License Management

Overview#

Software licensing audits are uncomfortable when organisations discover they have been out of compliance for months without knowing it. The License Management module keeps your organisation on the right side of those conversations by tracking seat allocation in real time, reclaiming unused licences automatically, and generating audit-ready documentation on demand.

It is equally useful for organisations that sell software themselves, as it provides the full licensing infrastructure needed to issue, track, and enforce entitlements across a customer base.

Key Features#

Secure License Key Generation: Cryptographically secure licence keys with tamper-proof structures, hardware binding options, and digital signature verification for authenticity.
Multiple License Models: Support for perpetual licences, subscription-based entitlements, time-limited trials, floating (concurrent user) licences, node-locked installations, and organisation-wide site licences.
Seat Management: Real-time seat allocation tracking with utilisation dashboards, automated assignment and reclamation workflows, capacity planning forecasts, and self-service administration for licence owners.
Automated Seat Reclamation: Detect inactive users and automatically reclaim unused seats based on configurable inactivity thresholds. Integration with directory services ensures seats are recovered when employees leave the organisation.
Compliance Monitoring: Real-time compliance status with violation detection for over-allocation, unauthorised activations, geographic restrictions, and version restrictions. Proactive alerts at configurable capacity thresholds prevent non-compliance before it becomes an audit finding.
Audit Trail: Complete, immutable event logging for licence generation, activation, deactivation, seat assignments, transfers, and compliance events. Export-ready reports for vendor audits are available with one click.
Entitlement and Feature Management: Granular control over software features, modules, and capabilities at the licence level. Dynamic feature enablement and disablement without software reinstallation.
Version Management: Control access to major, minor, and patch versions. Support for maintenance subscription models with upgrade eligibility tracking.

License Types#

Perpetual: One-time purchase with lifetime usage rights, optional maintenance subscriptions for updates, and transfer capabilities with approval workflows.
Subscription: Time-limited access with automatic renewal, grace periods, prorated upgrades and downgrades, and feature access tied to active subscription status.
Trial: Time-limited evaluation periods with configurable duration, optional feature restrictions, and automatic conversion to paid on purchase.
Floating: Concurrent user licensing with check-out/check-in, queue management, and usage analytics per user and department.
Node-Locked: Tied to specific hardware or virtual machines with deactivation and transfer workflows for hardware changes.
Site License: Unlimited usage within organisational boundaries, with optional geographic or departmental restrictions.

Use Cases#

Software asset management with centralised tracking of all licences, seats, and entitlements across the organisation.
Compliance preparation with automated audit reports, compliance scores, and documentation packages ready for vendor audits without manual assembly.
Cost optimisation through seat utilisation analytics, automated reclamation of inactive licences, and right-sizing recommendations ahead of renewals.
Feature-based licensing with modular entitlement control, add-on module management, and identification of upsell opportunities based on usage patterns.
Multi-model licensing for organisations with diverse software assets requiring different licensing approaches managed from one place.

Open Standards#

JSON Web Token (RFC 7519) / OAuth 2.0 (RFC 6749): All licence management and seat administration endpoints are authenticated and authorised using short-lived JWTs issued under OAuth 2.0 flows, with the organisation identity scoped per token to enforce multi-tenant isolation.
SCIM 2.0 (RFC 7643 / RFC 7644): The automated seat reclamation workflow integrates with SCIM-compliant identity providers to detect user departures and lifecycle changes, triggering seat recovery without manual intervention.
SAML 2.0 (OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language): Single sign-on for licence administrators and end users is federated via SAML 2.0 assertions, enabling SSO-gated access control on Professional, Enterprise, and Government tiers.
GraphQL (June 2018 Specification): All licence queries, seat allocation mutations, compliance status reads, and entitlement updates are exposed through a typed GraphQL API, providing predictable schema-driven access for integrations.
SHA-256 (FIPS 180-4): The immutable audit trail for licence generation, activation, deactivation, and seat transfers uses SHA-256 hash chaining to guarantee tamper-evident records suitable for vendor audit submissions.
Common Event Format (CEF): Audit trail events are exported in ArcSight CEF format for ingestion by SIEM platforms (Splunk, Elastic Security, Microsoft Sentinel, IBM QRadar), enabling centralised compliance monitoring.
GDPR (EU Regulation 2016/679): Data retention policies on audit records, the right-to-erasure workflow for departing-user seat reclamation, and export-ready compliance documentation are designed to satisfy GDPR Article 5 storage limitation and accountability obligations.

Getting Started#

Configure License Types: Define the licence models and entitlements for your software products.
Import Existing Licenses: Migrate current licence records and seat assignments into the platform.
Set Up Compliance Policies: Configure capacity thresholds, expiration alerts, and compliance monitoring rules.
Enable Self-Service: Allow administrators to assign, transfer, and reclaim seats through the self-service portal.
Schedule Audits: Configure automated compliance scans and reporting schedules.

Availability#

Enterprise Plan: Included
Professional Plan: Core licence management included; advanced compliance and entitlement features available as add-on

Last Reviewed: 2026-02-05 Last Updated: 2026-04-14