Tecosim buys tokens, each of which grants a fixed amount of time of software usage. Veith said the system is "brilliant" because of its flexibility and its overall cost structure, which he likened to "shareware" on the desktop side. "I'd be pleased if Microsoft invented such a system," he said.

Other than Altair, Tecosim has the typical cross-section of vendors, including Microsoft. But business remains good enough for now that Veith doesn't plan to press his vendors when contracts come up again at the beginning of the year.

"I don't want to bother when things are stable," he said.