Tag Archives: software monetization

May 10
2012 

There’s No Debate: ISVs Need to Consider Pricing, Virtualization Options

by Prakash Panjwani

If you live in US or follow the news about US, you know that we are in middle of a political election season. You can’t go a week without watching the back and forth between Presidential candidates over topics that range from relevant to mundane, game-changing to ridiculous. One of the more serious topics (and probably at the top of the voters’ mind) is job creation, or the lack thereof. The US economy is growing but job growth is not keeping pace. At the heart of the issue is productivity: when the chips were down during the peak of recession, most companies learned to be very efficient. That is, they learned how to get more out of the resources they have. One of those efficiencies is increasing use of IT to improve productivity of employees. You could say job growth has given way to use of more software systems and tools.

May 9
2012 

SafeNet Delivers Industry’s First Licensing and Monetization Solution for Hybrid On-Premise and Cloud-based Software Portfolios

by Jennifer Lewis

Earlier today, SafeNet issued the following press release:

Sentinel® Products and Services Provide Developers with an Easy, Flexible Migration Path for Transitioning from On-Premise-Only to Hybrid or SaaS-Only Delivery Models

News Summary:

  • SafeNet’s® technology delivers the industry’s only licensing and software monetization solutions with a single, common operational platform for on-premise ISVs (independent software vendors), software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors, and developers with hybrid portfolios.
  • SafeNet’s Sentinel® technology provides a dynamic “live” licensing back-end entitlement management system that accurately maintains and reports licensing states, empowering ISVs to maintain better control over usage and deliver richer customer experiences.
Apr 24
2012 

How Sage Software Cured Their Acquisition Headache

by Alex Lating

Acquisitions are good, right? Sure they help your company grow, but what other baggage do they bring? Obviously, you will gladly expand your customer base and available resources. But what are you going to do about an inherited homegrown licensing system that is completely incompatible with yours? Read how one company expanded, without the additional headache of managing disparate licensing systems.

Sage is an international business software, services and support company working primarily with small and medium sized businesses. Throughout the years, acquiring other companies has allowed Sage to continue to expand globally. However, these acquisitions also led to multiple homegrown licensing systems that did not work cohesively.

Apr 13
2012 

Exploring the Four Aspects of a Comprehensive Software Monetization Strategy

by Michelle Nerlinger

Software monetization can be viewed as the adoption of any variety of measures an organization takes in order to increase the profitability of their intellectual property, in this case, software. These tactics can range from sophisticated anti-piracy and IP protection techniques to creative pricing and packaging strategies. It is important to note that no individual software monetization technique is greater than the combination of multiple techniques. No matter what type of software application has been developed or how that application is being delivered to the end-user, a comprehensive software monetization strategy hinges on four key factors – how effectively the software publisher can package, control, manage, and monitor, their offering(s).

Mar 23
2012 

The Top Five Barriers to Software Monetization Success

by Jennifer Lewis

We recently ran an article on our software monetization channel that discussed the common barriers that prevent ISVs from building an effective monetization strategy.    Are you looking to improve or even define your software monetization plan? Here are five barriers that you should prepare for:

  1. Control
    Control is twofold. Preventing the unauthorized use and distribution of your application protects revenue by ensuring all use of your application is paid for. Equally important is your ability to protect the source code of your application from being exposed to accidental or malicious parties alike in order to prevent code manipulation and reverse engineering. Keeping the product usable and efficient, while providing maximum protection of your valuable IP, can become a big problem for ISV’s if not considered early in the development and software licensing process.
Mar 1
2012 

5 Ways that an Entitlement Management System Can Help Your Company Work Smarter, Not Harder

by Alex Lating

As your company continues to grow, you may find that you have acquired a varied collection of licensing systems.  Each product line has its own registration process, and its own set of problems. This may be manageable for awhile, but eventually multiple product lines affect almost every department within your company, and the repercussions are reaching your customers. A disparate licensing system can hinder internal communication and wipe out resources.  Your staff is no longer focusing on your core competencies, but rather spending all of their time on your licensing system.

With an entitlement management system, streamline your back office and create one cohesive licensing system to maintain. Here are the 5 ways that an entitlement management system can help you empower your employees to work smarter, not harder.

Feb 21
2012 

Frost and Sullivan Presents the 2011 Global Product Line Strategy Award in Software License Management to SafeNet

by Alex Lating

Each year, Frost & Sullivan conducts intensive best practices research to determine how best-in-class companies worldwide manage growth, innovation and leadership.  By analyzing each company’s performance and comparing it to its top competitors, they assign performance ratings.  Frost & Sullivan also looks at the key industry challenges that can be addressed by product line strategy.  An effective product line strategy for the software license management industry has to not only accommodate new business models, but also readily support new deployment options, new platforms, and new product architecture.

SafeNet trumped its competitors in five key areas: breadth of product line, size of addressable customer base, impact on customer value, impact on market share, and breadth of applications and markets served.  SafeNet’s Sentinel suite of products, including Sentinel HASP, Sentinel RMS, Sentinel EMS and Sentinel Cloud, provides its customers with a one-stop licensing experience that fully addresses a variety of use cases, platforms, business models and deployment scenarios.

Sep 12
2011 

How Wobbly is your Business?

by Prakash Panjwani

Here is a term that has made it into our vocabulary a bit too much lately – “wobbly”. Suddenly everything is wobbly – our economy, stock market, jobs market.  The obvious connotation is “uncertainty” but wobbly has also become a cop-out term for not knowing where something is headed. It is a sign of times we are in – or so it feels. Uncertainty in economy leads to uncertainty everywhere else.

My advice – something I try to follow rigorously at work and and personally  – when you are surrounded by uncertainty, do the opposite – be decisive. This is especially true for high tech companies.