As your company transitions from traditional product licensing to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), you'll likely face many new challenges, especially in support services. Navigating this shift raises a pressing question: How can you optimize your financial and business model to thrive in the SaaS era?

In this blog, we’ll explore our Research Journey on Optimizing the Support Model, uncovering your challenges and opportunities waiting to be seized. In-depth research will provide actionable insights, expose the risks of outdated models, and reveal a path forward. Whether you're reevaluating your approach or seeking to future-proof your strategy, this exploration will help your support services organization succeed in an ever-changing market.

Ready to discover how to adapt and excel in the age of SaaS? Let’s get started.

So jump in with us as we:

• Define the Problem: By clearly identifying the business challenge, we can start tackling it.
• Launch Discovery: This is where we investigate the facts and contributing factors through polls, surveys, and interviews.
• Develop the Theory: Our researchers and analysts can develop and enhance frameworks with data in hand.
• Guide the Industry: Correlations to financial results lead to conclusions that will help your organization take the proper steps.
  

By following this journey, you will stay informed about every step, actively contribute to finding solutions, and access the results in real-time. Join us as we work toward defining the optimal financial and business model for support services in the SaaS era.

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Defining the Problem: Why Defining the Financial Model for Support Services is a Challenge

As you transition from traditional CapEx product licensing to SaaS’s all-inclusive OpEx subscription model, you may face a tough challenge: defining the right financial model for your support services. Unlike in the past, where services had clear, discrete revenue streams, SaaS bundles support into the subscription. This makes tracking costs and revenues far more complex, leading to funding and staffing uncertainties that can disrupt your operations.

But that's just the start. To thrive in an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) model, your support organization must adopt new capabilities to meet growing customer demands. Without clarity in your financial model, you’re likely encountering these pressing obstacles:

• Funding uncertainty: How do you allocate resources effectively when the revenue stream for support services isn’t clearly defined? Overfunding inflates costs, while underfunding diminishes service quality and customer satisfaction.
• Staffing challenges: Ambiguity in funding creates difficulties in determining staffing levels. Too few resources lead to longer wait times and frustrated customers, while too many inflate operational expenses.
• Value leakage: Bundling support into subscriptions without a clear monetization strategy risks giving away high-value services for free, reducing profitability, and underestimating the importance of support.

The key to overcoming these challenges is a financial model that ensures your support services are funded appropriately, staffed efficiently, and recognized for their vital contribution to your company’s success.

This Research Journey provides the frameworks and insights you need to tackle these challenges head-on. You’ll gain clarity on how to align your financial model with SaaS demands, empowering you to overcome uncertainties and thrive in a rapidly evolving market. 

Unveiling the Research Methodology: How We're Tackling the Challenge

To address this problem, we will embark on this journey by utilizing a multifaceted approach, which will include: 

• Engaging its advisory boards to refine research questions and ensure the study is aligned with the most critical industry concerns.
• Addressing the problem by conducting surveys with key industry stakeholders—including support executives, finance professionals, and customer experience leaders—to gather valuable insights into current practices and challenges.
• Analyzing emerging trends in support services, such as the evolving relationship between support and customer success, to identify best practices and develop resilient solutions to future shifts. 
• Presenting a comprehensive framework of an optimal financial and business model for support services in SaaS toward the end of the journey. This framework will cover essential areas, including funding models, staffing strategies, and value monetization.

What You’ll Gain From Participating in This Research Journey

By participating in this Research Journey, you will gain:

• Access to cutting-edge insights: Stay ahead of the curve by accessing research findings, industry benchmarks, and expert analysis.
• Actionable strategies: Translate research insights into actionable strategies for your organization. This will enable you to optimize your support services, drive maximum value for customers, and provide greater financial business returns to the company.
• A voice in shaping the future: Contribute your expertise and experience to help shape the future of support services in the SaaS industry.
• Enhanced career growth: Gain a deep understanding of this critical business challenge and its solutions to position yourself as a thought leader and valuable asset.

Your Key Takeaways

By the end of this Research Journey, you will have gained practical insights into optimizing financial and business models for support services functions as companies transition to a SaaS model. This will include:

• Thematic insights: Discover critical themes and insights shaping support service business models today and a thorough understanding of what is working, what isn’t, and where the industry is headed.
• Proactive guidance: Learn recommendations on best practices for funding, staff, and achieving the charter of support services, how to monetize value-added services, and the implications of embedded support revenue. Receive guidance on the roles and responsibilities between Support and Customer Success.‍
• Strategic empowerment: The main goal of this journey is to help you gain a meaningful, valued, and viable seat at the corporate table. To that end, you will learn how to advocate for your value-added services, secure the necessary funding, and successfully respond effectively to the shifts of support services in a SaaS environment.