Launching a Software Pricing Revolution

Sellers must improve price-benefit alignment in order in order to grow software industry sales.

By Erik Keller, Wapiti

In the enterprise software market there were so many truisms: Hire a large sales force of ex-Oracle or -SAP sales sharks. Get a top notch R&D staff in the Valley. Get a CEO with a long track record. Simply connect the dots and watch the cash roll in.

These software startup SOPs have been supplemented over the past few years by more frugal funding mechanisms as well as having a larger portion of R&D and support services located in low-cost, high-quality regions including India, China, Romania - and Indiana. For some, open-source has become an interesting option.

While these changes are helping companies survive these slow-growth times, they have done little to fundamentally address an important issue that will continue to plague the software industry: the relative cost-benefit imbalance of any given solution. A dramatic shift in software companies' approach to pricing is needed in order to drive industry growth to the next level.

3 Reasons to Register Today for Software 2006

Software 2006 promises to be the single most important event of the year for software business leaders. The conference theme - Unifying the Ecosystem - will fuel productive debate about software industry challenges and solutions. Here are three reasons to register now.

Industry-shaping keynotes by software leaders such as Ray Lane (Kleiner Perkins), CK Prahalad (University of Michigan), Shai Agassi (SAP), Dave DeWalt (EMC) and S. Ramadorai (TCS).
Opportunities to network with 2,500 software CEOs, VPs, CIOs, investors, media, analysts and other professionals.
An earlybird registration rate of $1,195 which allows you to bring two colleagues to the conference - a $1,595 value - at no extra charge for attendees registering before Dec. 31, 2005.

It all happens April 4-5, 2006 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Find out more at www.Software2006.com.

Good News About Web Services

The new Service Component Assemblies (SCA) and Service Data Objects (SDO) proposals delivered by IBM, BEA, Oracle, SAP and others fills some critical standards gaps according to Tony Baer of onStrategies in this week's SandHill.com Blog on Web services.

Share your insight on the software business. Email editor@sandhill.com with your submissions to the SandHill.com Blog.

Beating the Odds in Market Entry

Overthinking can ruin a new market launch. A new analysis piece from The McKinsey Quarterly outlines the cognitive biases that undermine market entry decisions. Read it through SandHill.com.

Read more software-related stories from The McKinsey Quarterly on our Insight page.

Poll: Megavendor Workplaces?

Which large software company is the best all-around employer?
Take our Pulse Poll >>

Last week, SandHill.com visitors speculated about which vertical market will be the hottest in 2006.
Give your opinion and see the perspective of SandHill.com visitors >>

More at SandHill.com:

Lessons in how to succeed at offshoring.
Read the most important enterprise software industry news of the week >>

Ketera Technologies receives $13 million.
Monitor the latest software venture capital deals >>

TIBCO Software buys Velosel.
Size up last week's software M&A deals >>

Alan Fudge named CEO of GuardianEdge Technologies.
See who's made it to the top in our list of recent software executive appointments >>

Send us your feedback on this newsletter and the SandHill.com site.

Parting Thought

"Don't tell me you had a wonderful meeting with me. Tell me what you're going to do on Monday that's different."
-- Peter Drucker

Courtesy of Malcolm Kusher, The Kushner Group