July 20, 2004
A logical middle road for delivering demos
In our April 13, 2004, Tip of the Week, we told you about technology from a company called Surgient that provides for hosted demos of complex software apps.
Here's another approach to the same problem, with some innovative twists that will appeal to software marketers.
Endeavors Technology, a developer based in Irvine, Calif., will also put your software on their server for demo purposes, but, unlike Surgient, it doesn't run there.
"We actually stream down the product as it's needed," says Joe Anzenberger, Endeavor's marketing VP. "The title is on a server, and when a person registers, they download just enough of the software as needed.
"So, you're using the desktop PC rather than the server. We've found that performance is really limited by bandwidth rather than processing. If an application is slow, it will be slow even if they're running off a disk."
Your software is streamed to a virtual drive on the user's PC, and stored in an encrypted cache area with links to several points on the client machine. "Even if you made a copy of the cache and tried to move it to another machine, it wouldn't work," Anzenberger says.
"AutoDesk is one of our customers, and in the nearly two years they've been working with us they've not reported a single case of piracy."
Each software vendor determines whether or not they want to enable offline use via the Endeavors technology, as well as the amount of timefrom hours to yearsthat the user will be able to run it.
This offline capability offers an obvious advantage to users who want to try out your software without being connected to the Internet. And, unlike software demos on physical media, Endeavors can provide feedback.
"We install our own thin client on the user's PC," Anzenberger says. "When the person comes back online, as soon as they're Web connected again, it relays information back to the vendor.
"It tells them how many times they've run the software and what they've done with it. This is really what separates us from the competition: We give you a way of knowing what's happening, which in turn gives you better lead follow-up."
Because your software is not running on remote servers, Endeavors also claims the ability to handle far more concurrent usersup to 5,000 concurrently, says Anzenberger. "We've actually run tests and found that it will scale to 10,000 users," he says, "but for the sake of efficiency, we like to limit it to 5,000 users per server."
Support issues have been minimal, Anzenberger says: When 8,000 users downloaded an AutoDesk demo over a six-month period, only 1.3 percent called for technical support.
Most commonly, the problem resides, as we say in software circles, between the user's chair and monitor. "Sometimes it's a network issueif they're running a double firewall it can be difficultbut most of the time it was just a user error," says Anzenberger.
The cost of the Endeavors service is negotiated, but Anzenberger says the range is $1 to $4 per download. "It depends on the size of the application and the number of users. Complexity will drive it up, and number of users will drive it down."
If your software is small and uncomplicated and you have a small number of users, an online demo capability like Endeavor's may not be cost effective for you. But if either your software or user base are large, it could pay off.
"Lots of developers send out CDs, and we know they spend $5 to $10 per user if the demo's on physical media," Anzenberger says. "Or, they have a full download on their site at minimal cost, but they have no idea of who's using it, and no way of following up. We try to set our price somewhere in the middle."
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