Business As Usual? Not If You’re A Cloud Vendor

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Sylvia Lehnan.

Much has been said about the benefits of the SaaS model for its customers, including freedom from installation and maintenance hassles and – for many companies – being able to account for the purchase as an operating rather than a capital expense. But what does a software company that wants to start offering cloud products have to consider?

Vendors who want to develop cloud-based applications need to make decisions around technical infrastructure and adjust to a financial model that’s based on recurring income rather than one-time sales and on-going maintenance contracts. However, they also need to consider how the model affects all other areas of the business…

For example, because the business model is so dependent on renewals and up-sells, customer loyalty becomes more important than ever. That means that cloud vendors need to behave less like product companies and more like service companies, whose success depends on getting their customers to keep coming back for more. However, as David Linthicum bemoans in his recent article “Cloud computing’s Achilles’ heel: Poor customer service,” that’s exactly where many cloud vendors fall short. Here are some strategies cloud vendors may want to consider when it comes to customer satisfaction and loyalty:…

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