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1. WHITEPAPER
Enhancing Industrial Automation
Solutions with Embedded Software:
New Efficiencies and Faster Cycle Times

2. Enhancing Industrial Automation Solutions with Embedded Software: New Efficiencies and Faster Cycle Times
2 Flexera Software: FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers Whitepaper Series
Enhancing Industrial Automation Solutions with Embedded
Software: New Efficiencies and Faster Cycle Times
Introduction
More than ever, embedded software is playing a central role
in intelligent device manufacturers’ go-to-market strategies.
This trend is especially apparent in markets such as telecom,
test and measurement, healthcare, and industrial automation
– where manufacturers are under increasing pressure to
innovate, rapidly enter new markets, control costs, maximize
incremental revenue from existing customers, and deliver a
competitively differentiated customer experience.
As embedded software has become more integral to their
business, more and more manufacturers are discovering the
power of software licensing. With licensing, manufacturers
can turn device features and/or capacity on and off as
appropriate. This allows them to charge customers for
the capabilities they want, while not charging them
for capabilities they don’t want. Licensing thus enables
manufacturers to more effectively use embedded software
as a means of managing and monetizing the features and
functionality they provide in their devices.
By adopting the right licensing models, industrial
automation providers can:
• Produce different products on the same hardware
chassis. This drives down costs by eliminating the need
for additional production lines and minimizing the
number of SKUs that have to be kept in inventory.
• Create innovative products on existing hardware
chassis. This reduces the cost and time it takes to bring
differentiated products to new or existing markets.
• Up-sell existing customers by simply activating
additional device capabilities or capacity. This
makes it easier to capitalize on incremental
revenue opportunities.
• Meet evolving customer needs without requiring them
to swap out hardware or otherwise disrupt their
operations. This makes for a more positive ongoing
customer experience.
These examples highlight why software monetization is such
a compelling best practice for manufacturers.
In fact, in today’s highly competitive and fast-moving
markets, the skill with which manufacturers structure
the monetization of their embedded software – and
the diligence with which they manage their customers’
entitlements – may well turn out to be what separates market
leaders from other players.
This whitepaper outlines key trends and opportunities
influencing industrial automation solution providers today,
and how Flexera Software FlexNet®
Producer Suite for
Intelligent Device Manufacturers can help these companies
to fundamentally improve their business. In addition, the
whitepaper illustrates the power of software monetization
solutions with a customer implementation scenario.
Trends and Opportunities in Industrial Automation
In today’s ultra-competitive global business environment,
many intelligent device manufacturers are applying software
monetization principles to hardware that uses electronic
licensing to control and manage a wide range of functions.
Within the industrial automation category, this approach is
being applied across many domains including:
• Building systems management, as the green building
movement drives the development of sophisticated
systems to control heating, ventilation, air conditioning
(HVAC) and lighting.
• Industrial wireless, as these new wireless networks
quickly become integrated with standard plant and
office networks.

3. Enhancing Industrial Automation Solutions with Embedded Software: New Efficiencies and Faster Cycle Times
3Flexera Software: FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers Whitepaper Series
• Embedded software intelligence and diagnostics, as
embedded software operating information and self-
diagnostics reduce the need for expensive on-site
factory service.
• Internet of Things (IOT) and Machine-to-machine (M2M)
communications that are unleashing a wave of new
productivity such as improved asset management and
new service initiatives.
• Automation system security, since most of today’s
automation and control systems use the same
hardware, operating systems, and communications as
broadly deployed networks. Security has become an
urgent issue.
• Consumer-influenced industrial automation, as trends
such as Internet access via cellular phones drive the
development of industry-specific applications.
At a macro level, complementary business issues are driving
the software-based differentiation of industrial automation
solutions – all of which can be capitalized upon with
embedded software licensing solutions:
• Changing economics of intelligent device manufacturing:
The underlying hardware and core operating system
software in many devices is being commoditized,
as industrial automation solution providers seek to
gain economies of scale by using more standardized
components. Industrial automation solution providers
are increasingly buying, versus building, core
subsystems and system software. As a result, their
role is evolving to more of an integrator, and less of a
manufacturer. Solution providers seek better
ways to differentiate themselves; software is a key
means to creating competitive advantage and driving
incremental revenue.
• Growing revenue contribution from software: As a
corollary to the commoditization of hardware, many
industrial automation solution providers are focusing
more resources on software development. As such,
software enables new revenue sources and provides
a way to deliver a superior, differentiated
customer experience.
• Software-enabled supply chain transformation: With
the underlying hardware becoming more powerful and
at the same time commoditized, manufacturers can
now build fewer base configurations and deliver more
functions. Product capabilities, capacity, versions and
price points can be created and modified based on
functions that can be turned on and off by licensing of
the embedded software. This dramatically streamlines
the supply chain and manufacturing processes, as well
as lowering inventory carrying costs.
The challenge for the industrial automation solution
providers is to quickly bring to market devices that
are tailored to meet the unique needs of a particular
segment or new market, while keeping manufacturing
costs low to meet margin requirements. Licensing-
based approaches allow industrial automation solution
providers to enter new markets with a full-function
device, and then create lower price points with the
same device by enabling a subset of capabilities/
capacity if lower-priced competition enters the market.
• Brand and revenue erosion from grey market abuse:
As underlying device configurations become more
standardized, grey market theft can be perpetrated
more easily. For example, demonstration models of
products increasingly find their way into the grey
market via channels for selling used equipment.
These devices are running improper software and
typically do not function correctly, posing a serious
threat to the customer experience. In addition, grey
market sales jeopardize maintenance revenues, as
manufacturers lose track of device ownership and thus
the maintenance relationship.
• Customer preferences: In today’s ultra-competitive
business environment, customers are demanding
more flexible pricing models, easy access to upgrade
features, and a superior customer experience.
Embedded software licensing capabilities allow
industrial automation solution providers to meet all of
these customer requirements by enabling important
capabilities such as field upgrades and a consistent,
streamlined customer experience across products.
Turning to Flexera Software for Answers
As industrial automation solution providers address these
trends, they increasingly recognize that they face similar
issues as software companies. Today’s intelligent device
manufacturers are looking to Flexera Software to help them:
• Reach new markets by creatively packaging and
pricing embedded software
• Build revenues by better monetizing capability
and capacity
• Cut manufacturing costs by using software to
differentiate capabilities on devices, and thus reduce
the number of unique SKUs
• Accurately track customer entitlements and usage
• Track channel partner activity, and maximize service
and maintenance revenues
• Prevent unauthorized use of capabilities without cutting
off legitimate customers
• Reduce the operational costs associated with shipping
software upgrades

