Estimated learn time: 16 minutes, 20 seconds
Shifting some, all, or just extra of your software program choices from a one-time perpetual license mannequin to a software program as a service (SaaS) subscription mannequin could be daunting, however it’s so highly effective for constructing reliable, recurring income. If your organization is contemplating making a SaaS transition, Brad Sams of Stardock is aware of what you’re going by way of.
Because the VP and Normal Supervisor of the Stardock Software program division, Brad led his workforce by way of this course of and has realized some priceless classes about doing it as strategically and simply as potential.
FastSpring is proud to have been an enormous a part of supporting that course of for Stardock, and Brad had some nice issues to say about how straightforward we made it for them. We requested him to share his course of ideas for anybody who is perhaps contemplating or actively planning the identical transition themselves.
Listed here are Brad’s prime suggestions:
Are you on the lookout for a service provider of file that may associate with you to develop your SaaS enterprise? FastSpring supplies an all-in-one fee platform for SaaS, software program, online game, and different digital items companies, together with subscription administration, fee localization, VAT and gross sales tax administration, shopper assist, and extra. Arrange a demo or strive it out for your self.
5 Ideas for Making the SaaS Transition Simpler
1. Select FastSpring for Subscription Infrastructure and Lengthy-Time period Partnership
Stardock Software program first began utilizing FastSpring in 2018 to assist them promote their software program merchandise, they usually’d at all times had a comparatively good expertise with how FastSpring handles gross sales of one-time software program purchases.
Fortunately, FastSpring was in a position to make the transition to subscriptions very optimistic, too — about so simple as changing a number of SKUs on their web site (extra on that beneath).
This was a aid, because the expertise behind subscription administration for software program purchases can get very advanced in a short time, with many eventualities that have to be accounted for and a number of technological parts that have to be coated.
“Most individuals wouldn’t take into consideration all of the intricacies that need to occur” when switching from a single transaction to a subscription, Brad explains. “For instance, you will have a product that was beforehand bought as soon as, and it labored ceaselessly. Now you abruptly buy a product, and it has a time field on it that’s tied to a subscription — which implies that product now has to cease working if a person stops paying for it. In order that will get advanced. After which, what do you do in the event that they’re offline? What do you do in all these totally different eventualities? There’s an actual dividing line right here, which is the place FastSpring got here in.”
When Brad and his workforce began planning to check the SaaS enterprise mannequin in spring of 2023, realizing that FastSpring already had the infrastructure to assist subscription gross sales meant that Stardock Software program didn’t must construct their very own, seek for a specialty device or service, or fear about that half in any respect, actually.
“The worst factor that may occur is, you make the swap to subscription, after which your expertise fails to make the swap successfully. And we had been solely in a position to do that as a result of we had confidence that FastSpring’s subscription mannequin would assist our endeavors.”
“We had been solely in a position to do that as a result of we had confidence that FastSpring’s subscription mannequin would assist our endeavors.”
FastSpring is proud to have been a key a part of Stardock’s enterprise ecosystem as they tackled an initiative that’s driving main progress for his or her enterprise.
Select a Associate Making the Identical Investments In Subscription Administration
Brad admits that Stardock will at all times be able that retains them from being “married to any single vendor,” they usually know FastSpring isn’t the one service provider of file or subscription administration device in the marketplace.
“However on the similar time,” he explains, “we knew that with shifting to a subscription mannequin, we needed to wager on a associate who was making the identical stage of investments that we had been making. And the conclusion was that FastSpring was on that path of continued funding and wasn’t simply amassing the paycheck each month and doing nothing.”
“We needed to wager on a associate who was making the identical stage of investments that we had been making.”
Brad was in a position to see the place FastSpring was making these investments, as product updates rolled out and as future timelines and roadmaps had been shared with Stardock by their Buyer Success Supervisor, Danica. He says that helps, as a result of “it’s like, ‘Okay, if we’re going to go subscription (which once more, ratchets up the stickiness issue for FastSpring), then we’ve obtained to verify FastSpring goes to be right here for the long term, too.’”
