nathanfish.com » Business http://www.nathanfish.com ecommerce, saas, and small business Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:29:50 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Subscription management services for SaaS businesses http://www.nathanfish.com/2010/01/26/subscription-management-services-for-saas-businesses/ http://www.nathanfish.com/2010/01/26/subscription-management-services-for-saas-businesses/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:48:56 +0000 nathan http://www.nathanfish.com/?p=361 There is a rise in the number of payment management services for SaaS based businesses. The growth is good, it shows there is an increasing trend to subscription based businesses online and away from the software or long term licensing. However, many of these SaaS based businesses are just a wrapper around payment gateways. Their value is in the ease at which they enable the software developer to integrate a recurring payment stream. They provide reporting on top of the payment systems but they do little more. They don’t seem to integrate well with marketing efforts. Here’s a quick list of the ones I have checked out.

Chargify.com – Is a dedicated SaaS solution with easy integration and solid management of failed charges through Dunning. Chargify supports only Authorize.net as a payment option, which limits their applicability to some companies. Fixed pricing based on number of customers managed.

Zuora.com – The Salesforce.com of SaaS subscription management solutions. Zuora is an “enterprise” model, from its web site to its lack of pricing details. They have all the bells and whistles but may not be a good fit for the small nimble start up.

Vindicia.com – Another enterprise player in the SaaS subscription management solution space. They look to target online gaming and virtual worlds. This is a unique differentiator from Zuora.com which is focused at SaaS and service based businesses.

CheedarGetter.com – Dedicated SaaS subscription management solution targeted at the small business, similar to Chargify. CheedarGetter offers more options in terms of user management and pricing including aggregated transaction billing solutions and feature specific pricing. Only offers support for Authorize.net as a payment gateway. Pricing is either fixed or percent per transaction.

Spreedly.com – Dedicated SaaS subscription management solution similar to CheedarGetter.com and Chargify.com. They support feature sets, promotions, free services, etc. What makes them stand apart from others is their support for multiple payment gateways including PayPal and others. Pricing is fixed per month plus a fixed fee per transaction.

Know of another SaaS subscription management service provider? Leave a comment and let me know.

]]> http://www.nathanfish.com/2010/01/26/subscription-management-services-for-saas-businesses/feed/ 6 MBAs vs. Entrepreneurs http://www.nathanfish.com/2009/05/06/mbas-vs-entrepreneurs/ http://www.nathanfish.com/2009/05/06/mbas-vs-entrepreneurs/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 16:26:04 +0000 nathan http://nathanfish.com/?p=41 http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/may2009/ca2009055_933788.htm offers good insight into the the difference between MBAs and Entrepreneurs. It fails to mention how much the MBA curriculum accounts for these differences. During my MBA experience the curriculum focused on measurement, planning, and forecasting. You were given a specific goal and had to come up with the best way to achieve that goal, it was repeated over and over. There are classes in entrepreneurship but are they enough? Which raise the question, is an MBA worth it in today’s world? I believe the current MBA has value (lots) but the curriculum could probably use a refresh at many schools.

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