Weekly dose for SaaS entrepreneurs

Dabbling with how to price your SaaS app? The article below explains a good thought-out process on how you could come up with your pricing plans. A must read for SaaS entrepreneurs! One important takeaway is that do not be afraid to play around with your pricing as you build your company - but don’t change your pricing so drastically to piss off your users.

Another way to determine price is, of course, to look at what competitors charge. In the world of A/B testing, there is a lot of variation. While Google’s basic testing tool is free, Omniture and Webtrends solutions easily run into thousands of dollars per month. To be sure, VWO is not competing head-to-head with a free tool – it is a sure shot way to death for any startup. We are actually competing with pricey tools, at least in terms of functionality. In fact, our users’ feedback confirms our hypothesis that VWO is much better than any other A/B testing tool in the world. Does that mean, like enterprise tools, we should also charge thousands of dollars per month?

Read How pricing plans evolved over time for a SaaS startup

A great article by Treb Ryan of Opsource. Print it and put it up on your tackboard.

Most software companies think on-demand applications are a replacement for traditional business software.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

Sure, these software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications are sold as a service and paid for per-transaction, but they are developed, sold and delivered in the same manner as traditional licensed software.

The most successful software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies do not think of themselves as software companies selling software on-demand, but as Web companies with business users accessing a service over the Internet. These companies realize that to effectively start and grow a SaaS business, they need to act more like a consumer-based Web company than a traditional enterprise software company.

Read all of it here…

Guest post by Patrick Jobin of StoragePipe

When talking about the benefits of SaaS, the conversation usually revolves around TCO savings, improved security & convenience, or new features & capabilities.

But there is another major SaaS benefit that often gets overlooked.

The recent Gulf oil spill has raised renewed awareness for the environment. People are now thinking harder about how their actions impact the world around them. For businesses, this discussion also extends into the IT department.

As processor technologies improve, servers continue consume more power within a smaller physical space. It’s even gotten to the point where companies now need to renovate half-empty data centers just to accommodate the power needs of their infrastructure.

At the same time, these servers are just sitting there, underutilized. Most servers will only ever use a small percentage of their total processing capability… while hard drives are only filed to partial capacity.

Part of his is due to “server creep”. Every time your company wants to add a new system, they need to buy a new server. And these servers need to be up and running constantly, even when nobody is using them.

That’s a lot of wasted energy.

Because specialized SaaS providers are constantly serving thousands of customers on 24/seven schedule, they are in a much better position to improve the efficiency of their systems while eliminating waste.

Also, since SaaS eliminates the need for new equipment, you can keep your old equipment longer instead of sending them off to landfills.

If your company is looking for ways to become more environmentally responsible and energy–smart, you may want to consider using SaaS as a means of minimizing your environmental footprint. (And the cost savings are a nice touch, too.)

I have seen various reasons. Some of them are:

1. Security - I cannot put my data on your servers.
2. Education/ Awareness - I don’t know what SaaS is. (this is changing very fast)
3. Can’t believe it - Can SaaS be so inexpensive? I am used to paying a lot for software.
4. Need personalized support - I need someone to come to my office to show me a demo. Please sell your solution to me in person!
5. Not web savvy enough - I am not sure if my team will adopt a web solution. They are not tech-savvy.

Have more?

Take a daily count on…

1. Number of unique visitors
2. Number of free/trial signups
3. Number of new paid conversions
4. Number of upgrades to new plans
5. Number of downgrades to paying plans
6. Number of cancellations
7. Number and type of support tickets

Call this your business ‘pulse’…