Brad went on to explain Stardock’s relationship with FastSpring as “symbiotic.” “As a result of the higher we do, the higher FastSpring goes to do. We’ve obtained to be sure that everyone’s successful, and issues with FastSpring simply felt aligned.”
Let FastSpring Deal with the Subscription Infrastructure
“You may have two technical parts to this,” Brad clarifies. “You may have the subscription facet (the precise monetary transaction that should happen), and the mechanism that retains that data up to date. And you then even have the precise app itself. So that is the place we actually began getting deep into FastSpring, as a result of FastSpring already had the subscription parts.”
As a result of Stardock and FastSpring had been rising collectively by way of this subscription expertise journey, Brad noticed FastSpring’s earlier iterations of the subscription administration instruments. That was already sufficient to make switching on subscriptions a a lot easier course of than it could have been with out FastSpring.
“On the time, it was a little bit extra naked bones, however it had the infrastructure in place to really enable us to do that. As a result of on the finish of the day, you possibly can’t simply activate a subscription — the entire plumbing pipeline must be there,” he reiterates. “And so we related with FastSpring, defined our state of affairs, they helped us with the documentation and helped us work by way of some edge instances, after which we had been in a position to wire it up by way of already deployed FastSpring infrastructure on our finish.”
This turned out to be about so simple as establishing a brand new product SKU on their web site that was marked as a subscription, outlining the attributes of the subscription (of their case, annual versus month-to-month), and setting the worth on the product. “There are a number of different choices in there,” Brad says, “like, ‘How do you need to talk to the client that issues are about to resume?,’” however it was general a easy course of.
“Nothing in life at this magnitude is painless, however it was in a position to be accomplished comparatively shortly to pivot our enterprise from a modeling perspective,” he assures us. “And that was the largest worth unlock: that we didn’t need to undergo and reinvent the wheel on subscriptions for our versatile storefront on the finish of the day.”
“That was the largest worth unlock: that we didn’t need to undergo and reinvent the wheel on subscriptions for our versatile storefront on the finish of the day.”
FastSpring’s subscription administration options embody:
- Trial administration (with or with out fee technique, and free or paid trials).
- Recurring fee processing.
- Plan administration instruments for companies or their prospects to handle the small print of their subscriptions.
- A subscription overview dashboard with insightful metrics.
- Correspondence automation.
- Churn discount and dunning administration (automated retrying of failed renewal funds and associated electronic mail communications).
All of this was along with the usual options and instruments FastSpring already supplies, together with:
- International funds for simply transacting throughout borders.
- Tax compliance, embody calculation, assortment, and remittance of VAT and gross sales taxes.
- Customizable checkouts which are localized to prospects and branded together with your firm branding, plus they’re out there as embedded, popup, or a hosted FastSpring internet storefront to accommodate your online business wants.
- Fraud prevention with clever alerts and fewer chargebacks.
- Reporting and analytics, together with subscription, income, and chargeback dashboards that can assist you monitor recurring income out of your new subs.
- Developer instruments like a JavaScript library; FastSpring’s REST API; webhooks; and integrations and connections with third-party programs together with advertising analytics instruments, CRMs, DRMs, BI instruments, and extra.
- And far more.
Are you on the lookout for a service provider of file that may associate with you to develop your SaaS enterprise? FastSpring supplies an all-in-one fee platform for SaaS, software program, online game, and different digital items companies, together with subscription administration, fee localization, VAT and gross sales tax administration, shopper assist, and extra. Arrange a demo or strive it out for your self.
Combine Buyer-Dealing with Subscription Administration on Your Personal Website
Apart from dealing with subscription gross sales and administration on the again finish, FastSpring additionally supplies account administration instruments for Stardock’s prospects to handle their very own subscriptions on the entrance finish.
Brad recommends profiting from an embedded subscription administration portal to supply a completely seamless expertise to your customers.
FastSpring’s Embedded Fee Administration Elements are an embedded same-page subscription fee administration expertise (together with including, updating, and deleting fee strategies) that allows your prospects to handle their subscription fee strategies with out leaving your account administration portal.