4. Enhancing Industrial Automation Solutions with Embedded Software: New Efficiencies and Faster Cycle Times
4 Flexera Software: FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers Whitepaper Series
• Cut customer support costs by offering customers and
channel partners self-service and keeping them current
on the latest version
• Make better development and marketing decisions
based on device usage data
FlexNet Producer Suite Addresses the Unique Needs of
Industrial Automation
FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers
is the most comprehensive end-to-end solution for licensing,
entitlement management and delivery available today.
Industrial automation solution providers can benefit
from Flexera Software’s support for the largest number
of embedded software license models and the inherent
flexibility of the system. FlexNet Producer Suite provides a
single operations view to easily integrate products across
multiple software licensing schemes. Flexera Software
supports dozens of platforms – the widest range in the
industry – enabling industrial automation manufacturers to
use it across both large- and small-footprint devices.
FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers
leverages Flexera Software’s 25 years of industry experience,
helping to maximize revenue, cut costs, and eliminate manual
processes. It is optimized for intelligent device
manufacturers, including:
• Small footprint, embedded client: offers a licensing
toolkit that is highly modular, supports several license
models, and has a very small footprint (under 50K).
This allows intelligent device manufacturers to keep
costs low by using licensing of the embedded software
to configure capability and capacity on a device while
producing a minimum number of device types (SKUs).
• High configurability: allows key elements such as
security and binding to be configured or replaced
as needed. This provides additional flexibility to
fine-tune the solution to meet exact requirements or
take advantage of existing device capabilities, while
keeping the footprint small.
• Hands-free activation and silent trials: provides
hands-free activation and silent trials that don’t require
registration. This transparent in-product activation
improves the customer experience and increases
upgrades/up-selling by enabling easy trials for
new capabilities.
• End-to-End Licensing, entitlement management
and delivery:
a single view for you, your customers and your channel
partners to view and manage software embedded on
devices and enables you to electronically turn on and
off functionality.
Case Study: A Global Building Automation Company
Streamlines Inventory and Reduces Cycle Times with
Flexera Software
Today’s high tech buildings comprise a plethora of
sophisticated systems to control everything from HVAC to
security and fire protection. And just as every building is
different, so are the systems that orchestrate these functions.
For a global building automation company, this inescapable
fact created enormous complexity in manufacturing and
inventory management, which had a negative ripple effect
across numerous other aspects of its business.
Today, the building automation company is using FlexNet
Producer Suite to put product customization capabilities into
the hands of its customers, reducing the number of SKUs it
needs to manufacture and inventory from several hundred
SKUs to just a few. This in turn speeds cycle times – new
systems can be live in just an hour, compared to several
weeks – and lowers the potential for human error.
A challenging economy requires operational innovation
“In the US, the challenging economy has had a big impact
on the construction industry, which directly affects us,”
says the manager of integrated solutions at the building
technology company. “We were looking for innovative ways
to differentiate ourselves from our competitors and boost
operational efficiencies. We met both of these objectives
with Flexera Software FlexNet Producer Suite.
“FlexNet Producer Suite has transformed the way we do
business,” he says. The building technology company
refers to the Flexera Software solution as License Manager.
“Before, to change capability in a deployed unit, we had to
physically remove the old unit and put in a new one. Now
that can be remotely enabled with License Manager.
“Likewise, License Manager has dramatically reduced the
number of SKUs we have to manufacture and manage,” he
continues. For example, one of the company’s top hardware
platforms has 12 hardware variations and 40 firmware
variations, creating 480 SKUs for a single product line.
License Manager allows us to manufacture and stock just
two base products, which are customized in the field
with entitlement licenses created using FlexNet Licensing,
in conjunction with the company’s SAP enterprise
software system.
FlexNet Producer Suite enables flexibility and
business efficiency
The manager of integrated solutions and his team created
a simple, three-step process that allows licenses to be
generated on demand with License Manager by entering an
order in the SAP system. SAP automatically feeds the order

