This is where a Windows-based solution (cView) comes to the rescue. You know you are going to have a thick-client approach, but those viewing your reports have plenty of horsepower on their local machines and this is not an issue. Further, you've discovered cView, which can process against live data and you know it outperforms all other Windows-based viewers.

You like the three-license price, but you have a much larger base of people who need to view your reports. The site license seems to be the ideal solution. But, what is this site license and why should you spend that kind of money? Let's answer those questions--and some other relevant questions--separately.

What is a site license?

It is a license for a single site.

What is a site?

We loosely define a "site" as a single operation or a single facility, depending on the customer's situation.

• One customer had about 80 users in one location. That was a single site license.
• One customer had about 80 users at five physical locations. Is that five sites? It was a single operation, so we agreed to ignore the number physical locations. One site license covered everything.
• Another customer had a mix of locations, for a total of about 250 users. We agreed to a special 2.5 site license arrangement.
• Suppose you wanted a site license for your internal customers (accounting, operations, and senior managers)--that is one site. But, you propose a second site license for a client of yours who has about two dozen users who need to read a completely different run of your reports. That second group is not large enough for a site, so a less expensive license applies.

You can always upgrade to a site license later, if conditions change. We do not send someone out to your place of business to bludgeon you if you violate line 6,324 in the fine print (we don't have such a contract, by the way).

Instead, we try to work with you to reach a fair agreement. Most of the time, it's so straightforward that you just make the selection at purchase time and you're done.

Why is it priced where it is?

Our goal is not to pigeon-hole our customers and extract every possible nickel. Our goal is to establish fair pricing so that everybody wins. We also want to ensure that we offer compelling savings for your purchase.

If you look at the cView pricing progression, you can see that the cost per seat drops as the number of seats goes up. And you can see the price per seat at about 80 users is an awesome bargain. At 100 users, it becomes absurdly inexpensive and so we target 100 users as the "cutoff" for defining a site.

The Crystal Reports community is small, and we value our reputation in that community. We want customers to keep coming back to us. We treat our customers fairly and expect the same, in return. So far, we have not been disappointed. This is a great business to be in, just because of the kind of people we deal with.

We do offer volume discounts on multiple site licenses.
E-mail mark @ crystalkeen.com for that kind of pricing.

What is a user or a seat?

Normally, it's one report recipient. So, if your database has 80 people a report goes out to, we would assume that's 80 seats. But we had a situation with one customer who had about 400 report recipients, with a large number of people who received just one report per quarter. That quarterly use hardly justifies a full seat. So, we agreed to lump the "part-timers" together into X number of seats, and we adjusted the total number of site licenses to reflect that.

How does a site license work, and where do you install it?

cView is a thick-client product, so it does not reside on the server. If you want a thin-client product, you must obtain that from Business Objects. We are under the same licensing agreement with other third-party solution providers, and that agreement does not permit thin-client viewers. If someone is offering such a viewer, please report that to us and to Business Objects. You can reach us at mark @ crystalkeen.com.

You install the cView software on each client machine. Then, you simply drop the license key into the folder where you installed cView.

Why buy a site license?

To get the advantages. Here are some:

• Price per seat. First, determine the number of seats you have and how much it would cost you to license each one for the thin-client solution. If your company doesn't have that kind of money--and small to medium sized businesses almost never do--then you need a thick client. We have the best one. Now, simply take the site license price and divide that by your number of users. That's your per seat cost. This should be affordable.
   
• Scalability. With our site license, you can add users simply by adding the cView software and license key to their machines. Of course, there's an ethical limit to the scalability. When you reach about 100 users, it's time to contact us (mark @ crystalkeen.com) about some kind of additional licensing consideration.
   
• Flexibility. If you have a multi-facility operation covered by a site license, you can move people from one facility to another without penalty. If you have a meeting room or training where you have designated each machine as a seat, you do not need to have separate licenses per individual sitting at that machine (with the thick client solution, you do).
   

What about laptops?

Suppose your company has division with 90 people receiving your reports, and you have licensed 90 workstations. You have told us you are licensing per machine, not per individual, because you have a fairly high rate of people moving between divisions.

But, all of these 90 people travel. So, they all have laptops. Is that two site licenses? Not to us. We realize that very few people use laptops and desktop workstations simultaneously, and that nobody lugs a desktop around on an airplane.

So when people travel and need to read their reports, are we going to double the price just so they don't have to wait until they get back to the office? No. We consider that unfair. So, a site license still covers this.

Common sense says Joe isn't using his desktop in Chicago while he's in London with his laptop. So, Joe's laptop is merely an extension of his desktop and both count together as one seat--the one that Joe occupies.

Questions? Comments? Please contact us. We do want your business, and we want you to be comfortable that your cView site license purchase is the right one for you.