Tracking Usage of Licenses

[puresaintt]

We have a forty user license of Adobe Creative Cloud spread over three sites.

We have many freelancers coming and going. My question is that: is there a way to tell when an account license was last used?

[arij2010]

Hi,

No it is not possible because the software can be used offline.

[Abambo]

arij2010  wrote

No it is not possible because the software can be used offline.

Well that's not a reason. Statistics can be collected and send when the computer is on-line. And you need to be on-line every 90 days or so.

[John T Smith · Accepted solution]

Team license links that may help

-team plans https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html?plan=team

-http://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/buy/business.html

-https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/creative-cloud-teams.html for Team help

-manage your team account https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2107090

-Team Installer http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1363686?tstart=0

--https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/packager/create-license-file.html

[Abambo]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/John+T+Smith  wrote

-https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/creative-cloud-teams.html for Team help

This link brings you to customer care...as Spock says: fascinating!

[Abambo]

With Creative Cloud for teams, I do not see an option to get usage statistics.

[kevin stohlmeyer]

With Creative Cloud teams or Enterprise, you get access to the Admin dashboard which allows you to track licenses and usage deployments. You have to be under a teams account agreement to see this.

[Abambo]

kstohlmeyer1  wrote

With Creative Cloud teams or Enterprise, you get access to the Admin dashboard which allows you to track licenses and usage deployments. You have to be under a teams account agreement to see this.

I'm in! I see who accepted the invitation to join. No more information is shown.

[arij2010]

No way to know when a license was used .When you launch a machine ,CC desktop contact Adobe servers but it doesn't mean that you used the applications .

[arij2010]

As I explained before, no statistics are visible. Even Adobe does not have these statistics. Adobe can not tell you for example "You used Photoshop today for 3 hours from 8am to 11am". They do not have this information.

[kevin stohlmeyer]

If your concern is having freelancers using licenses after they have left, you can use this console to remove their access to the license and redeploy it to a new user.

[Abambo]

As I understood the OP, it’s more seeing if the software is used by a person who has a license attributed. Some people are treating having access to a program as a priviledge without knowing how to use that one.

[stevenp81396465]

The question is about utilization of resources.    How many licenses do I need?   What is the most effective means of deployment and acquisition?    Named User?    Device?    Is someone tying up a license but never using it?    These are statistics Adobe should be providing us - but - will likely wont.  .   The information - if it were available  -  will generally grind in one direction which is not accretive to their increasing revenue stream(s).

[Abambo]

I understand your need, but I do not see any user software providing this kind of accounting. I have to say that it is a while that I’m not involved in system management anymore. But even at the times and with expensive resources this was always a task that was left to specific accounting software on computers.

I once wrote a program to collect that user data from the OS logging system to distribute the computer costs to the different users and projects, but that was 30 years ago.

[stevenp81396465]

Fascinating and somehow concerning that we are told we have come so far and so fast that software engineers are telling us they will drive us around the town or thru the sky  - with no one at the wheel . . . . .BUT -  they CAN'T tell us if someone is making use of a given software resource.   I'm wondering which of these two claims is accurately reflective of our real world capabilities. 

[Abambo]

The application program never collected that data, except it was part of the package. Usage logging was always part of the OS and accounting that usage was part of a utility either coming with the OS or a third party program.

Software asset management - Wikipedia

[stevenp81396465]

And, at one time - a license was controlled as a serialized key - imprinted on the back of a jewel case.  We've advanced tech on many fronts - but, for whatever reasons -  not the one which is ultimately to the benefit of the customer.

[Abambo]

I don't think that Adobe should be allowed to track my CC usage more than is needed to full fill my contractual obligations. Anything else would be a grave privacy breach.

[stevenp81396465]

And totally agree - - - where YOU own the entitlement only YOU should be able to see your usage.    The need to review/evaluate usage is really a pertinant to Enterprise environ's - - - where the user doesnt "own" the license.

[Abambo]

 The need to review/evaluate usage is really a pertinant to Enterprise environ's - - - where the user doesnt "own" the license.

By @stevenp81396465

Even in an enterprise environment, it's none of Adobe's business to track down customer's product use. If the company has a need to do some usage collection, it needs to do that on a local level. Thirty years ago, I wrote a program for doing exactly this on our mainframes coupled with our accounting system, so that the computer time used could be allocated to the project. There was no need to send the data to your software supplier for that (indeed, it was not quite possible to do that…).

[stevenp81396465]

And thirty years ago - vendor managed cloud servers and networks weren't part of the equation.  Look - I get your point.  But the privacy pony is waaaaaaay out of the barn loooooong ago.   Further, if privacy is your concern you should be jumping up and down about the terabyts of data Adobe maintains and controls - which is clearly of far greater significance --  than your usage of their services.    THE POINT IS - as a supplier - they could def do far more to let the OWNER of the licenses know how those services are being utilized.   Heck - letting the owner(s) know the last time a subscriber logged into the service is a great start.  They've worked VERY hard and expended considerable effort to plug the obvious hole in their revenue generation which was the result of serialized keys.   They've effectively transitioned their customer base to cloud hosted services which rely on Adobe networks.   They've done little/nothing to allow customers to opimize utilization of those services.

[RLiamKelly]

Except in this case it is not YOUR software it is the companies and they have the right to track usage. At least here in the States. 

[Abambo]

No, they do not, as long as they don't sell "usage". Adobe sells a licence. The licence can be installed and activated on two computers concurrently. That's what Adobe is tracking. They don't track, if you use the software. That is a difference. 

Adobe is not interested, indeed, to track that. They get paid per licence. If you do not use the licence, it's your problem.

One possibility to see if the licence gets used, is simply to unallocate all licences. If users complain, the are using the licence. If they complain after half a year, you need to talk to them. May be their complaint is legit.

[stevenp81396465]

Pretty sure that Adobe attorney's would decribe theirs as a "license to use" (as opposed to a transfer or ownership).   You are correct, Adobe is motivated by the pursuit of profit - not customer service.   I like your unallocation approach - as mentioned in the very distant past - Adobe effectively forced our hand on that action and the results were very revealing as about 20 to 25% did not request an immediate renewal!      Arguably - based on that one-off example - we were 20 to 25% over allocated.  The "difference" you point out is an interesting distraction from the undlaying need.    As pointed out in the past - simply reporting to me the last (most recent) date someone logged into a given service (irrespective of use or how many instances are active) would be a good start at making a dent in this need.  

[Abambo]

Pretty sure that Adobe attorney's would decribe theirs as a "license to use" (as opposed to a transfer or ownership).   

By @stevenp81396465

It's no transfer of ownership, and it never was, even during the times of perpetual licences.