Wired: Look Forward to a Post-Subscription Software Sales World

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The cloud is everywhere, and it is poised to consume virtually every business. But will it be the same “cloud” we know today?

The spread of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is only just starting to transform the way we consider enterprise software. Cloud-computing and other subscription-based programs are being embraced by everyone from leading organizations (Salesforce, Oracle and IBM) to human resources departments (Taleo, Kenexa and Ovation Technologies), small business and the average consumer (Adobe Creative Cloud for individual subscriptions of their popular Creative Suite).

As of now, the most common form of SaaS is based almost exclusively on subscriptions, with regularly occurring expenses that can be monitored and budgeted.

According to Michael Ni, CMO/SVP of Marketing and Products at Avangate, that may be changing. In a blog post in Wired magazine online, Ni writes:

Subscriptions as we know them today in technology are a small piece of what the software market will look like in the future, much like CD-ROMS became just one small aspect of the overall software market made up of CD/box delivery, downloads, and SaaS.

Ni recommends that, for the future of business, there are four ways for a company to “go beyond just integrating a billing and subscription engine” to making SaaS an integral part of the business model.

Read the entire article at Wired.com.

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