Calculating the number of users

Licensing for Xeams is based on the total number of users. Two factors contribute to creating a valid user in Xeams:

  • Individual Users - For example, john@xyz.com and mary@xyz.com. These individuals can have one or more email address associated with them. For example, johnny@xyz.com, john.smith@xyz.com. Both of these variations belonging to the same person are counted as 1 user. To ensure Xeams does not count them separately, ensure you properly Associate johnny@xyz.com and john.smith@xyz.com with John's account in Xeams.

    Click here for details for user associations.

  • Business Rules - For example, sales@xyz.com and support@xyz.com. Two features contribute towards this factor: Distribution List and Mail/Discussion List.

TIP

Click About under Tools menu to see how many active users you have. This is the number of licenses you should purchase.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: My company has 3 domains with 20 employees. How many user licenses should I buy?
Assuming every employee has 3 email addresses, such as user1@compA.com, user1@compB.com and user1@compC.com, you only need 20 licenses.
Q: I use it as a Spam Firewall without any local users in Xeams. How many users licenses should I purchase?
Every inbound email that goes through Xeams will add to the user's count. Therefore, if you don't have local users in Xeams, check the number of user accounts in your actual email server to determine the license you need.
Q: I only have 20 users but the active user count says 30, why?
This happens when Xeams is configured to accept emails for invalid users. In this case, Xeams cannot distinguish between real and invalid users. If you are using the SMTP Proxy Server to accept inbound emails in Firewall or Hybrid mode, you must configure your actual email server to reject invalid users.

Click here to see how to fix this problem.

Q: I have multiple variations/aliases of an email address.
These variations are called "Associations" in Xeams. If you pull users from an AD, Xeams will automatically will create these associations. You can also create them manually if needed.

Associations are created under the User Management screen. Once they are creating the actual user count will go down.
Q: Can I associate multiple individuals to one email account.
No. Associating multiple individuals to the same email account is a violation of Xeams licensing policy. The pricing model in Xeams is based on number of individuals who get their messages filtered. Associating John's email with Bob is considered a violation of our licensing agreement.
Q: I already made necessary changes to reduce the actual user count but I don't see any change in Xeams
Xeams looks at 5 days of data to figure out the user count. Therefore, if the changes are made today, the actual user count will go down after 5 days.