The licensing model of RetailVista Mobile consists of a combination of the number of devices on which RetailVista Mobile is installed and the number of simultaneously available desired applications.
For each device on which RetailVista Mobile is installed, a device license is required. A distinction is made between scanners and phones. The difference lies in the support for the barcode scanner. On "real" scanners (such as Zebra and Newland), there is a laser/2D scanner that can scan barcodes without a keyboard appearing or being needed. On phones, there is no barcode scanner, so the camera must be used, from which a barcode must be recognized from the photo/video. This requires fairly expensive software that we purchase monthly elsewhere (per device on which it is used), which makes the license price of a phone license higher than that of a scanner. While a scanner is considerably more expensive to purchase than a phone, the monthly license contribution for a phone will be higher. The barcode recognition with this software, however, is phenomenal.
Applications
Applications refer to the "mini" applications encountered in RetailVista Mobile. The software itself is called RetailVista Mobile, and an example of an application is "Product Information." One or more applications are linked to a security group via the security groups in RetailVista. Every user in RetailVista is always linked to a security group. When a user logs into RetailVista Mobile, it is known which applications the user has access to.
The license determines the number of simultaneous applications. By calculating based on simultaneous applications, consideration is given to part-time users or users who do not use RetailVista Mobile all day. Each time a user logs in, the number of available applications is reduced by the number of applications assigned to that user. Once the user logs out, the number of applications is released for another user.
Example:
The RetailVista license contains 20 RetailVista Mobile applications. User A has access to 5 applications (for example, Product Info, Order Product, Inventory, Sales Orders, and Product Receiving). User B has access to 10 applications (not specified). When User A logs in, the number of available applications for other users decreases from 20 to 15. If User B also logs in, the number of remaining applications decreases from 15 to 5. If a User C exists who has 8 applications assigned, that user will receive a message that there are not enough applications remaining to log in. However, if User A logs out at that moment, the number of available applications increases from 5 to 10, and User C can log in.
This example shows that the license is about the number of simultaneous users. If Users A, B, and C are part-time, 20 applications may be more than enough. The more employees work simultaneously, the higher the required number of applications will be.
As a rule of thumb, we usually assume about 5 applications per user. However, this is an average, and in practice, circumstances may naturally vary.
Insight
Through the "Mobile Devices" screen, you can always see how many CALS (applications) are in use (active) and how many are still remaining. This is a real-time view, reflecting the situation at the moment you look. Once a user logs in or logs out, this number can change. It provides a good indication of how many applications are still available. If there are frequent remarks from the shop floor that users can no longer log in, it may be a suitable moment to decide to increase the number of applications.
