Forgive me, but the devil’s advocate within asks:
Plausible as this application discovery concept may sound, it seems tenuous and difficult to quantify. As a result, is it perhaps wishful thinking?

Are there other factors which might more realistically comprise switching costs, i.e., the factors which prevent, or conversely, keep customers from switching to other providers?

An important facet of network automation is billing and subscriber management automation. As more and more companies realize that displaying advertising simply isn’t going to work in a depressed economy (it was barely a monetization solution in a good economy), they begin to charge for their product. However, as companies begin to see the opportunities, they also see the difficulties in capturing those opportunities.

Your billing should reflect what your business objectives are; if you want to reduce barriers to entry then variable pricing can make it easier for your customers to get started. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense for a customer to use your service if they are paying the same as a heavy user – resource based pricing helps alleviate that concern. Module based pricing allows you to target different segments and lets customers who want to pay more for increased services and functionality do so.

While the variety of pricing models are endless, just as endless are the back-end difficulties for the company doing it themselves.

Integrating with a subscription billing and management provider makes a lot of sense for SaaS providers. Here at IP Applications, our paramount concern is to take care of your billing and subscription management automation so your team can spend their time working on your core competency.

Best regards,

Davis

Here’s hoping that 2009 be a reflection of SaaS accomplishment and adoption thanks to your inputs.

Happy Holidays!

Best.
Alain