End-Point Application User Licenses: Dedicated or Shared

In order to sync data between two applications, the Celigo Integration App requires a user login for each of your endpoint applications.  While not required, Celigo recommends that you have a dedicated license for each end-point application, as opposed to sharing a license with another user.  A shared license means that the integration App itself would use an existing user’s license. A dedicated license means that the Integration App would get its own license, and not share with a user.

• Advantages of dedicated logins:

1. Minimize login conflicts.
2. Better visibility for auditing.

• Disadvantages of dedicated logins:

1. Cost: For the applications in which each login requires a separate license, it’s more expensive to have dedicated licenses. 

Login Conflicts:

During implementation, a dedicated license is recommended to minimize any login conflicts that may occur between two users.  For example, in NetSuite, user licenses are set up to only allow one user login at a time. Therefore, if a second person logs in using the same login credentials (same username and password), it will log out the original person who was already logged in.  This could happen if you are using your NetSuite user login for testing purposes (or even for business purposes in a production environment), and a Celigo resource is using the same login to follow up on a question you’ve asked regarding a testing result.

Better Visibility for Auditing

A dedicated license also provides better visibility for auditing purposes, i.e. to see changes made to records.  If you are using one shared login for an individual user and the Integration App, you most likely will not be able to differentiate between data that the Integration App created or updated and data that the individual user-created or updated.   

Expense

Many applications, NetSuite included, charge a per-user license.  In that case, sharing the license between the Integration App endpoint and a user would cost less than buying a dedicated license in NetSuite (or other application) for the Integration App.

Ultimately, it is up to you to weigh the trade-offs and decide whether you want the Integration App to share a user login or have a dedicated license.

Definitions:

• User Login: the user credentials used to log into your application, i.e. the username and password.
• User License: A typical software license grants end-user permission to use the software.
• In this article, the terms are related in a one-to-one relationship, i.e. one license corresponds one username and password.
• Dedicated license means one license per person, i.e. each person uses his/her own username (or e-mail) to log into the system.
• Shared license means two or more people logging into the application with the same credentials.