Managing Software‐as‐a‐Service: Pricing and operations

Abstract

Software‐as‐a‐service (SaaS) applications have experienced a decade of explosive growth, eliminating barriers in reaching users and enabling real‐time interchanges and intelligence. Using business analytics, SaaS applications are increasingly embedded in the day‐to‐day activities of businesses and consumers with competition and innovative pricing. Due to the evolution in cloud business models, new issues are surfacing to challenge practitioners and scholars. A number of issues encountered in the practice have not been properly addressed or even recognized. In this paper, we attempt to fill this important gap. We propose a framework of recent business research on SaaS in light of wide adoption of the SaaS business model. This framework broadly classifies SaaS research into two basic themes. For each theme, we review past work that has been instrumental in setting the direction of this line of research and discuss how emerging research opportunities can be addressed. For each research opportunity, we also propose an initial model and the applicable methodology. Further, in order to aid researchers, we identify the data sources wherever applicable, and even present some of the initial results. We conclude by describing promising directions on a roadmap for future research and explain why an integrative perspective of operations, marketing, and information systems is critical to SaaS. In this paper, we bridge the gap between research and practice by identifying the relevant industry problems that would help researchers who are interested in working in this area both to get a starting point and to address important theoretical and practical challenges.

Exploring the Impact of Software as a Service (SaaS) on Human Life

“…The basic objective is to match each pattern with a solution from AWS or Azure. (Li B. et al, 2022), SaaS has experienced a decade of quick-tempered growth, reducing time interchange and intelligence. SaaS is used in business analysis and insourcing the day-to-day activities of businesses and users with competition and innovation within the framework of current business research on SaaS in light of extensive adoption of the model in business.…”

Subscription Pricing for Free Delivery Services

“…Using a reformulation approach, Bhargava and Gangwar (2018) identify a class of problems for which two-part tariffs are as effective as three-part tariffs to maximize revenue from heterogeneous consumers who vary in their type. For digital services (e.g., Software-as-a-Service), Li and Kumar (2022) propose a research agenda that builds on two and three-part pricing schemes, and Gangwar and Bhargava (2023) compare the applicability of either a menu of access fee only or usage fee only, and a two-part tariff.…”

Permeation of the term “analytics” in production and operations management research

“…Analytics has been deemed essential for managing Big Data (Guha & Kumar, 2018) and even for the emergence of a new unified science of operations (Spearman & Hopp, 2021). Indeed, the availability of real‐time data has allowed businesses to, among others, update and produce more accurate real‐time demand forecasts that help optimize operations (i.e., maximize revenues, minimize costs, lead times, and delivery times) (Li & Kumar, 2022). In addition, as discussed before, the timely and effective utilization of real‐time data will continue to require the development and adoption of appropriate corresponding data analysis procedures (e.g., efficient algorithms) (Kumar et al., 2018).…”