Is this standard business practice?
Is this standard business practice?
(OP)
We are a small/medium sized manufacturer of highly engineered aerospace products (amongst other systems). We currently use ANSYS as our FEA software package, which we have been doing for the last five or so years. Due to the current economy, we had to forgo the annual maintenance agreement to reduce our costs.
We recently had one of our engineer's machine die on us and needed to install the software on a new system. The ANSYS package requires that we get a software license key from them, and when we contacted them and our reseller, we were told we needed to pay $2,000.00 in administrative fees. They contend that our license agreement says that any change to "the network" requires the payment of an administration fee, while the license agreement states that they must provide us with License Keys and makes no mention of an administration fee in return for the keys.
ANSYS states that it is a "policy" but this is the first we have ever heard of it. There is no mention of it in the license agreement except where it talks about moving a workstation to another network (which we are not doing).
Here are my questions:
1- Given that we have spent of $160k for this software and it's maintenance, is it reasonable to expect that we pay for a license key for a product we have already purchased a license to?
2- Is this "standard" industry practice?
3- Does anyone know of any good alternative products to ANSYS and if there is an existing migration/conversion utility?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I am not happy about this situation as you could probably appreciate.
Thanks.
We recently had one of our engineer's machine die on us and needed to install the software on a new system. The ANSYS package requires that we get a software license key from them, and when we contacted them and our reseller, we were told we needed to pay $2,000.00 in administrative fees. They contend that our license agreement says that any change to "the network" requires the payment of an administration fee, while the license agreement states that they must provide us with License Keys and makes no mention of an administration fee in return for the keys.
ANSYS states that it is a "policy" but this is the first we have ever heard of it. There is no mention of it in the license agreement except where it talks about moving a workstation to another network (which we are not doing).
Here are my questions:
1- Given that we have spent of $160k for this software and it's maintenance, is it reasonable to expect that we pay for a license key for a product we have already purchased a license to?
2- Is this "standard" industry practice?
3- Does anyone know of any good alternative products to ANSYS and if there is an existing migration/conversion utility?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I am not happy about this situation as you could probably appreciate.
Thanks.





RE: Is this standard business practice?
I use it for analyzing launch vehicles and satellites. The analyses including modal, frequency response, buckling, and static loads.
An individual NE/Nastran license cost about $10K. This includes a version of FEMAP for pre and post-processing.
Furthermore, David and Katarina Weinberg of Noran provide good customer support and service.
Tom Irvine
www.vibrationdata.com
RE: Is this standard business practice?
ABAQUS is at least as powerful as ANSYS. I don't know of any conversion utility from ANSYS to ABAQUS. The best would be to talk with the people from the next ABAQUS office: http://www.abaqus.com
Rudolf
RE: Is this standard business practice?
RE: Is this standard business practice?
Brad
RE: Is this standard business practice?
Changing FEA systems can cause substantial problems with:
* New software costs
* Staff in efficiency during any changeover
* Incompatibility of model files
* The potential need to access archived files
(particularly important in the aerospace industry)
Such a change will cost much much more then the $2000 that ANSYS are trying to charge. Make any changes based on a (costed) technical need.
TERRY
RE: Is this standard business practice?
-Ask which hardware the ansys license is connected to. You may temporarily put back that hardware into your system if its not short circuited.
-Ask for a temporary license untill you find a solution. Don't accept their arguments. You already paid for the license.
-Tell them that in focus of the license charge you will assess whether Ansys has indirectly caused the hardware failure.
-Frequent upgrade of hardware is necessary these days. Do they also charge you for this administration fee if you upgrade your PC? That would be nonsense.
gsc
RE: Is this standard business practice?
BJP
RE: Is this standard business practice?
Thanks again for your input, I will be more careful with the licensing when we buy software in the future.
RE: Is this standard business practice?
I would like to add a comment to this discussion (not meaning to beat a dead horse), but I have dealt with a number of software & hardware companies & it is standard for them to request an administrative fee for such services. My experience has shown that by insisting that the fee be waived usually will get results.
As consumers of a product that has had flat to falling revenue we are in a position to ask that such fees to be waived. If your rep. has a problem do not hesitate to talk with the regional manager or VP & they will be more than willing to help rather than have an unhappy customer that begins to look for a replacement product.
One last note, I recently was in the market to purchase FEA software & the local ANSYS VAR would not allow a 30/60 day trail period. I was forced to spent a day at their office attempting first to understand the pre- & post-processor to be able input my test models, then creating the test models & running them. I was unable to get this work done in one day & felt put out by ANSYS that they would force me to be away from my office additionally to complete my evaluation. So I can understand the frustration you felt in your initial dealing with ANSYS in your situation. I have since purchased another product & though I have great respect for their product I would not recommend them because of some of their business practices.
Good luck in your analysis,
John C.
RE: Is this standard business practice?
While I have used ANSYS since 1980 while working for large defense contractors, I am very sorry that I purchased their software now thaqt I am running my own business. By the way, I still plan on telling others what poor customer service ANSYS provides.
RE: Is this standard business practice?
RE: Is this standard business practice?
RE: Is this standard business practice?
Are you dealing with ANSYS directly or a reseller? If there are a lot of unwritten policies take it as an opportunity to negotiate...you never know what kind of deal you can work out.
Are you using a very old version of ANSYS that uses Elan licenses? or are you using FlexLM licenses? By default FlexLM keys are tied to the Ethernet ID which can't be duped. You can also tie the keys to the CPU or harddrive. Have you tried moving the old Ethernet card to a new computer and checking whether the Host ID is unchanged?
There are lots of other FEA codes. All have there strenths and weaknesses. ANSYS is generally a good deal but there are plenty of alternative that run from $5k to $50k.
RE: Is this standard business practice?