The market for software has become truly global, and building a good run-rate of revenues from new markets can do wonders for your exit value. However, it has become increasingly difficult for software vendors to find and recruit international channel partners that will dedicate the time, money and people necessary to drive a significant [...]
The York Group has completed more than 50 Business Design Sessions (BDS) with a wide range of Microsoft partners worldwide, including Global ISVs, emerging ISVs and CSPs. It has become clear, partners transitioning from on-premise, perpetual licenses to Cloud-based subscription service go through well-defined stages in their journey, and each phase has an impact on [...]
Despite what many analysts have predicted, sales channels are an important part of the software as a service (SaaS) business model. This is especially true in the enterprise market where the complexity and length of the sales cycle, combined with services that are usually required during the implementation, make web-based sales impractical. There are more [...]
I don’t like the word “disruptive” when talking about new technologies and their impact on software vendors. We have been working with ISVs and their partners since 1992, starting with mainframe and mid-range solutions, then client-server, thin clients, the ASP blip in the late 90s, and now SaaS. We see these changes as a continuum, [...]
Many developers don’t realize that their product architecture actually impacts the type of agreement they enter into with their end-user clients. With on-premise software, the end-user license agreement (EULA) is necessary because the right to use the product is being transferred to the end-user. Neither the product nor the IP are being transferred – simply [...]
Even though data breaches, system hacks and Cloud security issues are almost becoming the “new normal,” if your Cloud-based technology/solution falls victim to any of the above – life for your company will quickly become anything but normal. Layer on top of that the many regulations now being imposed by governments throughout the world and, [...]
The Holy Grail of customer support is to have it fully automated, with little or no human interaction, but that’s not usually practical or desirable for many solutions. Good customer support usually goes hand-in-hand with customer satisfaction – and in the SaaS world where user renewals are critical – figuring out the “right” level of [...]
One of the biggest concerns for many companies moving to the Cloud is the fear that their top-line revenues will decline if they introduce a SaaS version of their product. I have seen this many times when I have been working with large, publicly-held companies. Senior management is concerned with hitting their quarterly numbers so [...]
While the traditional role of marketing still has its place, companies with Cloud-based solutions are quickly building their marketing to address two new responsibilities: Keeping customer acquisition costs as low as possible Taking over the sales process until the decision maker is “ready-to-buy”. Commonly referred to as “buyer-centric marketing”, these new responsibilities match up perfectly [...]
Cloud adoption, and more importantly, spending on Cloud solutions, varies greatly across company size, verticals and geographies. So you want to be sure you spend your sales and marketing resources on the best opportunities. The media would have us believe that virtually every software sale now-a-days is a Software as a Service (SaaS)-based solution. From [...]
