Free your university from restrictive software licenses

In today's dynamic learning landscape, technology is a crucial element of a CIO’s role. But complex licensing agreements can quickly turn the dream of a vibrant digital campus into a compliance nightmare.  However, there are ways to support faculty, staff and students to explore, collaborate and push digital boundaries without the shackles of restrictive licenses.

This blog post delves into this widespread practice and explores how Academic Software can act as the key to creating a more secure, cost-effective, and empowering digital learning environment. 

Restrictive licenses - A barrier to innovation?  
Let's face it, traditional software licenses are often a maze of legalese, limiting how your educators and students can use the tools they need.  

Restrictive software licenses are legal agreements that outline the terms and conditions under which software can be used, copied, distributed, and changed. They typically impose limitations on users' rights to ensure compliance. As well as protecting revenues, they are particularly focused on usage restrictions, redistribution limitations and intellectual property rights. 

Yet they do also offer one major benefit. Such licenses play a key part in helping software providers to offer users tailored support and customisation services. This helps providers to ensure a consistent and high-quality user experience. 
Nonetheless, restrictive licences can pose significant challenges for IT professionals in education institutions. These include:  

• Managing multiple software licences, keeping track of usage restrictions and ensuring compliance can be complex and time-consuming for IT professionals.  
• There’s evidence that restrictive licences do impede user flexibility and discourage educational initiatives / institutions from exploring more innovative approaches.
• Restrictive licences can sometimes lead to higher costs, especially when institutions need to buy more licences for expanded usage.   

• automates license management. Customers love saying goodbye to manual processes and use our platform to simplify license tracking and ensure compliance. IT teams are then able to focus on more valuable, strategic initiatives.  
• unlocks collaboration. The Academic Software platform enables improved workflows and integrates seamlessly with your existing IT infrastructure. 
• optimises costs. Institutions can now get the most out of their software investments with intelligent license allocation and usage monitoring.  
• monitors / reports usage. Senior leaders can easily see and interpret data trends and proactively identify and address any potential compliance issues.