Meet the new cash cow in cloud billing – consumption
With estimates for growth in the global cloud computing market pushing to more than $240 billion by 2020, it’s no wonder that the ability to bill for all that revenue is being put under the microscope.
Research and Markets recently released its “Global Cloud Billing Market Forecasts & Opportunities, 2018”, calling out crucial requirements for cloud billing providers in order to satisfy the demand of cloud-based enterprises engaged in digital and/or non-digital services. According to Research and Markets, flexibility, accuracy and granularity are key.
Sophisticated consumption-based rating
Subscription-based solutions need not apply. Cloud providers are beginning to understand the need to move beyond one-size-fits-all pricing strategies in order to meet the diverse needs of their customers. Customers, too, are demanding more usage details from their cloud providers so they can understand how to operate their businesses more efficiently. The ability to provide flexible, highly customized pricing is a strategic advantage that helps cloud providers avoid becoming a commodity.
Dynamic pricing
Metered usage rating methods like peak, true peak, percentile, burstables, etc. give cloud providers the ability to offer flexibility in pricing as their customers go through the regular ups and downs of their business. These rating methods help cloud providers secure their margins and help their customers mitigate risk.
Variable billing units
From minutes to megabytes, the flexibility to rate anything you want matters. Who knows how cloud services will be charged in the future or what new technologies might be around the corner that introduce us to a whole new billing unit? The answer is a consumption-based billing solution with user-defined rating methods to accommodate what was, what’s now and what’s tomorrow.
Add to these capabilities the ability to layer discounts and manage taxes, and it’s easy to see how fast a subscription-based billing system can look a day late and a dollar short for sophisticated cloud businesses.
IDI’s history as a rating and billing powerhouse is undeniable. And as a cloud-based billing and OSS solutions provider, IDI has a long history of offering service providers the power of a proven rating and billing solution with all the flexibility to evolve a business in any direction.
And we mean any direction. We once rated, taxed and billed for a stuffed cow promotional item. That’s flexible.