LicensingLive, the software industry’s premier licensing and software monetization event, was held last week in Cupertino.  Now in its 5th year, this two-day licensing event was bigger and better than ever before, featuring prominent speakers from various industries all coming together to share their experience and expertise about software monetization with LicensingLive’s nearly 100 attendees.

After a warm welcome from SafeNet’s SVP Prakash Panjwani, SD Times’ Editorial Director Alan Zeichick jump-started the event with his discussion of the three opportunities that software vendors can’t afford to ignore.  There is clear competitive advantage to software companies who learn how the customer uses and perceives your software.  By focusing on customer’s pain points, Ziechick says, software companies can better see the ROI on their software purchases.

Following Zeichick, well-known industry analyst  Amy Konary, VP of Software Licensing at IDC, kicked off the discussion regarding software monetization, the theme of this year’s event, with her presentation “The New Look of Software Monetization.”  According to Konary, pricing and packaging strategies have never been more important for software monetization success.  End-user experience needs to become part of the overall licensing approach, and that includes transparency and agility.  Konary also highlighted the importance of transitioning to a usage-based pricing model to maximize monetization potential.

The podium was then handed over to Michelle Nerlinger, Director of Marketing for SafeNet, who set the framework for the rest of the day’s discussions by focusing on the four components of a comprehensive software monetization strategy: packaging, control, tracking, and management.  Aided during this presentation by Product Managers Darim Rahmatallah and Julie Armstrong, Principle Consultant Dave DiMillo, and Sr. Director of Professional Services Jam Khan,  the SafeNet team delivered a comprehensive explanation of how each of these components are intertwined and essential to software monetization success.

Starting off the afternoon sessions, OpsView’s Rob May discussed licensing with a focus on customers and operational efficiency, with a great session on how, leveraging Sentinel software monetization solutions, OpsView was able to move from a trust-based license model to a flexible, enforceable software licensing model that generates and protects OpsView’s revenue.  By adding automated delivery, OpsView was able to reduce fulfillment time from days to minutes, directly impacting the bottom line.

You wouldn’t think that software licensing products can save lives, would you?  Thorsten Gerdes from Varian Medical Systems then provided an inspirational review of how their life-saving software technology is using SafeNet Sentinel licensing products to ensure the fair use and integrity of their software systems and intelligent devices which are used to fight cancer globally, offering a different and innovating perspective on the execution of a software monetization approach.

Serving up what could often be considered a relatively dry topic, compliance and audits, David Welch from NetApp led an entertaining discussion about what to expect from audits and how to be prepared for them.    Welch offered insight into how to make the licensing true-up discussion with customers an opportunity instead of a challenge.

For Aspera, the move into the cloud was greatly facilitated by their use of Sentinel Cloud and Sentinel EMS, and in this session, Chris Markle, Aspera’s VP of Engineering Services, shared how his company was able to greatly expand their business offerings by offering a cloud-based solution.  They were able to make the shift into a usage-based model and provide better insight into monitoring how customers are using their product, allowing them to develop future software monetization strategies and growth plans.

In the final session of the day, SafeNet’s Prakash Panjwani and Russ Hubbard fielded questions from the room as they moderated a great panel session featuring these industry experts.  As the conference came to a close, there were many positive comments and attendees left the event ready to tackle their own software monetization strategies, now armed with the knowledge to get it done successfully.

All presentations and videos from the event will be available shortly right here on licensinglive.com.  If you attended this years’ event, thank you.  What was the most useful session for you?  Share your feedback with us.