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As a software company implements a framework for moving to subscription, thoughtful consideration of needs (the supplier’s and its customers’) are important parts of the plan. This article by Flexera’s Cris Wendt highlights the keys to an effective implementation.

Subscription is a highly flexible software monetization model. This article by Flexera's Scott Niemann outlines its benefits and consider best practices for implementation in order to maximize the long-term revenue growth opportunities of this rapidly growing model.

This article is the first in a six-part series about monetizing IoT by Flexera's Cris Wendt. In this first article, Wendt looks at monetization goals to help businesses produce healthy, growing revenue streams that set the foundation for monetization.

Sean Sullivan, a product strategy consultant for Product Stride, notes that the recent Flexera Monetization Monitor found that 63% of software organizations continue to have moderate to extensive on-premises deployments. Sullivan concludes "if you do a review of current product management blogs, books, podcasts, and tweets you will find a number of modern product development best practices that simply do not work with on-premises software. Some can with extra work, but most do not. This is a problem."

Monetization, pricing, and licensing are critical strategic topics that define the success or failure of a product line. In order to deliver a short time to value for customers and to build reliable recurring revenue streams, product managers must have appropriate processes and systems in place to manage and monetize their products effectively.

To meet customer demands, one-third of companies using SaaS as their primary deployment model must still offer and manage perpetual use licenses alongside regular subscription-based offerings.

When software producers are asked how they will change their monetization models over the next 18 months, responses show that both usage and subscription models will see the strongest increases: 48 of respondents see subscription/term-based monetization growing, compared to 43 percent who expect to see growth in usage-based models, 32 percent who predict growth for outcome/value-based models, and 29 percent who see growth for perpetual license models.

Enterprise software vendors are subscription happy, but they're delving into usage plans for customers too. Toss in some perpetual licenses and things get complex quickly.

Subscription is already the most widely-used monetization model amongst software producers, but perpetual licenses are still very common.

Once upon a time you bought a license for a piece of software and you could, essentially, run it forever. While much of the market has now shifted to subscription models, 65 percent of producers are still offering perpetual licenses, while 74 percent utilize subscription models for some or all of their products.

While perpetual licenses are still out there, subscription pricing models, and utility pay-per-use models have become increasingly common, especially for SaaS applications.

The growing complexity around licensing models don’t just impact software vendors, it also impacts MSPs.

80% of all software vendors are estimated to be offering subscriptions by 2020. While companies scramble to make this transition, those that establish and follow a comprehensive plan are the ones most likely succeed on the journey.

The Flexera Software Composition Analysis team recently analyzed data from 134 open source audit projects and found the number of vulnerabilities and license compliance issues that exist in their applications. The results are available in the Flexera 2019 State of Open Source Licence Compliance report.

This article is the third in a six-part series about monetizing IoT by Flexera's Cris Wendt. In this article, Wendt outlines three areas to consider about your IoT monetization strategy.

Flexera has launched FlexNet Edge, a new component of its Software and IoT Monetisation Platform. The smart edge server enables updates and gathers device data from partially connected or disconnected environments.

Flexera releases FlexNet Code Insight 2018 R2

Flexera has released FlexNet Code 2018, according to their press release, this makes it easier for software suppliers to add a new layer of trust and transparency into their software supply chain.

Only a decade or so ago, organisations knew exactly what was being written and used in their software applications because employees were responsible for the building and, occasionally, the management of a few third-party components.

The current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies, or Industry 4.0 as it’s called, is revolutionizing the way products are planned, produced, sold and used. As manufacturers transition from the hardware-centric business models of the past to the current digital model characterized by software, data and services, it’s clear that the IoT is shifting company operations and creating new revenue opportunities. Businesses need to have a plan ready to stay ahead of the curve – and the following tactics will boost results if integrated into their respective IoT monetization strategies.