Avangate Launches Summer ’13 In Bid To Simplify Software Licensing

Avangate wants resellers to help end users who have been baffled by the changing rules of the software licensing game.

As the IT industry permanently shifts the goalpost, Avangate has launched Summer ’13, which it describes as the first customer-centric commerce solution for software and cloud services businesses. This latest version of its SkyCommerce Suite allows software companies to address the disruption of their traditional business and sales models, it claims.

Licence to disrupt

Companies who think commerce is off their list should think again, according to Michael Ni, vice president of marketing at Avangate.  “Software and cloud service companies are increasingly responsible for delivering value through the commerce process as well – specific, convenient, in-context,” he said.

With the latest release of SkyCommerce, software companies will satisfy the preferences of individual buyers, he said, because companies must turn every point of engagement. Avangate has promised its partners channel-enabled sales and service portals and API integration.

The confusion over software licensing is troubling many customers, and purchasers are waiting for the dust to settle and some kind of pattern to emerge, according to Constellation Research’s principal analyst Ray Wang.

“Technologies have not kept up the pace of change,” he said, “The lack of agility to meet the pace of change is costly.”

In a recent Constellation survey, it was found that the average median organisation maintains 33 separate and disparate systems to support the end to end delivery of an order, reported Wang.

Mihaela Paun, global online programmes director at reseller Bitdefender, said, “Avangate’s platform helps us to reach customers via established, direct or emerging channels.”