You possibly can create, customise (and model), embed, and check the fee administration part by yourself web site to present your prospects one of the best expertise potential whereas managing funds for his or her new subscriptions.
FastSpring can act as an end-to-end subscription answer through our subscription API, starting from getting subscription information, updating account data, and exhibiting proration previews of estimated proposed plan adjustments to prospects — all inside your portal.
2. Begin Small With an Incremental Strategy
FastSpring having the subscription administration expertise dealt with meant that — in addition to having the ability to concentrate on software program improvement as an alternative of on the tech wanted to promote their software program — Brad and his workforce had been in a position to concentrate on different nuanced aspects of constructing the swap past the technical specs, comparable to which merchandise they wished to modify over to the subscription mannequin first.
He recommends that you just begin small and cascade any learnings to further merchandise as you add to your subscription choices.
“Our mannequin was ‘Begin small, danger small,’ after which ‘Transfer large, danger large.’ And by that point, it was now not ‘Threat large,’ it was ‘Handle large.’”
“Our mannequin was ‘Begin small, danger small,’ after which ‘Transfer large, danger large.’ And by that point, it was now not ‘Threat large,’ it was ‘Handle large.’”
Whereas Stardock had a number of merchandise with a number of assist add-ons already, Brad outlined that they began the subscription experiment with one assist add-on for one product, and for one particular subtype of their buyer base. “What we began with was really assist and upkeep of a particular product. For instance, we promote Fences®. Fences® sells lots to enterprise prospects. The place we began trialing it was, Fences® the product remained a single level of transaction, however we launched an choice that might can help you buy annualized subscription upkeep and assist for a decreased value.”
Primarily, you possibly can apply a number of filters to your merchandise, add-ons, and person varieties to get a comparatively small experimental group. “We simply began on one explicit product that we knew offered in quantity with one explicit state of affairs, which was solely enterprise, after which one explicit sort of buyer who’s like, ‘I’ll take the low cost for the renewal.’”
When you begin to see these first subscriptions start to circulation in, you possibly can gauge whether or not it’s flowing as anticipated and make changes as wanted, Brad says. “You examine and distinction, like, ‘How many individuals are selecting the subscription?’ And you then simply amplify issues up. You go to a different product, and go to a different product. And you then strive a major product. And you then strive the large suite,” which for Stardock is Object Desktop™, containing all of their apps. “That was the large switchover as soon as we had confidence.”
Beginning small helped Stardock keep away from any massive upfront dangers as they started testing the advantages of SaaS.
3. Talk Ceaselessly and Clearly With Clients
Speaking enterprise mannequin and/or supply mannequin adjustments to your prospects could be a actual wrestle, they usually can enormously have an effect on the person’s expertise and relationship together with your firm and your product. Brad recommends you set a whole lot of technique and care into how and once you announce upcoming adjustments.
“It distills down into lowering danger, not from a expertise perspective, however from a communication points perspective. There’s no method to mitigate all potential communication points, and advertising is at all times the very last thing you set out,” he says.
“It distills down into lowering danger, not from a expertise perspective, however from a communication points perspective.”
“There are a whole lot of challenges from the angle of selling, communication, educating the tip person, unlocking worth, and creating expectations that what you’re doing is healthier for everyone concerned,” Brad outlined. “As a result of it’s very easy for folks to listen to ‘subscriptions’ and assume, ‘Oh, the enterprise simply desires to suck extra money out of us.’ And that’s not the trail we tried to take, however that’s at all times the narrative that’s going to be pushed, from a shopper perspective, onto you.”
Brad additional explains that “Anytime you progress anyone’s cheese, they get actually upset. Folks will say, ‘I’ve been a buyer for 20 years, and abruptly you’re altering your online business mannequin! Why are you doing that? Is it since you hate cash?,’” he quotes, implying that prospects might threaten to cease utilizing the product.
He says challenges like these are evergreen and can proceed to come back up, so being proactive about speaking adjustments is essential to working by way of the change together with your prospects, particularly long-term ones.
