There should be a user type that is only used for server to server soap requests that doesn't count against the license count. This is useful where we want the created and modified by to show that it was created by an automated process over a soap/rest connection and not by an actual physical person. This is useful for integration with external phone systems that logs calls, service monitoring that automatically creates cases when a system goes down, etc. Ideally each of these external applications would have a separate user so we know which system created or updated the record. The Sugar Self Service portal has such a user type that doesn't count against the license but it is limited to just the portal. Adding a field to indicate who created the record isn't an option because every module would have to be updated, logichooks would have to be created to clear the field when a normal user edits the record, and auditing wouldn't be accurate when subsequent changes are made.


This type of user already exists in other systems such as SalesForce and with all the cloud services available I see this as only becoming a more common request.