What Should You Look for in a Licensing Company?
Introduction
If you’re looking for new licensing as a software or hardware company, the considerations for your new choice should go way beyond the platform you’ll use and what the new experience of your operations will be.
Why? Because you will be at the start of a new relationship. Hence you need to know what to look for in any licensing company you may ultimately choose.
It is clear that licensing is critical. Revenues, customer satisfaction and continued growth of both new and existing accounts all center around licensing and entitlements. Therefore, trust and track record in your new choice of licensing company are essential.
The success in your field, that you have built up, should not be put at risk...
Licensing Strategy and Implementation
Licensing companies which are start-ups put your business at risk! Licensing is easy to describe but hugely complex and nuanced under the surface. Start-ups and inexperienced licensing vendors don’t have the experience and track record, things you might find out far too late that you needed them to.
Serious concerns relate to the largest of vendors too, but we will come to that in a minute.
Look beyond the cover of the book, listen beyond the song’s intro…
Support and Customer Experience
The backup, assurance and peace of mind of world-class support and engineering should be an absolute essential on your checklist.
How can you begin to assess this?
If you are exploring potential candidates, as in licensing companies you might choose, watch closely as you engage with them. Do you feel their technical prowess and experience is clear? Just as important is how proactive, reactive and ultimately engaging are they? Should you end up with a problem, perhaps out of your control, is the company before you actually going to be there when you need them?
→Conclusion
One of the key reasons for software companies even looking for a new licensing vendor is the poor level of engagement they have experienced. It has driven them away. It happens time and time again. Not only are some vendors incredibly difficult to get hold of, some will in parallel hit you with price hikes!
It might be easy to imagine that these concerns are exclusive to smaller vendors. Far from it! Often the largest vendors are the most faceless, uncontactable and frustrating to deal with. Software companies who thought they’d chosen wisely experience increasing costs, diminishing value, trust and service from these large, legacy licensing providers.
At Nalpeiron we are approached by companies looking for new licensing all the time. What you are reading about here is directly reflective of what the majority of prospects say to us about their existing vendors.
Avoid what will end up being an unsustainable relationship by choosing wisely at the start.
If you are looking for new licensing, concerned about getting your decision right, reach out for a quick meeting .
We work hand-in-hand with software and hardware companies to deliver licensing that works.
Over a cup of coffee length chat, let’s talk.
About the Author
Jon Gillespie-Brown is the Founder and CEO of Nalpeiron, a leader in cloud-based software licensing, entitlement management, software monetization, and analytics. With over 20 years of expertise, he works with enterprise B2B SaaS and IoT companies to optimize revenue models, accelerate go-to-market strategies, and scale with confidence. Jon is recognized as an authority in software licensing, software monetization, and software analytics, holds two issued U.S. patents, and is the author of five books. He also serves as a strategic guide to customers, helping them navigate and capitalize on the once-in-a-generation shift driven by AI, redefining how software is built, delivered, and monetized. For over 20 years, Jon has been a Professor at University of Colorado Boulder, a lecturer at University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University, and an Entrepreneur in Residence at London Business School.
Nalpeiron: A Long-Term Partner for the AI Era
At Nalpeiron, we go beyond technology — we act as a strategic partner in licensing, monetization, and growth. For over twenty years, enterprise and IoT companies have trusted us to guide and evolve their business models.
As AI shifts software from seats to usage, outcomes, and agent-driven activity, legacy approaches fall short. Nalpeiron enables this transition through entitlements as the control plane — a centralized system of record across SaaS, on-prem, IoT, and offline environments.
From strategy to execution, we help companies adapt faster, launch new models, and stay in control — making Nalpeiron a partner for the AI-driven future of software monetization.
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