Question about sharing a program (buying a second license)

Factual Questions
1

Ok, here is the scenario.

My wife shares an office with two other people buth they all run their own small businesses (they are all psychologists). They shared a DSL connection via a router which was installed about 18 months ago.

One of the other psychologists has a program which allows her to bill insurance companies online which saves lots of time. My wife wants to be able to use it. We contacted the company and they have said that for a fee we can get a second license and run it on her PC through the other PC. I did not talk to them, so I do not know if they will send us another CD to install a second copy of the program, but the way it was explained to me, it sounds like they will not.

My questions are: Do we need to network the two PCs together in a workgroup for them to share the program? (My guess would be yes). If not, how can they share the program, what steps would I need to take? The PC with the program on is running Vista, my wife’s PC is running XP Home.

The thing that complicates things is that my wife and the other psychologist do not want to share files at all. In fact, they probably need to take all possible steps to ensure that they cannot see each others files.

As I said above, my wife will be purchasing a licence for the software and I will contact the support line for any assistance in getting it shared out, but I would like to have all my ducks in a row before it gets to that point.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2

Dammit!

The above post was posted by me.

I hate it when I forget to check who is logged in. :smack:

3

[QUOTE=Brynda]
Ok, here is the scenario.

My wife shares an office with two other people buth they all run their own small businesses (they are all psychologists). They shared a DSL connection via a router which was installed about 18 months ago.

One of the other psychologists has a program which allows her to bill insurance companies online which saves lots of time. My wife wants to be able to use it. We contacted the company and they have said that for a fee we can get a second license and run it on her PC through the other PC. I did not talk to them, so I do not know if they will send us another CD to install a second copy of the program, but the way it was explained to me, it sounds like they will not.

My questions are: Do we need to network the two PCs together in a workgroup for them to share the program? (My guess would be yes). If not, how can they share the program, what steps would I need to take? The PC with the program on is running Vista, my wife’s PC is running XP Home.

The thing that complicates things is that my wife and the other psychologist do not want to share files at all. In fact, they probably need to take all possible steps to ensure that they cannot see each others files.

As I said above, my wife will be purchasing a licence for the software and I will contact the support line for any assistance in getting it shared out, but I would like to have all my ducks in a row before it gets to that point.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
[/QUOTE]

Most likely she will just need to purchase a copy and install it on her machine so she can use it as well. From the sounds of it, they do not use any client server apps that may need trickier configuration so it should be easy.

If they wanted to share it depending on the app she might be able to map her friends drive across the network and then execute the program on her machine from the mapped drive. WARNING This does not always work and may cause bigger problems if pursued, I am not your tech/you are not my client. The support line will be best able to answer if this is possible.

If you could give us the name of the software package/program we may be able to provide more insight/assistance.

4

What is the difference in price between getting a license to use the program on the other PC, versus buying the program to run independently on her computer? I would think they would be the same.

5

[QUOTE=Fear Itself]
What is the difference in price between getting a license to use the program on the other PC, versus buying the program to run independently on her computer? I would think they would be the same.
[/QUOTE]

None, you are not paying for a physical piece of software, you are paying for permission to use it for a second seat. Sometimes a second seat licence is less expensive, sometimes its the same, depends on the app and the producer. If you could tell us the app we can look it up on the support site for the software.

6

[QUOTE=drachillix]
None, you are not paying for a physical piece of software, you are paying for permission to use it for a second seat.
[/QUOTE]
That is what I thought as well. so why doesn’t the OP just buy her own software, instead of jumping through a lot of hoops and potential technical issues trying to get a shared program to work over the network?

7

The software is called Therapist Helper and it is used for billing for patients.

According to my wife, it is several hundred dollars cheaper to buy a second license than to buy a second complete copy of the software.

Thanks for the answers so far.

I am going to work with the tech support to get it all set up, but as I said, I want to make sure that I have everything ready when I call them so that we are not spending tons of time getting all the PCs set up. I don’t want to put my wife or the other psychologist out or mess with their schedules.

8

Are they going to be sharing the program’s data - the billing info etc - or is that too completely seperate?

9

If by billing info, you mean the names and addresses of our payors (insurance companies) that would be nice, but not necessary. We don’t use that many. If you mean the names and addresses of clients, no, we won’t be sharing that. Basically, I just want to use the program more cheaply than buying a copy for myself.

10

That obviates a lot of potential issues. It sounds as if you should just be able to install it as normal.

11

[QUOTE=Quartz]
That obviates a lot of potential issues. It sounds as if you should just be able to install it as normal.
[/QUOTE]

My only question will be a licencing nitpick, as in, do they cut a discount for second seat standalone installations or does that only work with the networked environment method.