If any part of the Softdial Contact Center™ software is used in production, a license must be obtained from Sytel. For details, see Licensing Procedure. A license will be generated for your installation and returned to you electronically.
With no license, Softdial Contact Center™ (SCC) may be fully installed and basic services such as Softdial CallGem™ and Softdial Campaign Manager™ may be used for trial, training and testing purposes with up to 5 agents and 4 campaigns.
Development licenses, providing full functionality for a limited period of time, are also available free of charge to integration partners.
Pricing models
There are 2 basic models for pricing:
- Outright purchase - payment is due at the start of production for a quantity of concurrent users. This quantity can then be used in perpetuity
- Rental - payment is due at the start of production for a quantity of concurrent users for a fixed period (typically 1 - 6 months). Payment is due again at each renewal.
For this option, license validation via email is mandatory. See Usage Licensing.
The 2 models can be combined to give flexibility for short term needs.
Types of user
SCC can account for concurrent usage of several types of user. These user types are sometimes assigned different value in the pricing arrangements that partners have with Sytel,
The usage price may vary based on the class of agent, hence the need to account for them separately. Predictive use has more intrinsic value than Progressive or Inbound ACD use.
Typically, an
License types
Licenses may be limited by
1) number of concurrent users
Per chargeable facility in SCC, it is possible to specify
- a number of concurrent users, or
- a site license, allowing an unlimited number of users on the server where it is installed.
Softdial License Viewer will display either Agent Seats: <number of seats> or Agent Seats: Site License.
From V10.7, with the introduction of multimedia, multisession activity, the definition of 'concurrent usage' needs clarification. See Concurrent Usage - Definitions.
Expiry date
All licenses (outright purchase or rental) have a timed expiry date of a maximum of one year. This allows us to be responsive to customer reinstall and reorganisation needs without having to be overly concerned about the potential for license abuse. The license may be set per product/ facility, according to the stipulations of the purchase/ rental agreement.
Softdial License Viewer will display License expires <dd/mm/yyyy> for each licensed product.
Licenses expire at midnight at the end of the day of expiry.
2) hours used
A usage license can be deployed by users who require to pay depending on actual usage (pay-as-you-go, or pay on demand). This option is typically only offered to high volume telephony service providers, as the overhead cost of reporting and audit requirements make this prohibitive for small installations.
There are several possible bases for usage licensing:
- Talk time (time active in session)
Most customers who have usage licensing work with this option for simplicity, where the cost of running the system is a simple margin on telco costs.
- Talk + Wrap Time
- ACD available time
- Logged in time
For more information on how usage is calculated, see Tracking Usage.
It is a condition of this type of license that users must configure their system to periodically report the usage data to Sytel. This is done automatically by configuring the system as described in Notification Email Settings.
3) version number
A version-locked license allows users to take upgrades up to the limit of the major version number specified. If a product has a version-locked license, Softdial License Viewer will display Upgrade restricted to version <X>.
The most common licenses issued are:
- a combination of number of concurrent users and expiry date limits, specified per product.
- hours used
High Availability and standby server licensing
Sytel allows customers above a certain size to have backup server licensing free-of-charge, subject to the following constraints:
- Any backup license will be configured as a Usage license, set up with 100 hours of usage for each agent licensed on the primary system – a backup for a 200 agent system will be given 20,000 hours of usage.
- Usage email will be sent by such systems. Outgoing connectivity for this purpose must be maintained permanently. As previously discussed, emails can be sent via the customer’s own mail servers, mitigating any security risks and production environment limitations.
- Sytel’s admin team will replenish the hours after being advised of each failover episode. We will be aware of failover as we will receive a usage digest for the standby server.
Customers wishing to have a standby server that is not subject to these licensing constraints may license the backup system in line with current agreed pricing.