Hi Andreas,
First, I am glad to see the help file I wrote is being read (and quoted)! There is an awful lot of information in there. In particular, I created an entire section devoted to how usage is calculated and describes how the entire licensing mechanism works. This is all found in the Introduction (and both its sub-sections) which I encourage you to read if you have not done so already. As the second sentence in the Introduction points out, SELECTserver’s licensing paradigm is guided by the SELECT agreement. The SELECT agreement is a topic you and your account manager should review together since it is exclusive to your company and Bentley.
That said I would like to address the areas of the help file you have quoted and answer your questions as I see them. On page 2 of your document, we see the MicroStation usage at the Bentley Hong Kong Office. The chart shows that in April of 2012, there were 3 occasions usage was exceeded (and by very little). I agree with your assessment that this example does not represent an account that is taking advantage of the program. As such, I would not expect the account manager to discuss ways to mitigate TRUST usage in this case.
Now, let’s talk about page 3. In this example we see the Bentley Beijing Office is consistently using a large amount of MicroStation. They own 25, however they often recording usage in the 30’s and in some cases more than 40 (it peaked at 45)! Clearly we have TRUST usage and the question is how much. The SELECT agreement states (and I am paraphrasing here, not quoting directly) that the number of uses in any interval shall not exceed the number of licenses owned. The SELECTserver documentation defines the interval as a calendar hour. One could conclude since the peak use recorded was 45, that the Beijing office should buy an additional 20 copies. I think that would be harsh in this example since 40 was only breeched a handful of times. However, if we look at how many times the Beijing office used more than 30 licenses, I define it as legitimate case of TRUST usage, since it happens often.
Optimally, the scenario described on page 3 is extreme and the account manager will have likely been in contact with the account to suggest ways to mitigate TRUST usage. For example, the green represents checked out licenses. Are all 13 of those check outs necessary? After several conversations and different attempts to rein in TRUST usage have failed, then the account manager would speak to the need of purchasing more licenses.
In this case, let’s assume the account manager has been in regular contact and the mitigation efforts have not worked completely. We do see between 19 May and 30 June, usage is trending near the 30-35 mark (we assume for the sake of this example this is when mitigation efforts were in full force). I would then expect the conversation between the account and the account manager to review their mitigation efforts along with their results and sync to the number found through this process.
The account manager would then present different programs such as Portfolio Balancing which allows the account to trade in underutilized products for products in need. The benefit here is the account would not necessarily need to purchase more copies.
I hope this helps, and please feel free to post back questions.
Steven DeVoll, M.S.