Software Companies Must Adapt to Recurring Revenue in Subscription Age

December 10, 2013

The subscription

model has transformed the software industry, and unless your organization is

equipped to succeed in the world of recurring revenue(opens in new tab), you risk being left

behind. This was the premise behind our recent webinar – 5 Keys to Success with a Recurring Revenue Model. Joining me for

the discussion were guest speakers Amy Konary, Research Vice President, Software, Licensing,

Provisioning and Delivery at IDC, and Rory Cameron, Senior Vice President

Corporate Development & Emerging Platforms at CallidusCloud.

Revenue

from the subscription delivery model continues to rapidly outpace perpetual

license revenue in terms of growth rates, according to Konary, who shared

insights from IDC’s most recent research on the software licensing landscape.

Konary described the challenges associated with the recurring revenue and

subscription model for software companies and then offered practical advice on

how to overcome those challenges.

As a SaaS(opens in new tab) industry leader,

NetSuite has a great deal of insight into the world of recurring revenue. There

are a lot of moving parts, and it’s a slow building business (for example, the

booking is just the beginning) with a model-based approach to P&L. There

are more levels to pull, but none of those levers are fast-moving. Yet with the

right approach, the SaaS model has the potential to produce predictable revenue

streams.

Here

are five keys to success that have allowed NetSuite to achieve rapid growth in

the world of recurring revenue:

  1. Automate your recurring

    revenue engine:

    remove friction in the order to cash cycle

  2. Capitalize on your

    customer annuity:

    renewals are key to sustainable growth

  3. Enable real-time 360 degree visibility across the

    organization

  4. Focus on the metrics that are critical for SaaS companies
  5. Keep the big picture

    in mind:

    don’t lose track of non-recurring revenue streams

CallidusCloud

has undertaken to transition from a perpetual license delivery model to a

leading SaaS company. Rory Cameron shared the difficulties his organization

overcame during this journey, the results they’ve achieved, and how NetSuite

helped them realize their growth plans.

Organizations

who have already adopted a recurring revenue model and those who are looking to

make this transition can both benefit from watching a recording of the webinar HERE(opens in new tab). Feel free to leave

any follow-up questions below!

-Kim Odom, Director of

Vertical Marketing, Software at NetSuite

NetSuite has packaged the experience gained from tens of thousands of worldwide deployments over two decades into a set of leading practices that pave a clear path to success and are proven to deliver rapid business value. With NetSuite, you go live in a predictable timeframe — smart, stepped implementations begin with sales and span the entire customer lifecycle, so there's continuity from sales to services to support.