This article captured an April 2007 talk I did at SVPMA. The original slide deck is here.
I’m talking with more and more with companies considering a shift from traditional licensing models to hosted software-as-a-service (SaaS). It’s important to recognize the radical changes such a move may force within your entire company. This column serves up a metaphor for the mental and organizational adjustments needed to move from a “product” model to a service business. Continue reading
Much of my consulting lately involves on-demand services (aka software-as-a-service, or “SaaS”). I’m seeing ever-growing interest from business customers in subscription pricing and online services, especially since they pay much less “up front” versus software licensing. This necessarily slows down early revenue to the vendor and intensifies the need to upsell your installed base. Continue reading
Sometimes we take a fresh look at a product, with the thought of turning it into a service. This is especially attractive if sales of our product-as-a-product are less than planned. Here’s a short exploration of the opportunities and pitfalls in moving from a product model to a service model.
First, we’ll step through some successful service models including application hosting, transaction-based, and subscriptions. Then, sketch an example to highlight some of the advantages and challenges of services versus classic product sales. Continue reading