Comments on: Software-as-a-Service Success – Monetize Creatively http://chaotic-flow.com/software-as-a-service-success-monetize-creatively/ Streamlined angles on turbulent technologies Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:54:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Kevin Lennox http://chaotic-flow.com/software-as-a-service-success-monetize-creatively/comment-page-1/#comment-9987 Kevin Lennox Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:55:09 +0000 http://chaotic-flow.com/?p=161#comment-9987 Joel you have made some excellent points in this post. As a company selling a SaaS billing and management platform I talk to allot of people from CEO's to CMO's, to Product Managers of SaaS companies about this topic. What I see is that many SaaS companies only begin to see the opportunities and conversly the complexities in the SaaS billing model after they have acquired a number of customers and have started to stumble. What I see most often is: 1) They developed a homegrown capability to sell monthly subscriptions. Not too much time goes by before they start to see a few possibilities for enhanced revenues they cannot act on. The longer they wait, the more possibilities they see and the further behind in their monetization strategies they get. 2) Their customers start to make demands for different payment structures, or want to negotiate pricing or want the services bundled and priced in ways that show value to them and it all becomes a manual process to manage. One of the advantages open to a SaaS vendor is the ease in which they can integrate with other solutions either to sell as a value added capability to their own solution or to use to help them sell and deliver their services. On the billing front there are several companies offering subscription billing and management solutions that provide far more capability than most SaaS companies could ever hope to develop in a reasonable time frame or at a reasonable cost (not to mention why would they). Companies such as Aria, Softrax, and yes my company <a> www.ipapplications.com</a> are all providing monetization solutions and expertise for SaaS vendors. Cheers, Kevin Lennox Joel you have made some excellent points in this post. As a company selling a SaaS billing and management platform I talk to allot of people from CEO’s to CMO’s, to Product Managers of SaaS companies about this topic.
What I see is that many SaaS companies only begin to see the opportunities and conversly the complexities in the SaaS billing model after they have acquired a number of customers and have started to stumble. What I see most often is:

1) They developed a homegrown capability to sell monthly subscriptions. Not too much time goes by before they start to see a few possibilities for enhanced revenues they cannot act on. The longer they wait, the more possibilities they see and the further behind in their monetization strategies they get.

2) Their customers start to make demands for different payment structures, or want to negotiate pricing or want the services bundled and priced in ways that show value to them and it all becomes a manual process to manage.

One of the advantages open to a SaaS vendor is the ease in which they can integrate with other solutions either to sell as a value added capability to their own solution or to use to help them sell and deliver their services. On the billing front there are several companies offering subscription billing and management solutions that provide far more capability than most SaaS companies could ever hope to develop in a reasonable time frame or at a reasonable cost (not to mention why would they). Companies such as Aria, Softrax, and yes my company http://www.ipapplications.com are all providing monetization solutions and expertise for SaaS vendors.

Cheers, Kevin Lennox

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