5 Strategies for Monetizing Cloud-Based Solutions

Sergio Bea

By Sergio Bea, Accedian

Over the last decade, the IT environment has changed dramatically, and there’s no sign these changes will slow down any time soon. According to Gartner, revenues in the software as a service market, which account for about half of all cloud spending, are set to rise from $105 billion in 2019 to $162 billion by 2022. And more generally, cloud spending is only expected to intensify in the coming years, with Gartner projecting a 17.5% rise in public cloud spending this year alone. With the development of cloud-based solutions and other new technologies, as well as the related explosion of data, proliferation of omnichannels, and move toward SaaS models, the IT environment and market will continue to change at hyperspeed.

As more enterprises make the move to the cloud, they’re facing new challenges that make the migration increasingly difficult to navigate. This is evidenced by a recent study by Vanson Bourne and Accedian, which found that, while 46% of all CIOs surveyed consider migrating IT to the cloud a top priority in the coming two years, only 35% of total respondents feel they are properly equipped with the right tools, resources and capabilities to successfully migrate to the cloud. This suggests that a different approach toward performance and visibility is needed to ensure CIOs and their IT teams are positioned for success on these new and changing goals.

While a challenge for enterprises, this represents a phenomenal opportunity for IT service providers to monetize new services to help customers meet these new priorities. However, it will require new business models, a new paradigm and a willingness to embrace change internally.

Cloud Strategies

There are several strategies to consider as you prepare to engage your customers in their cloud journey. In addition to making your company more profitable, these strategies may also be necessary to ensure your company’s success as the IT landscape continues to change.

Redefine your offerings. Look at your current services portfolio to understand which services will continue to be critical in the digital transformation journey, and how they might fit in with current IT trends. From there, map out which IT journeys you want to support and build a new strategy around them. Look for things that are easily replicable and can scale with minimum upfront cost. This will help businesses increase profitability without exorbitant upfront fees to start out.

Operationalize your offering. Many new services fail because of poor operationalization. New services that require heavy integration into your current OSS/BSS platform, or need upfront “bespoke” configurations, are likely to fail the operationalization test and become more resource-intensive. Consider new operational strategies that will move your business forward, such as hosting your solution in the cloud, incorporating new services as an add-on to your current SaaS offering and integrating services with your billing systems. By implementing these strategies, businesses will be able to leverage the existing offerings while capitalizing on the new technology shifts.

Always build a services wrapper around the new offering. When you’re considering several options for a new offering, one of the key elements in the decision process needs to be the ability to wrap services around it. The reason for this is very simple: it not only adds incremental revenue and margin, but creates stickiness with the customer. You’ll be more likely to …

… bump customer retention rates, sustain renewals over 90% and learn about their challenges firsthand.

Partner with vendors that are willing to go on the journey with you. Partnerships offer obvious benefits, including the potential for increased revenue, growth and sales opportunities. Look for solutions that mirror your business model so you can share risk and grow together. More specifically, partner with vendors who understand that users now expect their digital services to add value to their lives and the infrastructure that powers them to perform faultlessly. Work with organizations that give back control over data to dig deeper and know what to do when there is a gap in visibility to forensically understand the experience of every user that is so critical to your business.

Embrace change internally. Ensure that your own internal processes and teams are set up to support these new IT journeys. Procedures and technology may need to be updated and employees may need to be retrained to ensure you’re providing the most value to your customers. Before implementing any big changes, make sure you’ve taken these steps to set your employees and company up for success.

This is an exciting time to be in the IT space. For enterprises, it’s also a challenging time. Embracing the journey and better positioning your company to help them navigate these new challenges will ensure your company is profitable and ready for the new world of the cloud.

Sergio Bea is vice president of global enterprise and channel sales at Accedian, a performance assurance specialist used by 75% of the top 50 communication service providers. He draws on more than two decades of telecom industry experience in his role directing Accedian’s enterprise and global channel strategy. He has worked for Fortune 500 global corporations in key strategic roles throughout his career, with prior roles across various disciplines including sales, business development, strategy, consulting, and services. Follow him on LinkedIn or @Accedian on Twitter