“Show Me the Money!”

Software vendors must measure and demonstrate the value of their products - or someone else will.

By Paul ODea, Select Strategies

Many software companies don't measure their value in quantifiable terms, but instead make unsubstantiated claims about their products or services. This doesn't fool the buyer, and it sends out the message that the company doesn't care enough about its customers to measure how the product impacts their businesses.

If you want to grow your software business, build a repeatable process for measuring the value which you create - i.e. how much money you make or save the customer.

Measuring the value of your software in tangible benefits such as reduced cost of production, increased sales, and reduced operating costs helps cut down customer decision-making time, resulting in faster sales, and creates 'gold customers' who become your advocates, giving you an edge over the competition.

Grow Your Cloud Business

It’s not too late for software companies to morph their cloud initiatives into a winning business. Join Sand Hill Group and Cognizant invite you to a special Executive Breakfast Briefing and panel discussion, “Leveraging the Cloud - A Multi Dimensional View”. The event will take place on Nov 12, 2009 from 7:45 - 10:00am PST at the Sofitel, San Francisco Bay.

Learn secrets from real-world Business, IT and Product Engineering experts whose cloud strategies are thriving today in a panel discussion moderated by SandHill.com publisher, MR Rangaswami and featuring Malcolm Frank of Cognizant Technology Solutions, Preeti Somal of VMware and Tony Young of Informatica. Attendance is limited to VP-level and senior executives from large software companies. Email events@cognizant.com to find out more information and to RSVP.

Realizing a 22x Return

Ken Plunkett grew Salary.com from an $8 million dotcom to a $175 million IPO in less than 10 years. Javier Rojas of Kennet Partners uncovers Plunketts secrets of successful growth in this post to his SandHill.com Blog, Return Leaders.

Still Locked In

The bad-old-days of technology marketing are still alive and well according to Guy Smith of Silicon Strategies Marketing. Read why vendor lock-in is still a popular tech tactic in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on software marketing best practices.

Publish Your Perspective!

SandHill.com wants your opinions. Send your thoughts on the enterprise software industry to SandHill.com editor, Maryann Jones Thompson (maryann@sandhill.com) and have your opinions published on our site.

DON'T MISS: McKinsey on the Online Medical Records Opportunity

Part of the US economic stimulus program, EMR is a technology whose time has come. Whether or not it can deliver on its promise, it will change health care profoundly. Read more about the opportunity for software vendors in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly.

The Week in Review: Big Hits

Software stocks soar; plus SAP's first-mover strategy, Google's climbing the walls, Disney's KeyChest and Android's impact. Read these stories and more software news of the week in the latest SandHill.com Software News Summary.

Poll: Measuring Value?

How does your software company measure the value of its products?
Take our Pulse Poll >>

Last week, readers gave us their opinions on which group is most responsible for software success.
Give us your opinion and see the results >>

More at SandHill.com:

Steve Ballmer says I.T. spending wont fully recover.
Read the most important enterprise software industry news of the week >>

Online storage firm Box.net receives $7 million.
Monitor the latest software venture capital deals >>

BusinessWeek lays out the targets for Googles merger machine.
Size up last week’s software M&A deals >>

Robert Reid named president and CEO of Intacct.
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

“If you're going through hell, keep going.”
— Sir Winston Churchill

Courtesy of Malcolm Kusher, The Kushner Group

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