Tip: Autodesk Single User Subscription License

Posted on June 26, 2017 by Synergis Product Support Specialist, Mark Lancaster
As more and more of you transition into a subscription based licensing there’s one thing you may have overlooked because it wasn’t really something you considered in the past.  With each Autodesk contract, there are two (2) management roles which are required for managing your company’s licenses.  These roles are called Contract Manager and Software Coordinator and only one individual can be assigned to a given role.   Besides the ability to renew contracts and access billing information (under the Contract Manager role), these roles are exactly the same when it comes to managing your products, benefits, cloud’s services and users information.   For every contract, it’s mandatory for a person to be assigned the Contract Manager role, but for the Software Coordinator role, one of the following options can occur:

• Option A: Same person who is also assigned the Contract Manager role
• Option B: A separate individual is assigned

In the past with perpetual license, the individual assigned or not assigned to the Software Coordinate role may not have been as important as it is with subscription based (single user) licenses.  In this case you should now be incorporating “Option B” into your organization.  Why you ask?
The other day I received a call where an end-user was unable to access their recently purchased single user term based AutoCAD software.  My question to them was, “Did the Contract Manager for your subscription create a user account for you and assign the benefit of use”?  The reply I got was “NO”.
In the end the Contract Manager was out of the office for a few days and would not be able to accomplish this task until they returned.  In addition they were also assigned the Software Coordinator role which now forces the user to wait until this individual returns. Granted the end-user could put the Autodesk application into a 30 day trial mode until the issue is resolved.  My message to you, define a secondary/separate person (Option B) as the Software Coordinator for your subscription.
Other items you should also considered if not already implemented.

• The individuals that are assigned to either of these roles should fully understand what’s required of them when working with subscription based licensing. In the past, an individual may have been assigned one of these roles and over-time never really accessed or had the need to access your products and services.   With subscription based (single user) license (or cloud services/benefits), the need to manage your subscription requires additional administrative task then in the past.   My advice, make sure individuals assigned these two (2) roles are willing to accomplish the required tasks and understand what’s needed.
• Many companies may have multiple contracts. In certain cases, each of these contracts may have different individuals assigned to these two (2) roles.  Under this condition you should determine to keep the roles separate for each contract or designate them all to be the same.

For Synergis’ customers, please contact your Account Representative to inquire who is currently assigned these roles and/or to have them reassigned to others within your organization.   For those who will be assigned these roles in your organization, we can also demonstrate the process of managing your subscription, users, benefits, etc. through the Autodesk Account.
For non-Synergis’ customers please contact your designated Reseller/VAR or follow the information per this Autodesk article.
Until next time…