San Francisco, California
March 26, 2010
The first Freemium Summit is a one day event focused on exploring what it takes to succeed under the freemium business model. Across all segments of the media landscape, entrepreneurs and executives are pioneering models that combine a free offering with a premium, paid offering. This hybrid business model is one of the most exciting areas of business model innovation impacting the world of media and the Freemium Summit will explore the most important topics on the minds of leading practitioners.
Washington, DC
April 20-22, 2010
Monetizing Multi-Tenancy - Generating Revenue through Network Effect Data and the SaaS Ecosystem
Multi-tenancy is a key element of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS); but not for the reasons you think! Achieving economies of scale, streamlining software development, maintaining one line of source code, etc. are the widest-known benefits of multi-tenancy. The real magic happens when multi-tenancy is leveraged to unlock and enhance the Network Effect created by all customers using the same system. And when the Network Effect is itself leveraged by the Ecosystem, myriad opportunities present themselves to drive growth and revenue. These are what makes being a SaaS vendor so much better than being a Legacy Software vendor!
Past Events
softwareCEO Seminar: Think you're ready for SaaS? Think again!
November 12, 2009 (9:00-10:30am Pacific)
You hear about SaaS every day… “It's the next great thing,” “Everybody wants it,” “Everybody's doing it,” “It'll make you rich,” yada yada yada. But before you jump on the SaaS bandwagon, there are some things you really need to consider first.
In this presentation, we'll help you avoid some of the common landmines, and make sure you're really ready to move to SaaS.
SIIA OnDemand 2009
October 28 - 30, 2009
San Jose, California
Lincoln Murphy from Sixteen Ventures will be participating in a panel titled "Agile Eyes, Nimble Fingers: The Optimal On-Demand Sales Organization." Slides from the panel are here.
SaaS - Pricing Services - How?
Wednesday 9/8/2009 10:00 AM Central
Call-in Number: (347) 994-3182
Pricing services - how do you do it? Is there a rational process? Can you tie it to value? Cost? Developing a price is one of trickiest parts putting a new service online. Prospective customers have to believe the value can be realized and existing customers must find the value exceeds the subscription. A monthly subscription is easier for prospects to swallow but a yearly provides a bigger hit for cash flow and maybe higher retention. Which is better in the long run?
These are just some of the issues facing services vendors in the growing SaaS and cloud services market. In our September 8th podcast on Haut Tech Conversations, we’ll address those questions with our guest, Jim Geisman of Software Pricing Partners. Jim spoke at the first SaaS Summit. His firm has focused on software pricing since 1987 and has consulted internationally on issues of software pricing and deal structuring. He has written extensively on software pricing and is a frequent speaker.
More recently, his firm has helped companies price and package their on-demand/SaaS products or helped them transition to SaaS. Jim has been a co-founder, director, or advisor to early stage companies. He sits on the Board of the Professional Pricing Society and is a co-chair of the Mass Technology Leadership Council’s SaaS Cluster.
Joining Jim on our panel will be two of our Haut Tech Irregulars (well, they were both on the first show so that makes them at least irregulars!) – Steve Plunkett of Servitizer and Lincoln Murphy of Sixteen Ventures. Steve has started a blog series about services pricing and has some products coming out in that space so I know he will have some interesting thoughts to bring to the conversation. Lincoln always has something up his sleeve so I’m sure he will add a lot to the mix as well. And we will have Justin Pirie, an experienced SaaS Product Manager and startup entrepreneur to bring his field experience and real world questions to the discussion. It is going to be a very interesting conversation – so please – JOIN US.
Our panel of Industry Insiders:
- Steve Plunkett, CTO of Servitizer - Steve is a technologist and innovator with eighteen years experience. He has worked with and held leadership positions in large enterprises, service providers, network operators, product manufacturers and government agencies. Specializing in solution and service innovation he has architected systems, networks and products and worked with customers, companies and partners around the world. Steve has lead initiatives within large organizations to transition from a product to a solutions and services model. He has a strong track record of identifying emerging and disruptive technology trends and harnessing them through solution and service innovation. Steve blogs for Servitizer on – what else – the Servitizer Blog.
- Lincoln Murphy is the Founder of Sixteen Ventures and blogs on his business site. You can also find him on Twitter here and here. Lincoln Murphy brings over 15 years experience in on-demand software product development and Business Architecture, focusing exclusively on SaaS since 2004. Working with clients of all sizes, and both SaaS pure-plays and ISVs transitioning to SaaS, Lincoln helps companies recognize and execute on opportunities to generate or enhance revenue through the SaaS Business Architecture.
- Justin Pirie is a SaaS and Cloud product manager and marketer who has been working in subscription software for over four years. He specializes in working closely with companies to create successful SaaS products using the latest techniques and industry best practice. He is based in the UK but has recently returned from consulting in the US for a VC-funded SaaS startup. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Haut Tech Conversationsplays live on Blog Talk Radio – September 8th, 2009 at 10am Central. If join us for the live show you can asks questions and join in the conversation. If you miss the live show, an MP3 will be available following the show to download and play at your leisure. We will also write up the major points of the conversation here on the blog and follow the conversation as it moves out across social media.
