Programmers don't buy support
After thinking more on my previous post, the basic flaw in our plan was expecting a programmer to buy support.
Programmers are relatively conservative buyers of software since:
- They don't buy much software, usually some form of management does.
- They typically want to build rather than buy.
If you think through all the products that you have purchased, how many offered support - did you buy it? The best case where a programmer would purchase support is when it is bundled (such as with an MSDN subscription which programmers and especially independents often purchase themselves). Would programmers buy the technical support tickets if they had a choice?
The other flaw in the plan was expecting programmers to buy support when they weren't buying anything else. Many developer tools vendors (source control and bug tracking for instance) offer support as an option when you buy a license. I think this works for two reasons:
- If the authorized buyer is a management person then they are more likely to see the value (whether real or perceived) in getting support too.
- If the authorized buyer is a programmer then they already have their credit card out so the decision to buy has been made - now the vendor just has to close the deal on a bundle with support (typically through the draw of free upgrades if you buy a support contract).
Bottom line - make sure your business plan doesn't rely on programmers buying support contracts rather look for user license fees.
(Many companies have taken the open source approach and changed it to have special versions that are either more convenient to install, have additional features or even different licenses for commercial purposes to drive their revenue.)
Do you buy support contracts?
Jonathan Cogley is the CEO and founder of thycotic, a .NET consulting company and ISV in Washington DC. thycotic has just released Thycotic Secret Server which is a secure web-based solution to both "Where is my Hotmail password?" and "Who has the password for our domain name?". Secret Server is the leader in secret management and sharing within companies and teams.