5. Enhancing Industrial Automation Solutions with Embedded Software: New Efficiencies and Faster Cycle Times
5Flexera Software: FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers Whitepaper Series
into FlexNet®
Operations, Flexera Software’s entitlement
management system. The license is then emailed to the
user, who activates system functionality on site by entering
the entitlement identification number into the building’s
management console (a workstation) or directly into the
device (such as an HVAC controller) through its Human
Machine Interface.
“Simply put, I love Flexera Software FlexNet Producer Suite.
Our License Manager system couldn’t make the entitlement
management process any easier for the field organization,”
he says.
The quick, three-step process that the building automation
company implemented is in sharp contrast to the two
week-plus turnaround time that previous ordering and
manufacturing processes required. “Our inventory costs have
dropped significantly,” the manager of integrated solutions
says. “It’s not just the physical components themselves, it’s
the time required to manage everything.”
Merchandise returns have also dropped. “Due to the high
number of variations within each of three major project
lines, the previous ordering process made it easy to make
specification errors, resulting in returned merchandise that
had to be restocked. This created a fairly large pool of
inventory that was difficult to repurpose,” he explains.
Ease of use for all
In addition to creating an easy-to-use system for technical
users, the manager of integrated solutions, a business user
with no formal IT training, found Flexera Software FlexNet
Producer Suite exceptionally easy to deploy. “I’ve done all of
the installations and upgrades to FlexNet Operations myself,
with a little help from Flexera Software’s fantastic support
team. I was thoroughly impressed with the clarity of the
documentation. It walked me through all the steps easily; I
didn’t even have to get help from one of our own IT people.”
Based on the building technology company’s success with
utilizing FlexNet Producer Suite to automate the licensing of
its key product line, he is enthusiastic about applying this
breakthrough technology across the company’s product line.
He summarizes, “With License Manager we have achieved
major business improvements. We are serving our
customers better with faster velocity and greater agility.
Flexera Software has helped us reduce the manufacturing
complexity of a very sophisticated product line down to
just two models. I am excited to see how Flexera Software
solutions will continue to benefit our company and,
ultimately, the construction industry we serve.”
Summary
Industrial automation solution providers are increasingly
shifting to a technology and business model that
emphasizes value delivery through software. FlexNet
Producer Suite is the industry-leading software monetization
solution for intelligent device manufacturers - unlocking
revenue of embedded software and reducing operational
costs while streamlining manufacturing processes. FlexNet
Producer Suite also delivers unified entitlement management
in both cloud and on-premises options.
As competition intensifies in today’s global market,
maximizing customer satisfaction, increasing revenues and
reducing costs remain top business imperatives. FlexNet
Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers allows
companies to:
• Penetrate new markets through cost-effective, software-
driven product differentiation
• Improve customer satisfaction by offering self-service
and a consistent experience for downloading, using and
upgrading products
• Reduce the number of SKUs that must be manufactured,
carried and supported
• Enable electronic upgrades
• Fully monetize maintenance programs with better
tracking of channel and end-customer entitlements
• Allow new up-sell capabilities to be sampled and
activated in the field
About Flexera Software
Flexera Software helps application producers and
enterprises increase application usage and the value they
derive from their software. Our next-generation software
licensing, compliance and installation solutions are essential
to ensure continuous licensing compliance, optimized
software investments and to future-proof businesses against
the risks and costs of constantly changing technology. Over
80,000 customers turn to Flexera Software as a trusted and
neutral source for the knowledge and expertise we have
gained as the marketplace leader for over 25 years and for
the automation and intelligence designed into our products.
For more information, please go to:
www.flexerasoftware.com
For more information, please go to:
www.flexerasoftware.com/industrial where you
can learn more about the valuable opportunities
Flexera Software offers.

6. Flexera Software LLC
(Global Headquarters):
+1 800-809-5659
United Kingdom (Europe,
Middle East Headquarters):
+44 870-871-1111
+44 870-873-6300
Australia (Asia,
Pacific Headquarters):
+61 3-9895-2000
For more office locations visit:
www.flexerasoftware.com
Copyright © 2015 Flexera Software LLC. All other brand and product names mentioned herein may be the trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners.
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