SaaS Usage Metering & Measurement

SaaS (software as a service) metering refers to the methods and tools used to track client usage of software delivered via the cloud. SaaS vendors have a variety of options for metering the usage of the solutions they provide to clients, including: per user metering, per account metering and per transaction metering. While there are no hard and fast rules that dictate when to use a particular metering method, SaaS vendors who also sell traditional software, must come up with a pricing strategy for their SaaS offerings that does not alienate existing customers who migrate to the SaaS model of software delivery.

Metering Solutions

Regardless of what metering method is used, ISV’s must implement a metering solution in order to bill clients for usage. An ISV can build their own metering solution in house or they can implement a metering solution provided by a third party vendor, like the billing and metering capabilities that are built into Apprenda’s ISV solution. SaaS providers who leverage Apprenda’s ISV solution eliminate a significant portion of the costs, complexities and risks associated with developing and deploying a home grown SaaS metering solution.

ISV’s (independent software vendors) need to implement a SaaS metering solution that not only provides accurate tracking of client usage, but which also provides the capacity for analyzing client usage patterns. Usage analytics provide ISV’s with the required information to determine what the most advantageous and most marketable metering methods are for each SaaS offering they deliver via the cloud.

Apprenda’s ISV solution provides metering and analytic capabilities, as well as a host of other business management tools. Apprenda’s ISV solution is designed for integration with the Private PaaS (platform as a service) offering that is also available from Apprenda. Apprenda’s ISV solution not only provides tools to meter and analyze client usage, but also provides the capacity to collect client payments via a variety methods including credit cards, bank transfers or traditional checks.

What’s more, Apprenda’s ISV solution provides SaaS providers with the required tools to define an unlimited number of pricing and feature service plans, which can be easily updated and instantly deployed, thereby providing the capacity for more stable revenue streams. Apprenda’s ISV solution also provides SaaS vendors with flexible tools to manage client subscriptions and can also be configured to handle the entire payment process, including the deposits into a SaaS vendor’s merchant account(s).

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