Improved Efficiency of Software Usage Data Collection & Analysis Provides Opportunities for Business Improvement

Only 38% of respondents report the ability to gather product usage data “very well.” Among this group with the greatest ability to gather product usage data, more than half use these insights for product roadmap decisions. The top application of product usage data is to identify upsell opportunities, followed closely by identifying customer churn/retention risk.

“Effective usage data collection practices are clearly providing an advantage to those software producers,” said Nicole Segerer, General Manager at Revenera. “Siloed approaches, cumbersome manual processes, or collecting data but letting it go to waste are examples of common impediments that prevent technology companies from analyzing their usage data in a way that would support improved software monetization and strengthen their revenue initiatives.”

Highlights from the  Revenera Monetization Monitor: Software Usage Analytics 2025 Outlook report include:

• Trends in product usage data collection and analysis illustrate room for improved practices. 
  • Today, 38 percent of respondents report the ability to gather product usage data “very well.” The remaining 62 percent have room to optimize their initiatives. 
  • Telemetry data is going to waste for the 29 percent of respondents who collect it, but don’t analyze it—a concerning jump from 11 percent two years ago.
  • Reliance on homegrown solutions for collecting and analyzing usage data is falling, reported by 31 percent of respondents, down from 37 percent a year ago.
  • Siloed approaches can complicate software usage analytics initiatives, yet nearly half (49 percent) report using disparate systems that make it difficult to achieve a single customer view.
  • Collecting customer intelligence often combines automation of quantitative initiatives, qualitative efforts, and user segmentation: 81 percent of all respondents (up from 69 percent a year ago) report taking a blended approach: collecting additional insights and/or asking follow-up questions based on user segmentation from product usage analytics. This goes up to 90 percent among product managers.
• Software usage analytics provide opportunities for business improvements.
  • The ability to track all customers and their entitlements/use rights, improved significantly over the past year, from 39 percent of respondents indicating that they are able to track this to 54 percent. For suppliers that collect usage data “very well,” this jumps to 70 percent.
  • The top application of product usage data is to identify upsell opportunities, with 68 percent using it for this purpose. 
  • Almost half (45 percent) of respondents are turning to product usage data for product roadmap decisions. Among those who collect product usage data “very well,” this number goes up to 56 percent. 
  • A significant portion of customers need more insights into their own usage data: 36 percent of respondents say that more than half of their customers already have access to usage data, while an additional 39 percent say that more than half of their customers want insights into their data and 36 percent say that more than half already have access to usage data but want additional insights/functionality. 
  • Among respondents who are planning to change monetization models in the coming two years, 37 percent will be doing so to offer usage-based models to align with customer value. Usage-based models are also anticipated to grow as a percentage of overall software license revenue for 59 percent of respondents. 

Methodology

The Revenera Monetization Monitor 2025 Outlook series of reports is based on 418 complete responses to a survey conducted by Revenera from May through July 2024. Job levels of these survey respondents were C-level/executive (23 percent), SVP/VP (17 percent), director (44 percent), manager/team leader (15 percent), and individual contributors/non-manager/consultant (1 percent). The first report in this series focuses on Software Monetization Models and Strategies. The second focuses on Software Piracy & Compliance. This final report focuses on Software Usage Analytics.