Population-based Site Licenses

Bentley Systems is offering municipalities a subtle twist on its license subscription program: municipalities can get all Bentley software for an annual fee based on population.

No examples of pricing are given. Bentley is calling the fee "fixed" but as populations tend to grow (as they do here in booming BC and Alberta, Canada), I doubt the fee will remain fixed much past the first year.

Tthe program does have a couple of advantages over per-seat licensing:

- lower administration cost, because city staff don't need to keep track of each individual seat.
- access to all of Bentley's software.
- no worries of of the Anti-piracy Police crashing thru the mayor's door.

CAD vendors are becoming creative with licensing. An earlier example was CoCreate allowing its 2D customers to upgrade to 3D for just the cost of the 3D annual fee (no upgrade fee). Last month, Autodesk raised the prices of its software licenses and annual subscription rates.

Update

Adena Schutzberg of Directions notes that the program costs municipalities about $1 per resident per year.

Comments

[Adena Schutzberg]

They noted pricing examples on the press call:
http://www.allpointsblog.com/archives/1347-Bentley-Offers-New-Licensing-Program-for-Municipalities.html