Stardock’s “Begin small, danger small; transfer large, handle large” rollout mannequin actually utilized to buyer communications.
“When you attempt to exit the gate with a extremely excessive worth, then the advertising messaging should actually be on level to the greenback worth you’re making an attempt to cost in your SaaS service or product.”
However since Stardock had began their SaaS transition with a small subset of merchandise, they had been in a position to check communications and consider buyer suggestions in a really manageable pipeline earlier than transitioning to their bigger core merchandise. “As a result of as soon as you set your core product on the market in that mannequin, the quantity of inbound communications you get is a lot,” Brad tells us. “And to attempt to handle that, we would have liked to be ready.”
These inbounds from prospects can come from wherever, he says. “From each potential route — you get it out of your boards, you get it by way of electronic mail, you get it by way of social media, you get it by way of cellphone calls, you get it in every single place, as a result of persons are making an attempt to determine what you’re doing. And also you be taught actual fast — and I imply actual fast — the place your communication wasn’t clear or efficient.”
However because of the small-to-big transition plan, these learnings get utilized to the following bigger product you roll out on subscription, and the communication bumps it’s possible you’ll expertise at first are solely with a comparatively small subset of consumers. For the following spherical, now you realize the place, when, and the way further communications have to be posted.
4. Put together for Renewals With Worth-Provides to Assist Scale back Churn
As a result of Stardock opted to supply their subscription software program on an annual pricing mannequin as an alternative of month-to-month — and since they launched subscriptions a little bit below a 12 months in the past, not simply to new prospects but in addition to all present prospects on the similar time — Stardock’s first large renewal interval is but to occur. However it’s shortly approaching.
“For us, the large query for 2024 could be summed up in a single phrase: churn,” Brad explains. “Now we have expectations and a few modeling that counsel the place issues ought to land. However this would be the 12 months for us to find out how we method subscriptions going for 12 months two and successfully past.”
Regardless of the likelihood for churn, he says they really feel they’ve added a whole lot of worth to their SaaS merchandise. Apart from having FastSpring’s retention-supporting options comparable to churn lowering dunning administration as a part of their tech stack, Stardock is releasing new apps and companies for his or her subscription merchandise so as to add to the true and perceived worth of their merchandise to prospects. “We’ve tried to extend the worth from our perspective, and we’re going to be taught actual fast whether or not or not we’ve elevated the worth from the person perspective.”
5. Design the Transition Plan That’s Proper for Your Firm
Again when Stardock had begun planning a SaaS transition for his or her merchandise, Brad says they heard a number of various things throughout the trade concerning the completely finest method to do it. One significantly frequent piece of recommendation was to “go chilly turkey” and launch every part as SaaS suddenly.
“The easiest way I can describe my job is making an attempt to resolve what recommendation is dangerous recommendation,” he informed us. “And I’d say that was dangerous recommendation.”
That onerous-won sense of discernment is how Brad and Stardock landed on the small-to-big rollout plan, which actually labored effectively for them.
However he recommends that any software program firm evaluating if and methods to make the swap to SaaS ought to resolve what’s finest for their very own firm, with out simply listening to the loudest chatter within the trade.
“Each firm is exclusive in what their clientele will anticipate and/or tolerate.”
“There was no firm that we talked to who had gone by way of comparable issues, that had the identical expertise as us, and no person after us will, both,” Brad assures us. “Each firm is exclusive in what their clientele will anticipate and/or tolerate.”
Associate With FastSpring
Able to discover how your SaaS or software program enterprise can profit from FastSpring’s continued dedication to subscription administration product improvement?
FastSpring is a service provider of file that gives an all-in-one fee platform for SaaS, software program, online game, and different digital merchandise companies, together with subscription administration, world funds, fraud prevention, VAT and gross sales tax administration, shopper assist, and a lot extra.
Arrange a demo or enroll to take a look at the platform your self.
Associated Studying
Katie Stephan
Katie Stephan is the Senior Content material Strategist at FastSpring. Apart from her intensive advertising expertise, she has an MFA in artistic nonfiction writing and has served her native communities as a university writing teacher.
