Featured Article from Software Licensing

We’re glued to our devices. Whether we’re checking email, Facebook (News - Alert) or the weather, we’re constantly on our smartphones, learning a new way to live our lives. It’s the firm arrival of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the growth is only accelerating. Software and apps are extending the value of these interactions, putting a new face on software licensing.

To that end, software developers must have a strong software monetization strategy that makes use of flexible software licensing technology that will help drive new and recurring revenue streams. The interconnectivity throughout the globe is allowing for bigger and better capabilities, and the demand for access isn’t expected to wane anytime soon. To ensure sustainability for software producers, a change to software licensing is a must.

A recent Flexera Software blog focused on this topic and the need for device manufacturers to shift to a software-centric model. The challenge in making this move is to understand the best process and the impact it will have on the supply chain. Making the wrong decision moving forward could drastically limit a company’s opportunity in the market, even rendering them obsolete in a short amount of time.

In the Flexera Software blog, there were two strategies to consider: to build or buy and the business transformation. The first examines why device manufacturers should look to a purpose-built software monetization solution. As every company becomes a software company and IoT continues to impact our lives, it’s essential to get to the hype of this trend: software.

Today, product differentiation is not the device, but the software used to run the device. To survive and thrive, device manufacturers need software monetization and building it themselves is not the way to go. It doesn’t make sense to focus a build in an area where core competencies don’t exist. Companies wouldn’t do the same thing with a payroll or email system – they should partner with proven experts on software.

In the business transformation focus, software monetization is critical for successful business transformation. The hardware business model is not enough for long-term sustainability, yet the supply chain isn’t designed to support a software business. Software monetization can help in the transformation from a hardware-centric to a software-centric business, assisting with entitlement management, software licensing, software delivery and more.

The industry keeps changing and to ensure the optimization and monetization of software in a device-heavy environment, the right strategy has to be defined. In doing so, device manufacturers can get away from the dangers associated with the device as a commodity and strengthen an area where differentiation is possible.