make tracking by user impossible. 

Tracking by user ID is not workable. Surely it is not beyond the wit of Autodesk to enable tracking by user name, especially when it is account managers/administrators who will be doing the tracking/reporting. Other software developers enable this, why not Autodesk?

This is so like Autodesk - go down a long way to providing useful tools but never getting to the end. Revit also springs to mind in this sense. A case of nearly but not quite, in so many areas Autodesk.

[Mark.Lancaster]

@johnevans  and @Janne_Boman 

No problem and understand where you're coming from.   Just a user offering that as a work-around but I can understand it may not be feasible for you.   As @Emily.M.Svensson  stated above and what I've also heard, the hash ID is like that due to global privacy laws.

[Janne_Boman]

...which does not make any sense. We can extract user names for example in BIM account admin. It's just user name and/or email. it's not private information like address, social security number, etc actually sensitive information.

[johnevans]

Agree with you Janne.

We should be able to report usage by what the account administrator can see in the account portal. So as I can see user names, email addresses and the software products/serial numbers/contract numbers, etc., assigned to them I should be able to report usage tracking by these same values at the very least!. 

It's a no-brainer for account administrators. Perhaps Autodesk does not want admins checking usage by user as we may decide we don't need as many licences as Autodesk has sold us.

[Janne_Boman]

Sorry for branching off, but situation is similar for BIM 360 Design / Revit Cloud Worksharing seats.

We cannot see actual seat usage, only option is to ask hundreds of users (no time to do) or buy more.

We used to have EBA and token flex where full details of usage are available, so data is there, I know.

[reed.desrosiers]

Hi Janne, John, and Mark,

Thank you for your feedback. I am the Product Manager for this area of Account, and it's great to know what you're thinking about so we can focus on improving the experience.

We do not display Personal Data in our reporting today in order to comply with an ever-changing landscape of global privacy implications. However, we are working towards providing this information in the future to ensure that Admins can make the most of Account.

Thanks,

Reed

[johnevans]

Hi Reed,

Thanks for responding to this post, much appreciated. Two responses from me:

1. Under GDPR and other regulations relating to personal data, companies are allowed to use data held about their employees for the legitimate purposes of running their business. As such, knowing the names and banking details of our employees to enable pay roll is one example. Being able to track the usage of software (among other things) is also a legitimate and valid use of employee data and would not contravene such regulations. We are only interested in tracking usage by user name or email address, this does not constitute a personal risk under personal data regulations. We are a GDPR compliant business and are able to use user information for many business related tasks without any risk of contravening these regulations. If we were in contravention there could be a case for saying that any third party (i.e. Autodesk as a supplier to our business) would itself be in contravention of such regulations just by virtue of hosting user personal data on your systems, despite our employees not being Autodesk employees. That goes for any other solution where third parties hold personal customer data. Of course that is unworkable in the real world.

2. When can we expect Autodesk to provide Admins the functionality we need to better manage our software portfolios? What is your programme to do this? ASAP would be a good start.

[reed.desrosiers]

Hi John,

Thank you for your perspective on this. I will share it with my legal partners as we have discussions around personal data related to product usage. I understand and share your sense of urgency to make sure our customers have the information they need to enable their work.

As you're probably aware, this feature just launched in July, and I hope you're getting some value out of it. While I cannot commit to a date for this request, rest assured that we are working hard to improve product usage reporting over time!

Reed

[Anonymous]

Is there any further update on this? Usage by hashed_autodesk_id is completely useless, it does not help in any way whatsoever. We need to know how our staff are using our products. We could do this previously with on-premise license servers.

[TCCS-Admin]

I agree with the community here. This hashed username for seat usage reports is not acceptable. As Autodesk administrators for our companys it is a no brainer that we need to know who is using the software and who does not really need it to avoid unnecessary purchasing of additional seats. Currently we have no spare seats but when I look at the usage report for the last three months, only half of the users actually used the software in that time period. Please make this a priority Autodesk.

[johnevans]

Well what do you know? So you CAN report by user name, BUT, and this is a very BIG BUT(T), you have to be on a PREMIUM PLAN!!!! Why Autodesk? Why, oh why, oh why? Is it so you can squeeze some more dollars out of your customer base, you covertous, money grabbing organisation? And we were told it is not possible to do this due to international security restrictions. Absolute tosh! (or other more expressive expletive deleted words/phrases). Instead of messing around with your new (stupid) monochrome logo , sort yourselves out and enable this feature for all your customers and do it now!

