Number of User Licenses Needed?

Linda Saunders · April 2015

We are re-evaluating the number of concurrent licenses we need for RE. How do you estimate the number of solicitors, directors, events managers, etc., that may be using the system at any one time? I don't want to "lock out" anyone who needs to use the system by getting too few licenses, but don't want to waste money buying a license for every user when some will seldom be using the database at the same time.

Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE · April 2015

If I remember correctly licenses are sold 5 at a time so purchase 5 and see how it goes. Ask users to email you when they cannot get into RE and get a sense of how often that happens, and for how many people at the same time. If it happens often, then purchase another set of 5, and so on. Also encourage users to sign out of RE when they are away from their desk.

Nicole S · April 2015

Josh Bekerman:

If I remember correctly licenses are sold 5 at a time so purchase 5 and see how it goes.

I have had 7 licenses at one place and 4 at another. I'm not sure how easy it is to get more or less once your contract gets going. I would talk to everyone beforehand and get an idea of how often they are in the database. If you have more overall users than licenses, make sure anyone not actively using is logged out. I know that sometimes you can get in the habit of logging and staying in all day.

Linda Saunders · April 2015

Josh Bekerman:

If I remember correctly licenses are sold 5 at a time so purchase 5 and see how it goes. Ask users to email you when they cannot get into RE and get a sense of how often that happens, and for how many people at the same time. If it happens often, then purchase another set of 5, and so on. Also encourage users to sign out of RE when they are away from their desk.

Thanks - I will check to see if our contract includes increments of 5.

Linda Saunders · April 2015

Thanks. We have approximately 35-40 users. I had "guestimated" about half for concurrent users, but a poll of the staff is probabaly a better idea. How many total staff do you have for the 7 and 4 licenses?

Nicole S · April 2015

at the 7 -- we had 5. They had purchased 7 a while back under the impression that that was the number of logins/users you could have. They also had a larger staff. Then due to downsizing ended up with 5 staff. Later I added about 3 occassional users and some that only logged in during events.

At the 4 we have 5/6 users. To my knowledge, it has never been a problem since a few of the staff are actually not in RE every day.

Bob Friedman · April 2015

Nicole San Miguel:

Josh Bekerman:

If I remember correctly licenses are sold 5 at a time so purchase 5 and see how it goes.

I have had 7 licenses at one place and 4 at another. I'm not sure how easy it is to get more or less once your contract gets going. I would talk to everyone beforehand and get an idea of how often they are in the database. If you have more overall users than licenses, make sure anyone not actively using is logged out. I know that sometimes you can get in the habit of logging and staying in all day.

Be careful about estimating too low a number. We dropped our licenses several years ago from 20-something to 16 or 17. That worked for us, but we were cautioned by Blackbaud at the time we did it that IF we had to add more licenses that year we would be charged retroactively - back to the beginning of our contract period.

Art Bryman · April 2015

Josh Bekerman:

Also encourage users to sign out of RE when they are away from their desk.

FYI: As per Blackbaud knowledgebase solution BB144956, last updated 3/31/2015:

If a user exits the program but does not sign out, the Login Manager stays in the system tray and appears yellow. The user is not connected to the database and does not use a database user license

In the past, BB support has told me the opposite. I've tested this, and a user who exits without signing out does disappear from the user list in BMC.

Kim Nieves · April 2015

We too, purcharsed the first 5 with installation and then were able to purchase just 1 more a couple years later after we tracked usage and when people were not able to access. Biggest thing is ensuring that folks sign out when not using it!

Peggy Weisensel Chavey · April 2015

We have 15 licenses and 45 accounts. 8-10 of the accounts are for folks who are logged in most of the day. About 20 are regularly logged in for 3-4 hours a day and the rest are occasionally to infrequently logged in. Right before and just after large or significant events, we have a lot of trouble with "Max. Users" lockouts. We also will have problems right before major mailings and during high volume giving periods. Analysis says we need 2 or 3 more licenses. Budget says it won't be this year.

Number of User Licenses Needed?

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