http://www.softwareceo.com?src=category_rss SoftwareCEO - Licensing Issues Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:32:23 GMT admin@softwareceo.com SoftwareCEO 60 http://www.softwareceo.com/brand/sceo/community.gif http://www.softwareceo.com?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/article/45634/3-Perspectives-10-Tips-for-Software-Licensing-Usage-Management-in-the-Cloud/?src=category_rss <img align="right" hspace="10" src="http://www.softwareceo.com/imagelib/contentitem/45634/39e706a46ad531be--3c257e48-136e4abf85c-442-1595769118.jpg">Moving your software to the cloud opens up a world of possibilities, but also exposes you to a world of risk. Piracy is just part of it; there's also usage fees, audits (for both the ISV and the user), version control, updates and upgrades, distribution, and more. To see how different software developers are handling the move to the cloud, we spoke to three different industry veterans with first-hand experience: Paul Bryden, manager of sales and marketing at GEO-SLOPE , a privately-held developer of applications for geotechnical modeling. GEO-SLOPE was founded in 1977, has 16 employees, and is based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Juan Cordovez, co-founder and VP of operations and development at Sentinel-IC Technologies , a Laguna Beach, Calif.-based developer of tools for the RF/analog semiconductor design community. Founded in 2008, Sentinel-IC Technologies has six employees. Randy Littleson, VP marketing at Flexera Software , a provider of usage management tools for software developers. Based in Schaumburg, Ill., Flexera has 400+ employees worldwide. Littleson's 20+ years of industry experience includes stints at Kinaxis , Interface Software , Spyglass , Palindrome , and InstallShield . Tip #1: Let your customers steer your security choice. "For us, it's all about the customer,"...<div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/article/45634/3-Perspectives-10-Tips-for-Software-Licensing-Usage-Management-in-the-Cloud/">[Read more]</div> Strategy and Leadership Licensing Issues Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:33:57 GMT Bruce Hadley, Founder http://www.softwareceo.com/article/45634/3-Perspectives-10-Tips-for-Software-Licensing-Usage-Management-in-the-Cloud/?textpage=2#discussion?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/article/45634/3-Perspectives-10-Tips-for-Software-Licensing-Usage-Management-in-the-Cloud/?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45588/How-to-cannibalize-your-own-products-without-getting-eaten-alive/?src=category_rss The scenario is fairly typical. You launch your SaaS application for $14.99 per month. A few months later, a competitor launches a competing service for $10 per month. How do you respond with a competitive offer without cannibalizing your existing customers? We asked a number of software executives for their thoughts on the topic and have summarized their responses below: Paddy Srinivasan, CEO, Opstera (www.opstera.com) In the above scenario, you are introducing a new tier in the Free-&gt;Premium continuum. The inherent risk is that existing customers might want to downgrade to the new level to save albeit with a constrained set of features. While you cannot stop this, one way to have your customers think about this decision is to make the distinction between the SKUs extremely clear in the new tier vs. the premium SKUs. For example, at the low-end customers might be able to only perform 50 transactions a month (or an equivalent measure that makes sense in your business). While this might be okay for someone who is getting on board just to try the service, existing customers must think twice about downgrading for the ever-present fear of "what if I grow?&rdquo; Usage-based price tiering lets your...<div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45588/How-to-cannibalize-your-own-products-without-getting-eaten-alive/">[Read more]</div> Licensing Issues Marketing and PR Operations and Legal Mon, 16 Apr 2012 02:58:34 GMT BenBradley http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45588/How-to-cannibalize-your-own-products-without-getting-eaten-alive/#discussion?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45588/How-to-cannibalize-your-own-products-without-getting-eaten-alive/?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45579/FTC-Report-Details-Best-Practices-Regarding-Website-Legal-Documents-For-Privacy/?src=category_rss Related link - Website Legal Documents View my video here . Chip<div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45579/FTC-Report-Details-Best-Practices-Regarding-Website-Legal-Documents-For-Privacy/">[Read more]</div> Sales and Distribution Licensing Issues Marketing and PR Operations and Legal Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:32:11 GMT Chip Cooper http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45579/FTC-Report-Details-Best-Practices-Regarding-Website-Legal-Documents-For-Privacy/#discussion?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45579/FTC-Report-Details-Best-Practices-Regarding-Website-Legal-Documents-For-Privacy/?