Subscription Storefronts, Admin Portals, Rating Engines and Payment Gateways

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:00:00 +0100

Our last blog post dealt with our telecom billing heritage and the need for a strong rating engine if you want to handle the coming pricing models of cloud based applications. It turns out, a strong rating engine is only part of the story, and to our customers and prospects, quite often not the most interesting part.

It doesn’t matter where you start on the spectrum of monetization applications for subscription-based services and products, you have to do everything right to bri [...]

Cloud Billing – Are Telecom Billing vendors really the right fit?

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:00:00 +0100

While here at IPA we regularly get excited about subscribers, recurring billing and payment processing, we understand the rest of the world doesn't always share our excitement. It seems everything the cloud topic touches these days is getting attention and subscription billing is now along for the ride!

IDC has just published a Cloud Billing research paper where they draw comparisons between telecom providers and emerging cloud infrastructure providers when it comes to billing for th [...]

PCI Compliance, subscriptions and the cloud - Part 2

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:00:00 +0100

Do you need PCI Compliance to sell a subscription service in the cloud?

Our previous post on this topic "PCI Compliance, subscriptions and the cloud - Part 1" covered some of the debate out there as to the effect of the cloud on PCI Compliance and why we think the cloud has improved the situation for companies launching subscription services.

Unfortunately, you'll get different answers to this question depending on who you talk to. Our last post in the PCI Compl [...]

PCI Compliance, subscriptions and the cloud - Part 1

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:00:00 +0100

Does the cloud help with or complicate PCI Compliance for subscription services? For a quick primer on PCI Compliance, check out our previous blog on the topic or our primer page.

Quite a few blog posts lately have been arguing that the cloud makes PCI Compliance more difficult, if not impossible. Don't look to the PCI Security Standards Organization for any answers, you won't find them. We'll tell you why later in our series on PCI compliance.

Back to the topic...

SaaS channels coming of age

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:00:00 +0100

At IPA, we've been writing about the emergence of successful channel strategies within the SaaS community for some time. Late last year our VP of Sales, Kevin Lennox, wrote about the importance of channel strategies as SaaS companies penetrate the mainstream.

We've seen a number of announcements recently around channel strategies in the SaaS community. Some, like the Microsoft reversal on who will own the billing relationship in the channel (microsoft or their VARs) make it cle [...]

For Better Subscription Sales, Price Your Software Like a Mobile Phone Plan

klennox@ipapplications.com — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:00:00 +0100

Most SaaS companies sell their software as yearly or multi-year subscriptions, and often they want all the cash upfront. Although it's good for the vendor to get their cash upfront and eliminate some of the billing administration, it is not how their prospective customers will want to buy in a cash-strapped economy or perhaps ever.

A few months ago I was trying to purchase (or should I say subscribe to) marketing automation software for my business. Every vendor I talked to wanted a [...]

55% of SaaS companies sell their software licenses as yearly or multi-year subscriptions

klennox@ipapplications.com — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:00:00 +0100

The overwhelming predictions among SaaS writers is that companies replacing outdated software or implementing new software capability will seriously consider SaaS alternatives. One big reason in 2009 will be to avoid large capital outlay.

According to a 2008 survey released by Softletter, 55% of SaaS companies sell their licenses as yearly or multi-year paid in advance subscriptions. From a cash flow perspective that's great, but many of the prospects you are likely to [...]

SaaS or on-premise, channel partners and VAR’s are equally important

klennox@ipapplications.com — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:00:00 +0100

In the past month, I attended 3 SaaS industry events (Softletter's SaaS University, Salesforce.com's Dreamforce, and SIIA's On-Demand conference) to keep up with what is happening in SaaS and Cloud Computing, and to investigate new partner channels for IP Applications on-demand subscription billing and payments platform.

A key message at all three events was how channel partners and VAR's played a key role in almost every SaaS and Cloud infrastructure vendors' strategy. This [...]

The economic downturn and SaaS companies - Part 2

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 08:00:00 +0100

While attending the excellent SIIA On Demand conference in San Jose, there was a lot of talk about surviving the economic downturn as a SaaS company. Many of the points in Part 1 of this blog were discussed (somewhat gratifying) but a more fundamental question was posed.

