Innovation Management Group, Inc. has always released high-quality software that can run for years without a need for updates. IMG uses license restrictions to balance business requirements, maintain professional standards, and to ensure a viable financial model for its employees and customers. IMG has regularly changed licensing options to meet customer needs and to achieve the best balance between license restrictions and ease of use/deployment. There are numerous license options available, including negotiated license agreements, software escrow, and technology transfers. For most individuals and many companies, this is much too involved, so a simple mechanism to generate revenue & provide access to IMG's software has resulted in the IMG Personal License and the IMG Professional License. This is a slightly technical overview that outlines the key distinctions between these licenses.

Sometime around 2012, IMG started working towards a more technology oriented approach vs. a product oriented approach. Although we still deliver our software in a product oriented way, we also are working towards a more straightforward relationship with our customers, not focusing on the specific product or products in use, but more on the customer relationship and keeping things as simple as possible for all customers, whether they are an individual having fun with Joystick-To-Mouse, or a global enterprise deploying custom My-T-Soft layouts throught the world.

The IMG Personal License (IPL) options, along with the IMG Professional License, utilize a Build-A-Board.com online account so users can manage their account & licenses, and can access the online database of keyboard layouts. As of 2016, the IMG Personal License-Basic includes access to My-T-Soft Basic, Joystick-To-Mouse, SmartClick, TouchRight Utilities, and WordComplete. The IMG Personal License-Standard includes access to all IPL-Basic software and also includes access to My-T-Soft 1.90. These personal licenses are meant for individuals who want access to the software, but do not want to pay the full license amount for support, maintenance, etc. These licenses require system access to the internet to retrieve system-tied licenses, and do not qualify for support beyond what is available within the software, tech support knowledgebase, and other online resources.

The IMG Professional License adds the ability to license systems not connected to the internet, and qualifies for technical and programming support along with maintenance & upgrade options.

For individuals using the IMG Personal License, once a system is licensed, the license is perpetual for that system, and this system does not need the internet or a valid Build-A-Board.com account to remain licensed. However, if there is a major operating system re-install, or system restore, or other major system event that invalidates the license, it would need the internet and access a valid Build-A-Board.com account to re-license. For practical purposes, once a system is licensed, the license lasts the life of the system. Note that for individuals who constantly rebuild systems, or swap hard drives, or are developers, the IMG Personal License is probably not the best choice.

Key licensing aspects to understand about the IMG Personal License and the relationship to the Build-A-Board.com account:

• A valid (active/non-expired) Build-A-Board.com account is required to license a system
• Build-A-Board.com accounts are valid for 3 years and can be renewed or reactivated if expired
• a system must have internet access to apply for and retrieve its license
• all licensing actions must be from the system being licensed (you cannot use a different system - if you do, you will license that system)
• Once a license is used on a system, it cannot be removed or transferred (the system is licensed for the life of the system)
• 3 system activations (licenses) are included (e.g. 1 laptop/1 desktop/1 mobile)
• Additional IPL purchases will add licenses, and extend the expiration date
• the license uses a unique system ID / system registry entry to identify the system, and the license file generated and retrieved on to the system must match this system ID. Moving the license file to another system will not match and the license will be invalid, and a major system registry change (i.e. rebuilt system) will also fail to license

The IMG Professional License adds a few additional capabilities:

• Licenses can be granted to any system (with or without internet access) using the 16 character System ID that is used to generate a License Key/Serial Number unlock pair from within the License Manager tab in a Build-A-Board.com account
• Qualifies for full technical and/or programming support
• account can be renewed at maintenance rates (15%)

As always, if there are specific circumstances that are not correctly managed by these license approaches, please contact IMG Customer Service to assist and resolve any issues.

By integrating the software with an personalized internet account, IMG's user interface software along with customized layouts can be quickly retrieved on different devices. Expanding on what the band The Fixx said in their song, "Less Cities, More Moving People" we are moving towards a world with More People, and even More Connected Devices. Creating a platform to quickly and easily access the tools & user interface software necessary to be productive is one of the underlying reasons for building this approach. When a customer gets a new device or moves to a different one, rather than downloading/installing/configuring software, someone can log on and then quickly & easily download their software & configuration. By having a centralized / personalized account, this becomes a breeze. For companies utilizing operator panels or customized interface options, when a new system needs to be deployed, this internet account becomes the ideal way to add IMG software to a unit.

The IMG Personal and IMG Professional licenses tied to a Build-A-Board.com account provides everything necessary for customers to manage their IMG software, along with access to the growing online database of layouts and ways to personalize & customize their configuration.