Changing the Love 'em and Leave 'em Software Model; SaaS Puts Customers Back in the Driver's Seat

Let's face it, shrink-wrapped software and vendor pitches are designed to grab the attention of potential buyers. Pretty colors and a smooth talking sales force are often what sells product. It's only after organizations peel back the shrink wrap or work through an installation that they begin to understand what they have just purchased. Unfortunately by then the vendor is already long gone as the software sale is done. And without a vested interest in a customer's ongoing needs, vendors often leave organizations stranded until license renewals approach or new modules are available for sale.

These are just some of the reasons that software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions have taken off in recent years. Organizations don't want to pay large up-front licensing costs for software they may never use. Instead they are opting to pay for solutions as they need them so they only incur costs as their organization grows. In so doing, they can easily obtain software and pay for it as their specific business needs change.

Using a subscription model, organizations receive the following benefits, including:

• Companies can try software without large up-front licensing costs and then cancel a subscription if the solution is not a good fit
• It gives companies more flexibility to evaluate new software while eliminating the typical lock-in and use of orphaned software licenses throughout the company
• Companies do not have to be huge to obtain the same discounts and lower per-unit costs on software that large companies can often obtain. With a subscription model, any size business can realize low per user licensing costs.
• It eliminates concerns about purchasing new versions of software to get new functionality - this responsibility now falls to the SaaS provider
• SaaS providers are more likely to take a vested interest in their customers' needs to ensure the solution is meeting them short and long term. If customers are not satisfied, it is easier to cancel existing contracts or, alternatively, renegotiate more favorable contracts.

A logical place for companies to explore the benefits of a subscription model is with email archiving. Estorian is one such company that offers an email archiving as a SaaS solution to give greater flexibility to its customers while helping them simplify their purchasing process. Supporting an unlimited number of mailboxes, Estorian offers a one year subscription on its LookingGlass software that has a low cost per-mailbox that enables organizations to quickly and easily scale based on their individual business needs. Refreshingly, Estorian also doesn't require any up front licensing costs nor does it charge or impose fees for additional modules or features. You get everything in a simple package that installs in about one hour which simplifies the deployment of its email archiving solution.

Organizations are always looking for new ways to reduce the total cost of ownership associated with software while supporting current operations and gaining new functionality. New subscription models such as is offered by Estorian enables organizations to more easily control costs based on true organizational demands and application usage. In so doing, the subscription costs of SaaS become a function of an organization's actual business requirements and align software costs with their actual business needs. Organizations then experience operational relief from the large up-front expenses and the ensuing administrative burdens of software management while putting them in the driver's seat of using the right software at the right price for their specific business needs.