Manufacturing Magazine February 2016 | Page 25

TACKLING DIGITAL WASTE fulfillment to manage the ongoing lifecycle of the software revenue model . In some cases a channel partner sits between the producer and the end-customer , obfuscating what an end-customer really owns .
A good way to think of a digital goods supply chain is to view it like the app store experience for mobile phones such as the Apple App Store or Google Play . Once a purchase is made , the customer has a self-service facility to view their financial credit , manage purchases , view their history , and move software to another device . In addition , Google and Apple have keen insights into who the end-user is , what they ’ ve purchased , and upsell opportunities .
Digital waste accumulates because of an inability to manage this ongoing lifecycle of the software revenue model .
Indicators of digital waste Signs that you have digital waste include : 1 . Digital waste is evident when maintenance or subscription renewal rates are lower than the industry best practice value of 85 to 95 percent or when renewals are late , or are incomplete . I ’ ve heard some executives describe the renewal problem as ‘ gold dust littering the floor while we concentrate on building bricks ’. I ’ ve even heard renewal representatives say , ‘ We had to get this renewal done , so we felt the number of copies that we had was good enough . At times it seems as though the gold dust might more accurately be described as gold bars littering the floor .
2 . An inability to create targeted upsell campaigns to the appropriate individual , creating a void of five – 10 percent of revenue . One person responsible for marketing campaigns I ’ ve encountered said that based upon experiences at her previous company , her current company is missing out on seven percent upsell potential due to poor tracking of actual end-customer deployments .
3 . Manual-intensive audits ( of the largest revenue producing customers ) reveal over-usage of goods usually by 10 percent , if not greater . Many producers and consumers of the software are startled to find levels these levels of software license non-compliance
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