The global software industry loses a tremendous amount of revenue each year to software piracy, estimated by some reports to be of the order of USD 63.4 billion. Improved measures to combat software piracy, over licensing, unauthorized reproduction and illegal distribution of software is therefore a key industry imperative.
Here is how Mindtree helped a Fortune 500 software multinational develop an innovative anti-piracy solution and assisted its original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) transition to a new activation process.
The challenge
The customer's most important product division, contributing approximately 25% of total revenue, wanted to institute a more effective anti-piracy system. Previously, their software was activated through a product key, but the non-uniqueness of the key made it susceptible to piracy.
The software major therefore wanted to switch to a more advanced system. Under the new process, OEMs would obtain their product keys directly from our customer via electronic delivery, so that a unique software license would be generated based on a combination of hardware and product keys.
The customer approached Mindtree to develop a robust solution for OEMs and ODMs to implement the new system; and also help key partners transition to the new model.
Our solution
Mindtree was involved in delivering two parts of the customer's anti-piracy strategy:
- Developing a new Digital Inventory System (DIS) to provide an electronic method of obtaining product licenses and associating product keys to OEM hardware
- Helping OEMs and ODMs transition to the new model
First, Mindtree collaborated with the customer to develop a DIS product keeping in mind present and future requirements such as next versions of the product and potential changes to it, distributed scenarios, offline capabilities, cloud deployment and seamless integration with line-of-business applications. Since OEMs work in diverse IT environments we also provided extension points for the out-of-the-box product to enable customization when necessary.
Second, our team partnered with the customer's OEMs and ODMs to help them with a challenging changeover, providing systems integration services such as implementation and adoption support for a period of two years.
Throughout the journey, Mindtree contributed value adds by building accessibility, reusability and scalability into the solution. Mindtree developed troubleshooting tools to ensure smooth adoption and functioning of the system. Mindtree also demonstrated a strong sense of ownership and collaborative instinct, by quickly resolving issues as they arose and going beyond agreed requirements even as we met all project milestones.
Business impact
- Additional revenues
- Reduction in unauthorized usage
- Easier licensing management through centralized oversight
- Secure and efficient workflow for OEMs
- Scalable framework that could be extended to other products
- Reduced integration effort for OEMs
Customer testimonial
“The Mindtree DIS is rock solid... after three beta releases of the software, the test bug rates 44 OEMs reported against each release can only be described as 'shockingly low'. This is the greatest testament to the quality of the Mindtree DIS. After the DIS RTM in May, I think ‘Mindtree DIS Technical Support’ may be one of the easiest jobs in Hyderabad"
Customer's director of program management.
