Software Monetization Featured Article

The world is moving to software, and that is prompting businesses to change in fundamental ways. Instead of relying on one-time hardware sales, many organizations are now in the midst of introducing new service and software solutions. But making this transition is not as simple as it sounds.

As businesses move to sell virtual rather than physical solutions, they need to think outside of the box. And this new thinking should apply to how they support billing, address customer experience, handle design and licensing, and do operations, says  Vickie White, director of virtual products at Gemalto (News - Alert).

White knows about all this firsthand because not only does she work for a software monetization firm, but she’s leading the virtualization effort within that company.

Introducing new software-based products is a huge operational challenge for operational teams that are accustomed to working with hardware, she says. Problems can arise, she indicates, when operations team members are not brought into the loop early enough in the process. Companies with a hardware heritage often assume product simplicity during the systems design phase, White explains, so they think there’s no need to engage with the operations team early on. That, she indicates, is a mistake.

Customer expectations also are different when it comes to software and services as opposed to hardware, she says. Businesses introducing software-based solutions need to figure out upfront how they will deliver these solutions to their customers.

When Gemalto acquired identity and data protection company SafeNet (News - Alert), she says, there was a lot of confusion around the legacy SafeNet licenses and software that were being delivered virtually. Adding legacy Gemalto solutions to the mix only compounded the issue, she says.

“So that was a problem we wanted to solve,” White says.

Part of the challenge here was the reliance on manual processes, which were not scalable. The solution, White explains, was to automate aspects of the back office to allow for scalability.

As a result of this initiative, in which Gemalto employed a software monetization solution, the company was able to expedite product delivery. In the past, she says, it took several days to fulfill a product, software and license, including the time to book. Today, she says, all that happens within hours as opposed to days.

White says Gemalto is also working to:

• expand support for usage-based billing,

• expand self-service capabilities for customers,

• expand usage of Sentinal-based licensing within the data protection product line, and

• increase automation in the back office to make its processes even more scalable.

“Our main focus is really improving customer experience,” says White. “That goes for both internal customers as well as external customers.”

Gemalto is improving customer experience, she adds, by delivering plug-and-play solutions and processes.