By: Randy Littleson
Looking back at all the sessions delivered last week during SoftSummit by many leading software vendors and high-tech manufacturers and recalling how they use software licensing and entitlement management to transform the way they do business, it's hard to pick just the top stories, so I decided to highlight the keynote speakers:
Tom Reilly, CEO of ArcSight, shared how his organization (HP previously announced the purchase of ArcSight for $1.5B) overcame the following business challenges:
- Shifting from single product to platform with multiple offerings
- Adding new distribution channels (Distributors, VARS, Resellers, SIs)
- Expanding internationally
- Customers requesting flexibility & new licensing models
- Multiple deployment options (SW, Appliance, Cloud, MSSP)
- Increasing frequency of software update due to threat landscape
With software licensing and entitlement management solutions that have enabled his organization to:
- Deliver software faster, cheaper, and easier for customers around the clock
- Introduce new licensing models, distribution models and offerings easily
- Controlled international expansion
- Reduce risk of quarter close and revenue recognition
- Respond within months to competitive threat
- Leverage third parties
One of the key takeaways from Tom's presentation that I think we can all learn from is why a CEO should care about software licensing and entitlement management. For Tom and ArcSight, growing competition, global expansion and ability to enter new markets quickly meant that his company needed to become more agile. For ArcSight, a strategic solution for software licensing and entitlement management was the key enabling technology that allowed them to quickly and easily scale and be responsive to these changing needs.
Amy Konary, Director, Software Pricing and Licensing for IDC, delivered the final keynote address by sharing the preliminary results of the 2010 Software Licensing and Pricing Survey. During her presentation she playfully used song lyrics to connect the survey results to sentiments in the song. Some of the key findings included:
- Most ISVs (60%) believe that their licensing will need to change in some way in the next 24 months to adapt to cloud computing, with around 30% expecting significant change
- Around 20% of software publishers offer usage-based pricing today, and 20% more expect to offer it in two years
- 70% of enterprises indicated that tracking usage is either important or very important
- One-third of ISVs that have or plan on implementing usage-based pricing do not track usage at all today (not even manually)
- Most enterprises have difficulty tracking usage for the purposes of software license compliance
- 12% of publishers have no enforcement today, compared to 28% in last year's survey
- Most ISVs are increasing the flexibility of licensing by adding more choice, in order to generate more revenue (72%) and improve customer relations (69%)
As I mentioned earlier, with over 25 sessions to choose from, I focused just on the keynotes. The good news is that the presentations given during SoftSummit 2010 will be posted to the SoftSummit website in about a week, so be sure to check the site to access all the presentations.
In addition, the final Software Licensing and Pricing Key Trends report will be published soon. Register now to receive the complete survey results. In the meantime, Sandhill.com recently published the following:
Software Pricing & Licensing Trends - 2010
Findings from a new study of software pricing and licensing trends underscore the tremendous pressure on vendors to offer greater flexibility in pricing and usage.
By Mark Bishof, CEO of Flexera Software
Thanks to everyone that made SoftSummit a success, we look forward to seeing you next year. Stay tuned for dates, times and the venue!
