Author: blogger

Saas Pricing Model

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In many industries the pricing models are as old as the industries itself, and the rules of the game were set a long time go and are well known by everyone. This is not the case of SaaS. Being a young software delivery model, the key factors of a good pricing strategy are not that clear.

It seems, just by taking a look at the pricing models of many SaaS offerings, that traditional licensing model of the on-premise software is not the best idea for OnDemand software.

Also, the traditional services (like consulting) model “I charge for the time you are using my resources (professionals) and their value (junior, senior, etc…)” doesn’t seem to be the best way to approach the SaaS pricing problem (probably fits better when talking about cloud computing). We are not talking about traditional services, we are talking about pricing a subscription business.

In SaaS, the change from offering “products” to “services”, from “acquire” to “subscribe” implies the need of defining the best way for charging for the solution offered.

So, any SaaS provider faces the problem of fixing the right price to its solution / services. There are many alternatives and factors that should be considered when dealing with this.

Most of the proposals out there use some (or all) of this ideas:

* Pay periodically: This means charging the customers on a regular basis (usually monthly).

* Pay for each user: Very widely used, from Salesforce to that new SaaS start-up that two college students just started.

* Pay for the resources: This usually means computing resources: CPU/hour, GB, Bandwith, etc… it is used very often in IaaS or PaaS.

* Pay for the features: So the customers pays just for the features in our solution they really need. Maybe new functionality or maybe simple using ‘more’ of the tool (for example more applications in a PaaS offering).

Each of this ‘ideas’ have its own pros and cons. For example, ‘paying for each user’ has the problem of generating fear in the customer about adopting the solutions widely, or ‘pay for the resources’ has the problem of the customers not knowing what they will pay the next month…

In one word, usually SaaS pricing models are more flexible than in the traditional license-based on-premise software, and mean less risk and a wiser spending. This can, though, lead to a problem of complexity that should be taken care of.

Let’s take a look about something one should always keep in mind, the goals that any pricing strategy for SaaS should pursue in order to sustain a profitable business model.

* Make it interesting for a new customer to start using the product. Having a free version, a trial version, or simply a ‘pay-as-you-go’ strategy starting low, usually solves this.

* Make the costs for the customer predictable. Everyone likes to know what to expect when talking about paying… some SaaS offering have this problem (specially those that have cost based pricing models). One should let the customer know, and decide what they want to spend. Though we should keep in mind the next goal.

* Try to increase the customer share once the customer is using the tool. This can be achieved in many different ways, most of them related to the ‘pay-as-you-go’ model (features, users, resources, etc…). The customer should feel that spending more really means extracting more value from the tool.

* Don’t make the pricing model too complex. This is a problem very often found in SaaS offerings, and that can make the adoption of the tool by the market slower and harder. Let’s keep in mind that many companies are not used to SaaS yet.

* Make sure that the customer does not abuse in the use of the solution. This can happen quite easily in solutions where lots of data are involved, like those that use video, business intelligence tools, etc… the provider should be protected against this.

So, how would this goals and the main ideas explained in the first post be applied when defining a SaaS pricing strategy?

Let’s take a look at a real world example: coghead

Coghead is a very good, and quite veteran PaaS offering that distinguishes itself by giving the chance of developing an application on their platform mostly by visual “drag and drop” operations. They are well funded and should be considered as a strong competitor to companies like Intuit with quickbase or Salesforce’s force platform.

So, let’s analyze their pricing model without talking about money, we are interested in the model:

* They charge basicaly on three different concepts: users, records and file storage.

* They offer a free account with: 1 user, 2000 rows and 100MB of space.

* From there you have two options to scale: the workgroup bundles (with discounts) or the ‘pay-as-you-go’ more flexible depending on your needs.

* There are four different workgroup bundles: plus, pro, premium, business, each one with a fixed price for a certain number of users/records/space. Of course a bundle is cheaper than having the same amount of usage via ‘pay-as-you-go’.

* The ‘pay-as-you-go’ model basically charges you for each user/10000 rows/1 GB you use.

You can take a deeper look at Coghead’s pricing model here.

Let’s talk now about how does this pricing model relates to the “model ideas” and goals we talked about:

* They, obviously have a periodic (monthly) payment. Something that makes perfect sense for a PaaS offering.
* They charge both for the users and for the resources used. This is very often used in PaaS offering, that can be very easily overused. Charging for number of rows or space is a way for Coghead to make sure nobody abuses the platform.
* They have some feature pricing also: Limited users and acces point for applications that wish to be public.
* They have both ‘pay-as-you-go’ and a ‘package’ alternatives.

So, they seem to use all of the ideas we talk about, this, of course brings a problem of complexity but gives the users a lot of flexibility.

