Product Creation Advanced Topics
Free Product Trials
Product trials enable self-service user registration for, and provisioning of a product for customer evaluation.
The producer creates the trial registration page, the custom content of which can include survey questions. When a prospective customer signs up for a free product trial, FlexNet Operations creates an account for that customer, creates an entitlement for a trial product, and sends a welcome email to the customer. The customer logs in to end-user portal using the credentials sent in the email, downloads and activates the product, and runs the trial for the time period specified by the product’s license model.
The producer can easily access information about product trial customers, product evaluations, and responses to survey questions.
Maintenance Products
A maintenance product represents a customer’s right to obtain technical support, upgrades, updates, or new platforms for a particular licensed product or product suite for a specified duration.
Product Part Numbers
After a product is linked to a license model or models, it can be mapped to one or more part numbers that link it to an accounting application. Part numbers are referenced by customers in their orders and can be tracked by an enterprise resource planning (ERP) or customer relationship management (CRM) system.
In addition to being grouped into suites, software products can also be related in these ways:
| • | Demo – A demonstration, or limited functionality version of a product. |
| • | Upgrade – A newer version of a product. |
| • | Upsell – A product with a wider range, capability, or more advanced features than another product. |
| • | Maintenance – An unlicensed product that represents additional rights that a customer can purchase. For example, maintenance may give the customer the right to technical support, upgrades, updates, or new platforms for the duration of the maintenance period. |
Product relationships enable follow-up sales operations such as upgrades, upsells, and renewals.