SaaS & On-Demand Business - Service Beyond the Hype Cycle
Wednesday 8/19/2009 10:00 AM Central
Call-in Number: (347) 994-3182
This month we kick off our series of best practice shows with a look at the core feature of SaaS, Cloud and on-demand applications - Service. As we explored in our last article, we're going to discuss how current vendors are dealing with their service offerings, what is often lacking, and what is on the part of the vendors and the industry as a whole.
Our guest will be Steve Plunkett, CTO of Servitizer. Steve is a technologist and innovator with eighteen years experience. He has worked with and held leadership positions in large enterprises, service providers, network operators, product manufacturers and government agencies. Specializing in solution and service innovation he has architected systems, networks and products and worked with customers, companies and partners around the world. Steve has lead initiatives within large organisations to transition from a product to a solutions and services model. He has a strong track record of identifying emerging and disruptive technology trends and harnessing them through solution and service innovation. Steve blogs for Servitizer on - what else - the Servitizer Blog. I've already had a talk with Steve prior to the show so I know this is going to be a great conversation.
Joining us will be our panel of industry insiders:
- Luis Aburto , CEO of Scio Consulting- A veteran of international technology and engineering consulting for corporate and government clients in the U.S. and Latin America, Mr Aburto brings to Scio a passionate commitment to smart business planning and meticulous development processes and project management. A native of Morelia, Mexico who has traveled and lived across the globe, Mr Aburto holds a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a master’s in computer-aided engineering from Strathclyde University in Scotland.
- Mikael Blaisdell of Blaisdell & Associates - Mikael runs his own consultancy, Mickael Blaisdell & Associates, and writes for his Hotline Magazine. For thirty years, he has been assisting a wide spectrum of clients to improve their sustainable profitability and customer retention rates by resolving customer contact center and relationship management issues.
- Lincoln Murphy is the Founder of Sixteen Ventures and blogs on his business site. You can also find him on Twitter here and here. Lincoln Murphy brings over 15 years experience in on-demand software product development and Business Architecture, focusing exclusively on SaaS since 2004. Working with clients of all sizes, and both SaaS pure-plays and ISVs transitioning to SaaS, Lincoln helps companies recognize and execute on opportunities to generate or enhance revenue through the SaaS Business Architecture.
I know each one of our panelists and I'm sure they will bring more points of view and questions to our conversation than I can manage alone. Our show will stream live on Wednesday, August 18 at 8am Pacific time from our BlogTalkRadio home page and be available as a podcast shortly after. The bonus for joining us live is you get to pose questions to our guest and panelists and hear their take directly.
I hope you will join us. And by the way, I am always looking for guest and panelist suggestions so if you have one - don't hesitate to mention it in comments here.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CDT
Multi-Tenancy Alternatives: Selecting the Best Option for Your Software Business
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is becoming mainstream but getting it right can be the key to survival. From the single instance ASP-model to virtualization to pure multi-tenant SaaS, this webinar will cover the business implications and technical alternatives to multi-tenancy for your web based software products.
Who should attend: Software executives and product managers working on SaaS offerings
Overview:
The business value of Multi-Tenancy in SaaS is no longer up for debate, but the implementation methods still are. Join Scio Consulting and Sixteen Ventures as we explore the topic of Multi-Tenancy in more detail at the implementation level and learn the business implications of each implementation method.
In this informative webinar, we will cover the following Multi-Tenant implementations:
- "ASP" model - Single Instance, Single Tenant
- Virtualization Solutions
- Single Instance, Unique DB per Tenant
- Single Instance, Multi-tenant DB, Unique Schema per Tenant
- Single Instance, Multi-tenant DB (One Schema for All Tenants)
You will learn the advantages, disadvantages, and business implications of each method as well as get recommendations by the experts at Scio Consulting and Sixteen Ventures on when one is preferred over the others.
Softletter’s SaaS University, Chicago, IL
Wednesday July 1, 2009 10:00 – 10:45 AM Central
SaaS Multi-Tenancy: The Business Case – SaaS multi-tenancy (shared infrastructure & resources in a single application that serve multiple users) has been the subject of great debate that often begins and ends with technology / architecture level. Like any good technology decision, whether or not to build for multi-tenancy must be driven by the underlying business strategies explored in this seminar. This session examines how SaaS vendors can use multi-tenancy to monetize beyond the application, streamline sales & implementation, improve customer service, and gain & maintain competitive advantage.
Webinar May 6, 2009 9:00 AM Pacific/Noon Eastern
Maximize Revenue with Strategic SaaS Product Development - How does your SaaS product generate revenue? Is your revenue model aligned with market expectations? How much money are you leaving on the table because you went with a "standard SaaS" revenue model?
It’s imperative with a SaaS offering to consider all monetiziation opportunities early in the process. SaaS is a commercial product and revenue generation must be built-in. This webinar will explore how aligning revenue to your target market early in the process leads to SaaS success. Topics covered will include:
- Why there is no "standard" SaaS Revenue Model
- Seven ways you can generate revenue as a SaaS Vendor
- Why you need to look to your market to determine your Revenue Model
- The concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- The basics of developing a Strategic Product Development Roadmap
- What to do if your product and target market are not aligned