What's The Difference Between The Different Subscription Plans?+-
Please refer to this link for details about our different subscription plans: eTool Subscription Pricing
Please refer to this link for details about our different subscription plans: eTool Subscription Pricing
Embedding LCA at an organisation level has become easier and will provide added value with centralised ownership of LCA models, floating seats, inter-company collaboration for integrated design and unrestricted number of read-only users.
The subscriptions such as the Enterprise, Specialist & Specialist Hotseat, come with the enterprise functionality which is best for organisations that have developed LCA capacity working on a variable number of projects who prefer some per-project costs to help manage fluctuations in the work.
Enterprise functionality benefits and features:
Check out how it works in this quick demonstration:
Collaboration between enterprise and specialist users – An organisation may waive the minimum Enterprise seats required if at least one user is a Specialist Subscriber and providing the Organisation has at least one Specialist Subscriber they will also qualify for all Enterprise Subscriber functionality.
If the Enterprise user is the lead author of the study there will be a project access fee associated with that specific project. If the Enterprise user is just a collaborator in the study authored by the Specialist user then there ́s no access fees. Their only limitation is that the Enterprise user minimises the effort in the study to less than 20 added or edited Design elements. eTool will warn users in the system if an action will forfeit the Specialist Subscriber Access fee waiver.
See additional info on How to set your organisation up in eTool – Enterprise Functionality.
If you’re on a Consultant or Enterprise subscription, you will need to pay an access fee prior to using eTool to start your project. To raise an invoice for this, you can do so via your eTool dashboard under the ‘Request Quote’ menu.
Even if you do not currently hold an active subscription, you may start the process of finding out which subscription most suits you by requesting a quote anyway.
Alternatively, you can contact us via the link below:
Consultant and Enterprise subscribers are subject to software Access Fees for any project in eTool that is for commercial gain. Only Specialist/Specialist Hotseat subscribers have this fee waived.
Why does eTool charge an access fee? The fees are for the complete use of eTool software, including all LCA/LCC features associated with your subscription level, development of new features, software maintenance & life cycle inventory data. We also offer our unique certification service without additional charge. Software access fee is paid before you start a new project for commercial gain.
I don’t need Certification, can I skip the fee? The short answer is no as the fee covers more than just the certification. If you intend to publish your results for commercial purpose, our Terms of Service stipulate that you must get your work certified before doing so. Going through the process will give you confidence that you have used the software correctly and that your study is of a high quality.
From day one, eTool recognised the importance of comparable and accurate results flowing from our software. ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards for LCA call for all studies to be verified by a third party, therefore it made sense for us to include this certification service in the Access Fee as we understand the inner workings of the software which is important for an LCA verification. It also provides us with a revenue model that doesn’t require large upfront fees since the project budget is no longer a key factor in commissioning an LCA, thus allowing the proliferation of affordable LCAs and lower impact buildings.
The certification process involves support for the users conducting the LCA by way of coaching them on the use of the software to report and build an audit trail of changes in the model. It is an interactive process to ensure that the work not only meets required standards but also gains the most value out of engaging with Life Cycle Design. If you require more in depth coaching or mentoring for your project prior to submitting your work for certification review, you should consider our Advanced Support package.
How is the fee calculated? Access Fees will vary depending on project size and type. For a more accurate fee figure specific for your project please request a quote. More information on the different subscriptions can be found here.
Access Fee Estimates
The table below shows estimated access fees per project based on the project floor area.
Additional information can be found at the eTool Services Specification, Project Licenses and Project Certification sections of eTool Software Use Terms and Conditions.
Related article:
Certify your design
In response to user feedback and demand, eTool now offers TWO dynamic seat sharing functionalities to help improve the seat sharing experience.
Our recently released ‘Specialist Hotseat’ is built on user demand for more flexibility and freedom to share their seats in eTool. With this new hotseat feature, users now have an upgrade option to let the software automate the seat sharing functionality in real-time. This functionality makes seat allocation seamless and enhances the user experience. It also makes the use of purchased seats a lot more efficiently when simultaneous use of the software is not at its limit which is beneficial for multi-discipline design teams. When an organisation has purchased Specialist Hotseats, the org Admin is able to allocate these seats to their users in the ‘Manage Users’ tab. There is no limit to the number of users they could allocate these seats to as the Organisation Admin.
The ‘Specialist Hotseat’ is an upgraded version of the standard Specialist seat. The upgraded seat means that the software automatically manages the seat sharing function among multiple users that have been assigned the hotseat within the same organisation.
In addition to new ‘Specialist Hotseat’, we are also introducing the ‘Specialist External Seat’ functionality. The ‘Specialist External Seat’ function allows organisations with this functionality to have external contractors/consultants that ‘bring-your-own’ seat when collaborating within their organisation on eTool. This feature can only configured by eTool application administrators, so please get in touch if you’re interested in activating this feature.