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45574/Does-activity-based-billing-create-un-needed-complexity/?src=category_rss Complexity is bad. Unless it is good. For ISVs, the days when a license was purchased up-front and the software was delivered and installed on-premise are gone. The proliferation of SaaS business models and the competitive landscape is demanding pricing models that are more flexible (and more complex). It helps that new SaaS billing platforms are leading the charge and providing entirely new ways to price and deliver and collect for software licenses. While complexity can negatively impact the sales cycle, it can also simplify the sales cycle by offering pricing configurations that are customized for every consumer or enterprise. More choice is not always bad for customers. Here's a typical scenario. You launch a SaaS application for $14.99 per month. A few months later, a competitor launches a competing service for $10 per month. While it is tempting to reduce your price to attract more users, there is a danger of cannibalizing your existing customer base to accomodate the lower price. HOWEVER, reducing your price to to attract more users but limiting their activities or access to premium features is a viable option that creates complexity but can also create new revenue. Customers paying $14.99 for unlimited access will...<div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45574/Does-activity-based-billing-create-un-needed-complexity/">[Read more]</div> Sales and Distribution Licensing Issues Marketing and PR Operations and Legal Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:32:43 GMT BenBradley http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45574/Does-activity-based-billing-create-un-needed-complexity/#discussion?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45574/Does-activity-based-billing-create-un-needed-complexity/?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45548/Deceptive-Website-Legal-Forms-Result-in-359-million-FTC-Settlement/?src=category_rss Related link - Website Legal Forms View my video here . Read my article: Deceptive Website Legal Forms Result in $359 million FTC Settlement Regards, Chip<div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45548/Deceptive-Website-Legal-Forms-Result-in-359-million-FTC-Settlement/">[Read more]</div> Sales and Distribution Licensing Issues Marketing and PR Operations and Legal Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:19:19 GMT Chip Cooper http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45548/Deceptive-Website-Legal-Forms-Result-in-359-million-FTC-Settlement/#discussion?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/blog/entry/45548/Deceptive-Website-Legal-Forms-Result-in-359-million-FTC-Settlement/?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/forum/thread/45526/CEO-Survey-What-are-the-limits-on-your-software-license/?src=category_rss <div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/forum/thread/45526/CEO-Survey-What-are-the-limits-on-your-software-license/">[Read more]</div> Licensing Issues Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:36:52 GMT Peter Redmer http://www.softwareceo.com/forum/thread/45526/CEO-Survey-What-are-the-limits-on-your-software-license/#discussion?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/forum/thread/45526/CEO-Survey-What-are-the-limits-on-your-software-license/?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/forum/thread/44586/IP-licensing/?src=category_rss Licensing gurus: Appreciate if any one can give me some insights into the following situation: We are "cash-strapped" startup (which startup isn't?, initially). We recently got a patent issued from USPTO. We have been engaging a major online services company which provides services to a mutual customer (for us the customer is still a beta-customer) for over a year. Finally, they offered to license our technology but not our code or integration into our platform for some security reasons. It is very clear that they are interested in IP but not our s/w and probably for this reason they have been waiting. Our typical licensing to direct customer would an annual license $x/yr/user. Besides this, we have huge market on several verticals. I have some concerns and some ideas (crazy) on how going about.. Concerns: a) Our product is designed with some secret sauces so as to make our product/solution universal (else also works but we lose control and make a fuss of differerent implementations that end users get tired and eventually dont use our solution). What can be done here while negotiating? b) We dont know whats their time line to implement our technology. If we leave it open,...<div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/forum/thread/44586/IP-licensing/">[Read more]</div> Licensing Issues Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:32:10 GMT ci_98yr http://www.softwareceo.com/forum/thread/44586/IP-licensing/#discussion?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/forum/thread/44586/IP-licensing/?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/forum/thread/43749/CEO-Survey-What-percent-of-your-software-licenses-are-subscription-based/?src=category_rss <div><a href="http://www.softwareceo.com/forum/thread/43749/CEO-Survey-What-percent-of-your-software-licenses-are-subscription-based/">[Read more]</div> Licensing Issues Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:46:10 GMT Peter Redmer http://www.softwareceo.com/forum/thread/43749/CEO-Survey-What-percent-of-your-software-licenses-are-subscription-based/#discussion?src=category_rss http://www.softwareceo.com/forum/thread/43749/CEO-Survey-What-percent-of-your-software-licenses-are-subscription-based/?src=category_rss