EDA產業軟體授權模式之研究

Abstract

台灣的經濟發展，向來是重硬輕軟，多年來軟體產業的發展仍然有限。本研究主要是在探討與軟體產業發展最直接相關的，就是軟體的授權模式。軟體產業在不同的應用產業中，應有不同的授權模式。各種不同的授權模式，對軟體公司的影響與適切的經營模式應為何？而軟體公司因規模的不同，所應採行的授權模式也不致相同。並且在不同的授權模式的轉換過程中，軟體公司所會面臨到的難題為何？又應如何在財務及營運方式上有所因應？皆是本研究所探討的主題。 本研究是以EDA產業作為研究產業對象。所謂EDA（Electronic Design Automation），中文為〝電子設計自動化〞，是指在IC設計和製造中所必須要用到的設計工具軟體。因EDA產業軟體授權模式的演進，在近二十年來，皆為全球軟體產業競相模仿和學習的先驅者。 在選擇EDA產業的Synopsys公司做為個案研究對象後，著重在永久性授權與租賃式的時間性授權的比較分析，而租賃式的時間性授權是目前市場趨勢的主流。本研究提出這兩種授權模式轉換過程中所會遭遇到的財務上的陣痛期，及應有的解決建議。而不論何種授權模式，〝價值取向〞的授權模式是各軟體產業所應思考及面對的主要未來發展趨勢。

The situation of Taiwan industry, it has always been strong in hardware manufacturing but weak in software development. The purpose of this thesis is to study in “Software License Model” which is the key factor of software industry. Software License Models shall be distinct if applicable to each industry. This thesis is trying to figure out what the impacts of software companies are by a diversity of software license models? And what the suitable business and management model shall be when a software company adopting distinct software license models? Besides, the appropriate software license model also shall be depended on the software company scale, too. In addition, during the period of the transition of different software license models changing, what the challenge will be to a software company and what they shall do to face those challenge in their finance and operation management points of view? The thesis selected an EDA company – Synopsys as the case study. The focus is on the differentiations of “Perpetual License” and “Subscription License”. “Subscription License Model” is the trend of the current and the future market. This thesis puts forward some points about the finance challenge of the periods of different software license models transferring, and what the right solutions are to resolve those challenges. No matter any software license model, “Value-based License Model” always is the king in all software market segments in the future.