Specialist Hotseat: How Does It Work?
Specialist External Seat: How Does It Work?
Set your organisation up in eTool – Enterprise Functionality
Note: If you are updating the details of an Organisation / Enterprise Plan containing seats, please see: How to Update My Organisation’s Subscription / Payment Details?If you are in a Open Use plan. As communicated in an official email, this plan has been discontinued. However, we are pleased to offer you a complimentary 14-day Trial plan, granting you unrestricted access to eTool.To continue beyod the trial, upgrade to one of our paid subscription for uninterrupted access, exclusive features, and support. Click here to upgrade.
Note: If you are updating the details of an Personal Plan, please see: How to Update My Personal Subscription / Payment Details?When you create an organisation, your Personal Plan is automatically set to Open Use to avoid double-billing.
How to Update My Personal Subscription/Payment Details?
How Do I Make A Support Request
What Benefit Does My Organisation get with the Enterprise subscription?
Please consider upgrading to the Specialist Hotseat to enjoy the advantage of automated seat allocations so that each user in your organisation can submit a design for certification with added convenience and speed.
Yes and no. If your business has an enterprise subscription you any member of your organisation with “Admin” rights can enter a “Billing Email” where eTool will send all payment reminders, receipts and subscription notifications. This is done through the “Organisation Profile” tab in the organisation dash.
If you’re a consultant or open use subscriber unfortunately you cannot assign an alternate billing email within eToolLCD. However, if for example you work in a business with a separate accounts team who need a copy of the eToolLCD communications, simply set up an email forwarding rule on your email service, for example:
The Consultant Plan is intended for individual LCA practitioners. The account is linked with the user email address and all intellectual property (IP) data and LCA modelling belongs to the user and not the organisation who pays for the subscription.
Will your employer want access to your LCA models after you move roles or otherwise stop using eTool? If so, you need the Enterprise or Specialist plan as the Consultant plan does not allow sharing or transferring of models between users during or after your subscription.
We set the Enterprise plan so that businesses who want to retain their IP can do so and eTool can support this practice in a legal manner. If you are a business that wants to retain your IP as staff transition in and out of your organisation, you will need the Enterprise or Specialist plan.
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What Benefit Does My Organisation get with the Enterprise subscription?
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How Do I Make A Support Request
Technically yes, legally no. Our terms are quite specific about data ownership, see the below extract with the red highlighted text:
Subscriber Data
By using the Platform, certain data and design documentation will be uploaded and entered into The Platform. The Subscriber retains all of their right, title and interest in and to its Data, and ownership of such Data shall not be transferred to eTool under this agreement. Subscribers grant us a nonexclusive license to use Data to deliver Services to authorized users of the Platform, solely in connection with the Structure and further grants us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual license to use usage data (such as, by way of example and not by way of limitation, aggregated and / or averaged Structure performance information) in an aggregated form that does not identify individual persons or organizations, in order to compile statistics regarding life cycle environment and cost impacts, report on the Platform usage and/or to improve the Services.
Our agreement is with the Subscriber (regardless of who pays the bill for the subscriber). So for non-enterprise users it’s the user themselves who owns the data. We can’t transfer it or copy it without their consent. The Enterprise, Specialist & Specialist Hotseat subscriptions have enterprise functionality so that businesses who want to retain their IP can do so and Cerclos can support this practice in a legal manner. If you are a business that wants to retain your IP as staff transition in and out of your organisation, you will need one of these subscriptions.
If a Consultant plan subscribe gave us consent to transfer data between accounts the actual process is a manual task that has risk associated with it depending on the data in question. For this reason, Cerclos may refuse the request, or charge a fee for the service if it is agreed to proceed.
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Cancelling My Plan – What Do I Need To Know?
What Benefit Does My Organisation get with the Enterprise subscription?
When you cancel any paid subscription, please be warned that all your projects will no longer be available to you once you’ve cancelled your subscription.
This just means that your Projects will no longer be maintained within eTool in that online format. However, you may retain all the data of your projects offline by downloading all the necessary reports from your designs. These reports will contain all the information you have entered into your designs and it is even possible to rebuild your LCA based on the info in those reports should you wish to do so in the future. If you must retain these projects online within the eTool platform, you will need to maintain your current Consultant subscription OR upgrade to a subscription that has the Enterprise functionality so that the projects may be fully transferred to another user within your organisation.
Consultant subscriptions can not be transferred to another user. Should you wish to have that functionality, please consider upgrading to one of our Enterprise Plans. You can find more information on our different subscriptions here.
If you only wish to have have an offline copy of your work, we recommend downloading the following reports:
Once you’ve downloaded all your reports, you can proceed with cancelling your subscription as per the instructions in this support post:
Related Posts:
How to Update My Personal Subscription/Payment Details?
How Do I Make A Support Request
What Benefit Does My Organisation get with the Enterprise subscription?
Can you transfer a users data to my account?