Make Pay-As-You-Go, Pay Off

The pay-as-you-go model makes a lot of sense for SaaS. As companies look at new business models for delivering products as services, their customers are giving some clear feedback: users want more say in how much they buy and when. Pay-as-you-go models feed that need, but how can SaaS companies scale under the demands of these granular transactions?

Here’s what you’ll need to make pay-as-you-go pay off for you as your SaaS business scales:

• The ability to collect transactional data and appropriate permissions based on customer usage status
• Appropriate logic and the ability to handle large volumes of data
• Systems that can watch customer usage and make recommendations based on customer positions within selected service packages

Pay-as-you-go gives your customers – no matter their size – an easy way to get started with your service. And then you can move them forward with upsell recommendations as you learn about their needs. For example, “You’ll need to buy more or upgrade your package to avoid overage charges.”

This type of prompt increases efficiency by changing the incentive model of consumption, another benefit you can offer your customers when you move to pay-as-you-go. This, notes ITBusiness Edge, is where IT is heading. Blogger Ann All quotes user predictions of pay-as-you-go evolutions into per-day or per-week packages.

Vendors, All writes, might be in the early stages of considering pay-as-you-go, but business users are already there. The SaaS companies that architect to grab those users early will stay ahead in the long run.