Licensing in the World of Industrial Hardware
Husco uses Nalpeiron’s Zentitle to license its HusLink software, enabling the transition from pure hardware sales to adding and blending in a recurring software revenue model.
Background
Husco is a global leader in electro-hydraulic controls for vehicles used in industry, agriculture and on-road.
Their ruggedized embedded controllers are fully programmable, and are used by top-name industrial and agricultural OEM vehicle manufacturers as the brain behind the hydraulic systems of their vehicles.
“Using Nalpeiron, we can deliver and maintain control of the licenses of our development software suite, while also unlocking the ability to monetize in new ways that modern software companies are all turning towards.”
HusLink: From Prototype to Production
Husco makes the product development process of prototyping to production simple, fast, and cost-effective for their customers. They do this by offering their HusLink software for design engineers to prototype, program and test how controllers will work in simulated environments. This can be followed by a smooth transition to similarly programmed code-ready physical production units without further coding. HusLink works in conjunction with MATLAB Simulink™, the industry-standard software environment for designing and virtually testing solutions.
Why Zentitle
MATLAB Simulink™ itself uses Revenera (FlexLM) for its own licensing, but this proved too expensive and unnecessarily complex for Husco’s use case. Husco chose Nalpeiron’s Zentitle.
Husco’s HusLink uses Zentitle for its licensing control and activation. This means Husco can transition from a pure hardware sales business, to adding and blending in a recurring software revenue model whenever they want to.
“Within weeks, we were commercially using Zentitle for our licensing, which means we can use licensing models for our hardware’s companion software. Ultimately, we now have the potential to increase our revenue as a hardware company beyond traditional hardware sales.”
Fast Implementation and Commercial Insight
With Nalpeiron, fast implementation of software licensing was possible, with no heavy integration or costly IT overhead.
Usage analytics alongside entitlement control provide commercial insights to Husco. Understanding what each customer has purchased and how customers are using the software, empowers Husco to develop future go-to-market strategies, which they can implement using Zentitle.
“Zentitle serves as a critical enabler within our HusLink software ecosystem, helping translate our software capabilities into licensable products enabling differentiation from hardware and software support/sales. While HusLink itself is a modest software investment for customers, the combination of HusLink and Zentitle unlocks the ability to execute major hardware programs. Development cycles typically span about two to four years, requiring development, continuous improvements, and driving innovation. This makes our software stack a lightweight but high-leverage component that helps drive significant hardware sales.”