Seat usage reporting | Account Management | Autodesk Knowledge Network

Usage by user

Note: This feature is only available with a Premium plan.

Track how often products are used by individual users. The report contains the following information:

• User ID
• First name
• Last name
• User email
• Autodesk ID
• Offering name
• Product name
• Version
• Day used (MM/DD/YYYY)
• Last accessed date

[JTBWorld]

An alternative is our JTB FlexReport combined with JTB Process Monitor and you can report on the named user licenses for less cost than the premium plan.

[johnevans]

Hi jtbworld Collaborator

Yes thanks, I know about JTB Flex Report and another solution our Autodesk service provider keeps trying to sell me. However, I'm unlikely to spend additional money on additional solutions when these should be included within the Autodesk Admin portal free of charge. Autodesk already charge enough for the priviledge of using their software apps, without its customers having to spend extra on basic reporting functionality that enables its customers to better manage their Autodesk portfolios. Sometimes it seems to me that Autodesk either develops something to a point, then doesn't bother finishing off a product, or they like to deliberately make things more difficult for their customers that is necesssary. Now, if I were a Bentley customer, things would be far different, as their admin portal and reporting functionality is second to none. Such a shame that AutoCAD/Revit dominates (at least in the UK). I often lament that Bentley is not the dominant developer in AEC. Their products are so much better, but everyone we work with has been brainwashed by the superior marketing and PR teams that exist at Autodesk, so we have to fall in to using Autodesk products as well. Even ArchiCAD has a lot of superior functionaily that should be inside Revit as well. But this is another conversation. In this post I just want to be able to track user usage by user name and email address, without having to spend additional money on a Premium licence or additional Autodesk/third party solutions that Autodesk should be providing for free. Our Autodesk service provider tells me I'd have to pay an additional £235/licence/user/annum to be on Premium at a min of 50 users even though they also say I'd get single-sign on, AD integration and 24x7 support. For us as an SME that's an additional £6k+ per annum. Fat chance we'd pay that! Something about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer spings to mind here...

[TCCS-Admin]

I feel your pain John. It should not be this hard. 

[johnevans]

Been a while since I last commented on this post, originally written in 2019. I recently reduced the licence numbers of our Bentley portfolio because, unfortunately, all our projects here in the UK specify Revit instead of Microstation. I won't go into the details of why I say unfortunately here, but as I was on the Bentley admin portal I thought I'd take a look at the by machine and by user usage reports, which can also be exported to Excel or CSV by the way. It was quite interesting to see how little we use the few remaining Microstation/PowerDraft licences now, due to the dominance of Revit. But what humoured me most was the report's display clearly listing both user name and user email address and the date/duration of use of a product.

I've posted a redacted image below - not sure if you will be able to see this. It also shows a lot of other useful information from an administrator's viewpoint. I haven't posted an excerpt of the by machine report, but it is similar.

Now if Bentley can do this and make this kind of data available to their administrator accounts, why the HELL can't Autodesk!!!!! I have been able to report this information from Bentley for a very long time but Autodesk keeps whinging on that they can't do this. Short answer is, yes you can Autodesk (and legally), but as usual you can't be bothered to provide solutions that benefit your customer base. Oh, if only Bentley wasn't so elitist and had marketing teams like Autodesk, we might all be using Microstation and the other wide range of Bentley vertical products now instead of banging our heads constantly aginst Autodesk's wall.

[johnevans]

Hi Everyone, just been removing a staff leaver from the Autodesk admin portal and noticed a new feature in the reports section. This is a hip, hip, hooray moment. Autodesk has actually listened for once. What do I mean? I can list usage by user name at last and export the reports to Excel for in depth analysis. One small step for Autodesk, one giant leap for Autodesk admins!

A big pat on the back from me to Autodesk then. Well done Autodesk, and don't say I don't give praise when it's due.

Mind you, the reporting is still some way behind that of Bentley. Still, it's a big step forward for all us Audotdesk admins now. Thank you Autodesk.

[TCCS-Admin]

@johnevans That is fantastic news! I just had a look at it and I can see a useful usage report.
Thanks for the update.