Overcoming Software Monetization Barriers with SafeNet Licensing Solutions
March 21, 2012
By Beecher Tuttle, TMCnet Contributor
Even though the market is ripe for independent software vendors (ISVs), today's developers face a number of key business challenges, ranging from piracy to pricing and visibility into industry needs. These software monetization barriers require unique solutions that enable ISVs to generate the most revenue from their offerings while also minimizing operating expenses.
The leader in this area is software monetization specialist SafeNet (News - Alert), whose Sentinel software licensing solutions help vendors overcome a wide range of inherent challenges.
Control
Perhaps the biggest concerns for developers are the unlicensed use and distribution of their products, and the deliberate misuse of their products. Code theft is an all-too-common occurrence in the software space – one that leads to drastic declines in revenue and intellectual property disputes.
SafeNet's solutions help eliminate this concern by ensuring that only authorized users have access to the products and features that they pay for. In addition, SafeNet makes certain that every piece of software is functioning as designed, and blocks attempts to tamper with or manipulate the product.
Packaging
Packaging and pricing a software offering – and changing the features within a product as needed to meet market demands – is a complicated and often costly proposition for the majority of ISVs.
"SafeNet’s software licensing solutions are all built using the company’s unique 'Protect Once, Deliver Many, Evolve' philosophy, which enables software publishers to fully separate their business and engineering processes," Michelle Nerlinger, director of product marketing, SaaS (News - Alert) & Software Monetization Solutions at SafeNet, told TMCnet. "This means that once the Sentinel protection APIs are built into the code of the application, product management and marketing are free to package and re-package features and product bundles real-time without ever having to re-engineer."
The end result is a faster time to market and a quicker response to ever-changing market needs, she added.
Selling Flexibility
The quality of a piece of software is essentially meaningless if a company's sales team can't effectively price, sell and license the offering. To do this, ISVs need licensing solutions that enable them to offer competitive pricing and varied billing models that fit each particular client's needs.
From pre-paid, post-paid, subscription-based and floating models, SafeNet’s Sentinel licensing solutions give ISVs the flexibility necessary to provide each client with the software and billing schedule that they need.
Operational Management
Streamlining back office operations is critical to every ISV, but is a difficult task to accomplish. SafeNet’s centralized entitlement management solution can integrate with other disparate tools that are involved in software monetization and help to create a more holistic system.
With SafeNet, ISVs can maintain a singular tool for managing entitlement generation, delivery, activation, usage tracking and other processes.
"The system also integrates easily with the industry’s most common ERP, CRM, Billing, and Marketing Automation systems to ensure a single streamlined process for the entire software monetization lifecycle," says Nerlinger. "This not only simplifies internal operations but ensures a simple, consistent, and positive end user experience."
Insight
Developing visibility over an offering can provide ISVs with the tools necessary to adapt certain operational processes – and the software itself – as needed. SafeNet provides the tracking and reporting capabilities that can help ISVs develop a clear roadmap for making future business decisions.
The user data generated by SafeNet not only helps ISVs tweak sales, billing, and operational processes, it also provides tremendous up-selling and cross-selling opportunities.
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