And now the final question, does this pricing models achieve the goals we wrote about in this post?

* It is certainly atractive for a new customer/developer to start knowing/using the platform via the free basic account.
* About making the costs for the customer predictable: They offer this through their bundled-workgroup choices. You know what you pay for. This is not true in the ‘pay-as-you-go’ option, which is also more expensive, so their pricing model tends to bring customers to the ‘workgroup’choices.
* Increase the customer share: This true for the ‘pay-as-you-go’ , but not so true for the ‘workgroup’ option, where de customer could hesitate before buying the next and more expensive bundle.
* Don’t make the pricing too complex: We really think Coghead fails at this one, their pricing model is quite complex for the average user. We didn’t even talked here about their partner offerings or the concepts behing the different kind of users. We asume that, for a PaaS offering whose customers are both business and technically skilled, complexity is not such a big problem.
* Avoid customer abuse: This is quite covered there is no easy way that a customer could make a very extensive use of the platform without paying for it. Maybe they could have a problem with bandwidth, something they don’t charge for (they actually have limits at least for public/web users of an app).

We consider that the usual behaviour of a customer would be to:

1. Try the free account.
2. Go for the first bundle.
3. Then the second, third, and finally the ‘business’ option.
4. If the customer has further needs they wouldn’t have any option but going for the quite unpredictable ‘pay-as-you-go’ model.

So, in the end, increasing the complexity of their pricing model by using most of the usuall ideas in SaaS pricing, (they made some changes recently) Coghead has been able to cover most of the goals. We think they have an strong pricing model (complexity is not such a big trouble for this kind of PaaS tool) that supporting their excelent flex-based tool, should help them in becoming a big player in the PaaS area.

Windows Mobile Apps Development Strategy

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Windows Mobile Apps development involves best strategies and therefore the developers need to perform certain essential task while development.

In modern scenario, mobile and web application development has gained immense importance. Previously the websites were a character of the business in the basic world of the internet and were created to be accordant with the desktop computers. But now-a-days, applications have also been created for the mobile phones and Windows mobile apps are the biggest example of this.

To accomplish the accepted absolute website accordant with the mobile phones you require software packages. It is possible that these software bales are not attainable in the market. In this array of bearings you charge to get a custom Window mobile application development solution provider that can accommodate your accepted website with the mobile buzz platforms.

Your backend systems such as Microsoft CRM, SAP, and Salesforce.com Oracle may be able with wireless applications. This does not beggarly that the website is compatible with all the mobiles. Making a website accordant with the mobile phones may be a bit difficult but not impossible. Some of the considerations for customized mobile applications are as follows.

Technology Trends: The abstruse change in this field is dramatic. It hardly takes any time for the latest abstruse advance to become stale. This is because a new technology bigger than the early one enters the market in the atomic attainable time. Everyone wants to use the technology that has been accurate to be both able and efficient.

Perception: There are various individuals who apperceive the “mobile” to be the aforementioned as “wireless”. They anticipate that issues like reliability, achievement and description are arresting in Windows mobile apps. They anticipate of creating the custom application development after all the problems are set on and the wireless networks are actual quick at downloading the websites.

Tools: All the accoutrement for an able Window mobile application development is attainable through Microsoft.NET Compact Framework. With the advice of the mobile units in the.NET CF the developers can create an advanced range of applications. Simple applications that are apprenticed by the abstracts can be developed bound and calmly with the assistance of products of companies such as Formotous and Spyware. Issues pertaining to programmatic functionality such as adequacy and ability are arresting if these affectionate of simple applications are used.

In-house development: Big business giants own centralized Windows mobile apps development department. For the success of the project, one needs to accompany changes in the account standards, believability standards, interface architectonics on the user’s end, and the assumptions pertaining to the architectonics of the application.

Business Strategy: This 20th century saw the mobile phones with cyberbanking applications. Now the internet and mobile phones have modernized the techniques of doing business. The business need to acclimate to this affecting change and flexible mobile applications so that the website is attainable by the people using smartphones with advanced applications.

Drupal Vs Liferay Fight It Out With Narrow Differences

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Drupal is one of the leading open source CMS systems written in PHP. It consists of thousands of modules and it allows the developers to modify or develop the module easily. It uses MYSQL as its native database. Liferay is also an open source CMS system but it is written in Java, it is great for building enterprise portal. This is compatible with social networking websites, corporate intranet and internet portals.

Simple and wonderful features of Drupal

Drupal enables the user to generate the content in a friendly manner. Mainly it has a complete and well developed featured CMS. Drupal supports multi language and multiple sites. It has numerous API. With the help of well developed API, you can easily create the modules which are needed for the system. The flexibility of the web design allows you to fulfill your business needs without any restrictions. Some of the other CMS tools have lots of restrictions for custom coding the application; Drupal has many pre-built quality modules. Search engine optimization is the important factor for getting traffic to the website. As this application is SEO friendly, it is easy to optimize according to the online business marketing strategy and likewise it has a greater user base, so it increases the products reach on the market. All the while it will increase the productivity.

