Navigating the rising costs of Software as a Service (SaaS), aka "Cloud" solutions is a significant challenge for small businesses and nonprofit organizations operating on very tight budgets. As these costs continue to climb, these organizations are under increasing pressure to make every dollar count. The financial strain of maintaining multiple subscriptions can be daunting, often leading to a constant struggle to balance necessary technology investments with limited financial resources. This scenario is pushing many to rethink how they can maximize the value of their current SaaS platforms, looking for innovative ways to leverage existing subscriptions more effectively. One approach gaining traction is the deeper exploration of additional applications within existing SaaS collaboration platforms. For example, organizations already subscribed to Microsoft 365 are discovering new uses for tools like Microsoft Loop, Planner, and Teams, which enhances collaboration without add

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, nonprofit organizations and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face significant challenges in managing the cost of technology, particularly when it comes to cloud software subscriptions. A vivid example of this challenge was recently seen in the experience of a client who was confronted with an 11% price increase for their donor management platform subscription, following a 13% increase the previous year.  These increases were justified by the technology vendor due to additional features that our client had no intention to use now or in the future, but were being forced to pay for as "part of the new package".  This situation underscores a common predicament: technology costs can escalate quickly, eating into the budgets of organizations that can least afford it.  Failing to plan and manage them from a value-focused perspective leaves organizations at the whims of vendors that are tasked to grow their revenues at the unfortunate

The vast majority of cloud technology pricing models are typically based on metrics like the number of users, the number of units consumed, or the different modules required etc.  Why?  Because these are easily quantifiable metrics that fall in line with the cloud technology vendors model to predict revenue over time (i.e. year after year).  This makes sense, but primarily for the provider.  If you (customer) are investing in a solution to achieve a certain set of predefined and, ideally, mutually agreed to key performance indicators (KPI's), the model of pricing proposed may not align with the reason you subscribed to the solution in the first place.   As the focus on value for money increases, alongside the functionality to generate reports that help articulate that value achieved over time, both customers and cloud technology providers need to reconsider how contracts and pricing should be structured to focus on measurable desired outcomes as opposed to just usage.  One would ho

I don’t know a cloud technology Customer Success Manager (aka CSM) and/or Account Executive (aka AE) that hasn’t been part of at least one difficult discussion about the cost of their clients cloud software renewal, and what options exist to bring it down.  It's almost inevitable that these conversations will take place as customers question increasing yearly costs in relation to their achieved (or underachieved) return on investment (aka ROI). In some cases, this can result in a leadership level escalation in which the you (the customer) wants to speak to someone higher up about the product, the pricing, and your overall relationship with your technology partner.  While these requests for escalation in and of themselves are 100% fair, customers need to be mindful of how they talk about that relationship component in terms of their interactions with their assigned CSM. Why?  Well, if the goal is to simply reduce the cost of software which is providing positive value/ROI, and the CS