Subscriptions have been around forever.
Columbia House Music, wine-of-the-month, magazines, and all our favorite streaming music and TV services are subscriptions. The subscription trend will continue as we move to a service-based economy, especially for consumption-based services like technology!
Businesses need to re-think how they are purchasing their IT software and hardware. The majority of IT capital expenses can now be turned into subscriptions that are perfectly aligned with the actual needs of the business. No more buying “extra” capacity based on some future GUESS about what the business will need. No more writing off failed implementations or projects that didn’t generate projected ROI before replacing them with something new and better.
Subscriptions are based on your actual utilization of technology, and most providers no longer require minimum unit commitments. It aligns your cash flow perfectly with needed capacity and significantly reduces complexity on your balance sheet… No more tracking 5-year depreciation schedules! Subscription-based services also allow your business to benefit rapidly from a service-based software delivery model, not having to set up in-house…faster ROI for sure!
It no longer makes (financial) sense to run most technology platforms in-house. The providers have shifted their resources to developing their products to be consumed as a paid service, not a software product you run and install on your hardware.
Written by: Edward Stringfellow