Enterprising features of Liferay

The Liferay portal is available as a community edition and as well as enterprise edition. Most of the enterprises are willing to go for Liferay enterprise portal development. It allows to setup common characteristics to websites. The modification or editing is quiet difficult for beginner level programmers. It allows the users to access all the features such as add, edit, delete, and some more functions using admin panel. It has an open space for users, developers and administrators utilize the services which exist in the backend. For any user, the administrator can assign different roles with different levels of access for each module; this will enforce that only the users can access their modules. Thus it provides protection to the data. Due to this facility the data is secure and safe.

Advantages of Drupal

The interface is very easy. So it makes the users to start with it right from the word go. As it is a web content management system, it allows the user to develop the website very fast. Through its step by step procedure it is easy to add a module to the site. The demand for this WMS is very low and the programming implemented in this is PHP. Getting a good PHP developer is easy. Development period is very low.

Advantages of Liferay

It is a portal server. The module which is created for Liferay can easily be migrated to some other Java specified platform. It bears a strong permission system and its security architecture is superior. It has features for adjusting the page as private or public and it provides control over the pages for every user. It is developed by JAVA. Hence it is best suited for Enterprise application.

The main drawback of Liferay when compared to Drupal is, it requires more resources and it takes longer period of time to develop and implement the application in any enterprise.

Developing A Positioning Marketing Strategy Process

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Developing a Position Marketing Strategy is determining exactly what Positioning is and why it is important. According to Wikipedia, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target markets for its product, brand, or organization. It is the relative competitive comparison that a company occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market.

Position is the customers overall perception of your business including its products and services. Position is what is in the mindset of your customer. If your positioning takes full advantage of your customers perceptions and you communicate this positioning effectively, it will set you apart from your competition and establish a solid first link in the purchase decision chain, also known as the awareness link. The awareness link shapes your relationship, and often the real purchase is made by the unconscious mind on the basis of awareness long before the actual sales transition is completed. Having good positioning makes for favorable awareness and sets you up for success right from the start.

Position can be very tricky in that its under your control yet it is not. To the extent that your customer may already have perceptions about your business, industry, products and services, those perceptions already are your positioning. You need to identify these perceptions because you can change your positioning. As a result changing customer perceptions with effective communications through your companys sensory package can influence the behavior that is consistent with the image you are trying to project to your customers.

Your positioning has to be genuine. It MUST be consistent with the reality of your business and it has to be consistent with the perceptions of your target markets or it will not be credible or believed. Positioning, based on false claims or a misunderstanding of your target markets, is a liability to your company. It can turn away prospective customers and weaken relationships with existing customers.

Differentiation is more than just simply being different from your competitor. You need to be preferentially differentiated and this is why it is important to be positioning your company in your target markets. I read many articles and blogs that constantly say being able to identify how your product or service is different is one of the factors that will make or break your business. You may ask why? It is because being different AND being able to successfully communicate that difference will secure a welcome niche in the marketplace for your business. To create a differentiation that will not be imitated, you have to think beyond your core benefits of your business. The companies that have succeeded in maintaining their differentiation over the years and werent intimated are those that innovated in qualities beyond the core benefits of their market. Be the innovator of qualities and think ahead and look outside the forest.

There is a systematic process for developing an effective positioning for your overall business. It is a step-by-step process, but it is not automatic and does not happen overnight. It requires careful thinking and insight from you from the inside of your business to position for the outside perception of your business. It requires that you know your target markets (see last weeks blog Your Target Market and the Need to Focus. It takes time, but with proper understanding of your target markets, you will have a foundation in place for building a positioning strategy that will draw your target customers to you. EXHIB-IT! has been working on our position strategy for the last few years after our competitor moved within .2 miles from our showroom where we had been located for a number of years. We took for granted that our competitor was across town and knew we differentiated our businesses and it did not hurt that we were on opposite sides of town. However, when our competitor moved this close to our location where we had been for 7 years at the time, misperception in the community occurred. Our company names are similar (as are about 500 exhibit names in the USA). We focused on position strategy, which has allowed us to grow 122% over a 2.5 year period. It was not an easy process in the beginning, but once we identified our target markets, along with our secondary flanker markets, it made it easy for us to have a position strategy.

