Introducing SaaS at an Enterprise Software Company
View from Haleakala - Filip Szymanski Software companies that started out with a license business model are now scrambling to catch up with all the Software-as-a-Service vendors that have emerged in the market. Early SaaS players such as Salesforce.com that started in 1999 have a huge lead, but many more have appeared over the years, and even investors are taking notice by driving up valuations, with record-setting acquisitions of Github and Mulesoft in 2018. What does it take for an enterprise software company to introduce SaaS and compete? Commitment . Executive team must buy into the SaaS business model with full knowledge that revenue & profit will dip in the short term as customers elect to purchase a SaaS subscription instead of a perpetual license. SaaS can be challenging for public companies where investors expect near-term profitability. When Adobe switched their portfolio to subscription, they saw a revenue dip and the stock traded lower, but now Adobe enjoys r...