Are you selling oxygen?

Can companies breathe without your product? Is your SaaS product a true "need" for businesses to succeed or is it a "nice to have"? When compani [...]

The economic downturn and SaaS companies - Part 1

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:00:00 +0100

The SaaS industry has the potential to grow in an economic downturn.

Large capital projects are the first casualties in an enterprise trimming costs. SaaS offerings limit capital expenditure and IT infrastructure, offer fast implementation cycles, allow companies to limit and adjust licensing volumes. SaaS is exactly the type of solution that can pass internal executive reviews when money is tight. When SaaS companies compete against traditional software impleme [...]

PCI Compliance – what is it?

jgrant@ipapplications.com — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:00:00 +0100

Most of us have heard of the PCI standard. Some of us have gone through the implementation and maintenance of a PCI compliant system. If you're not familiar with the standard, and what it entails, let me shed a little light on the subject.

PCI, or rather, PCI-DSS, stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. It is a set of requirements introduced by the PCI Security Standards Council (composed of members that represent American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB Inter [...]

Session Control - does anyone know if we've been paid?

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 08:00:00 +0100

I wrote another post the other day about the key questions facing SaaS marketers. I talked about Consumer versus Enterprise billing and about Direct versus Channel marketing models. Overlaid on all of these choices, we have the concept of Session Control.

We implement Session Control through a component of our application called the "Session Manager". It's an optional service but virtually all of our existing clients use it.

If you're a do-it-yourselfer [...]

Channels and Partners

klennox@ipapplications.com — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:00:00 +0100

I recently read an article by a keen observer of the software industry advising SaaS vendors to sell direct and avoid traditional VAR channels and partners. His premise was that building channels is difficult and that SaaS limits the value proposition for the SI and ISV community.

Given our own experience with SaaS channels, I did a little research on SaaS providers and found lots of evidence that channels and partners are alive and well in the SaaS world. There are many examples, [...]

Introduction - Kevin Lennox

klennox@ipapplications.com — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:00:00 +0100

Should I start with the personal stuff? Sure why not! We're all humans here! My name is Kevin Lennox, I am 48 years old as of this post. I am happily married for 28 years, 3 kids, (all grown up), 1 grandson. In my spare time (and I do enjoy my spare time) I like to see friends, I Iike cars (fast cars mainly), I love to play soccer which I do all year round (when I am not down and out with an injury as in right now). Oh yes, I like to head up to my log cabin on a lake i [...]

SaaS Billing – Good afternoon, can we help you?

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:00:00 +0100

One of the challenges we faced as we set about bringing our SaaS billing product to market was how to explain our application's wide range of capability to potential customers. It sounds simple but it's not. We've already found that companies who've built their own billing solution are far more interested in our solution than those who haven't tried it yet. The latter think billing's easy, the former have enough experience to know better.

After talking to a range of so [...]

Channel Marketing for SaaS – even experienced vendors have problems

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:00:00 +0100

Back in January, we concluded that we raise our game with some sophisticated management software for our business. The application we wanted is a common one these days but to protect the innocent, I'm not going to talk about it specifically. The application isn't the point of the story - the story is about how two well regarded SaaS companies found themselves in a mess when they tried to work as partners.

To digress for a moment, it was fascinating to watch ourselves g [...]

Pricing, the final frontier

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:00:00 +0100

Long ago in a company far, far away we used the expression "Space, the final frontier" for any event that dealt with building layouts, floor space and office allocations. That's because, like the Star Trek's outer space, inner space was loaded with swarms of angry aliens, exploding stars and voracious wormholes. Nothing was ever easy - everyone involved had an opinion (that usually included getting a rare and coveted window office), everybody hated their assigned space ( [...]

Introduction - John Jacobson

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:00:00 +0100

Hi, I'm John Jacobson. In my day job, I'm President and CEO of IP Applications Corp, a technology company with roots deep in the internet boom of the late 1990's and early 2000's. I'm also a volunteer with the Canadian Cancer Society (I chair what is in effect the Society's audit committee) and I live in Vancouver, BC. This is my first blog post ever.

Not that I haven't posted online before, though. I'm a member of three online car enthusiast forums and while I d [...]

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