To be effective and create a position strategy, the first step is to determine the general classification of your products and services. They can be classified into one of three ways (1) a true product, (2) a commodity or (3) a brand. Think about what you sell and which category it falls into and how that affects that way you are positioned in the minds of your prospect or customer.
Many companies confuse a solid marketing strategy with pure tactics, also known as a brand juice. Visual identity with clever tag lines and a creative “essence” advertising package through your sensory package are all key ingredients in brand juice creation, but they are only supporting elements. To be effective, such supporting elements must be part of a more comprehensive plan.
After determining your relative standing in the market and how the market sees you compared to your competitors, this will affect how you develop your marketing communications as you decide to either reinforce your current relative standing or try to change it, work on these five steps below.

1.Determine what the dominant gratification mode and purchase preference of your target market segments are. To do this, you look at the psychographic characteristics of your customer – which are the perception and behavior modes. You look at the interpersonal, objective and introverted modes and what the purchase preferences were regarding experimental, performance and value of your products and services and apply these to the way you create your positioning statement.

2.Develop other key psychographic characteristics of your target market. Study your existing customers (as this is your most cost effective approach to studying the characteristics) and look for clues to customer perceptions that will help shape your positioning strategy.

3.Redefine your product or services. Begin setting yourself apart and create a unique place in your customers minds to define your product or service in terms of its features and emotional factors that are important to your prospective customers. Then write your positioning strategy which should be a brief paragraph for each target market segment that provides an overview of your positioning by gathering all of the key positioning elements and pulling them all together.

4.Develop your unique selling proposition also known as an USP. This is your slogan, your tagline, and is an expression that will become closely linked with your business. It should be something catchy and easy to remember and should also contain a basic message about your company that elicits in your prospective customers the emotional gratification that they can expect from your business through its products and services.

5.Develop your positioning statement to be more explicit and an expanded version of your USP that explains and gives the rational justification for it by identifying what your business does, the result customers can expect from doing business with you, and how you are going to achieve that result.

Again, be sure to review this information and update it periodically to keep the information current. Your Position Strategy should be evaluated constantly by using metrics and updated periodically to keep you current with your prospects and customers needs.

Nike’s Strategy To Enter China

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As the world’s oldest sports, Nike’s strategy into China this summer has only just started. Including small cloth, Hamilton, Nike signed a number of players, including China’s goal is not to promote the shoes, but to China to attend a series of training camps. But these players for the majority of fans have also demonstrated the latest model of Nike shoes, such as “uptempo Series”, “hyperize Series”, “Jordan series,” and Nike’s retro casual style. But as a leader, how will Big Brother’s Nike promote sneakers in China missed a good chance? They sent a Bryant as a “vanguard Great General.”

Kobe in China in addition to participating in this series of “disciples activities”, there is a major form is promote their own “Nike Air ZooM Kobe IV. This collection of Nike’s most advanced and leading technology to help Kobe Bryant shoes has a magic in the finals to play. its technical content and design that goes without saying that the fans are very clear. for the shoes along with Kobe Bryant had a very successful season, “Aiwujiwu” mentality so many Kobe Bryant The “fans” rushed into this new “KOBE boots.”

James, Paul, Anthony and other players are starting to visit the Nike contract in China. LeBron – James from a trip to China to participate in its launch of the new Nike basketball shoes NikeAirMaxLeBronVII limited series of the fourth double – Beijing Limited Edition release of the ceremony.

Carmelo Anthony had just come to China to personally introduce the market JordaMeloM6 signature shoe. Meanwhile, Anthony is also friendly with the fans to interact with Professor Jorda series of clothing, together with the fans realize Jorda series consistently demonstrated the movement of luxury fashion brand’s classic show JORDAN. New JordaMeloM6 shoes outsole is a star pattern on behalf of Puerto Rico (Anthony’s ancestral home) the flags and painted the port of Baltimore, inter-city lines, as an expression of respect for Anthony home; printed on the outer end of AU79/08, AU79 represents one of the atomic number of gold, 08 refers to the Melo won the Olympic gold medal in 2008, while the tongue on the star represents a hole in the Baltimore “Cameron? Anthony Youth Development Center”, which represents After Anthony gold medal in access to social commitment. After the introduction of the new shoes, Anthony is professor of lucky fans in person at the scene with clothing, encouraging evidence of Jorda series for a variety of venues both inside and outside of the match, as fans patiently explained Jorda series of fashion elements, leading from basketball fans to experience Jorda series of classic fashion arena.

Queen Paul flagship brand awareness in China is to design three prototype Zhao famous “LittleGragon” version of AirJordanCP3.II boots. Full of male hormones in the armor of ancient battlefield and the unique shape of the AJ logo reveals the ingenuity of the designer’s unique. And Paul quite a pack with Chinese characteristics are also quite pleasing. Currently in the market, this version of the CP3.II very sought-after, almost out of stock. This presumably more determined to AJ signature shoe will be combined with Chinese elements like the design.