70 percent of software suppliers collect usage data, but only 26 percent believe they do it very well

Revenera, producer of leading solutions that help technology companies build better products, accelerate time to value and monetize what matters, today released the Revenera Monetization Monitor: Software Usage Analytics 2021 report. Part of an annual series, this report identifies best practices for collecting and analyzing software usage data, as demonstrated by the 26 percent of respondents who report the ability to collect this very well (a number that jumps to 38 percent for suppliers using a commercial software usage analytics solution).

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“Our report clearly shows that product management teams have done their homework. Seventy percent of companies are collecting software usage insights today. This number will only grow. Without data-driven decisions, innovation and revenue growth can be stymied,” said Nicole Segerer, VP of Products and Marketing at Revenera. “However, simply collecting data isn’t enough: leading companies automate the process and access to the data to get the best possible results out of their usage insights.”

Highlights from Revenera Monetization Monitor: Software Usage Analytics 2021 report include:

• Software suppliers’ interest in usage data continues to grow.
  • More than two-thirds (70 percent) of respondents collect usage data today, up from 60 percent in 2020. The number of software suppliers collecting usage data is expected to grow to a total of 79 percent by 2023.
  • In the coming 12–18 months, 37 percent of all respondents (and 47 percent of product managers) indicated that usage-based software monetization models will grow as a percentage of overall software license revenue, highlighting the need for accurate usage data. This number goes up to 62 percent among suppliers that primarily rely on SaaS.
  • While suppliers using SaaS as the dominant deployment model lead in usage data collection, they’re falling behind in their confidence to collect this data. Only 30 percent report being able to do so very well, with the majority of those collecting it relying on manual interventions.

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• Automated data collection and analysis initiatives can help overcome common challenges:
  • While more suppliers are collecting data, confidence in the ability to collect product usage data is declining. In 2021, the number reporting that they can do it very well was 26 percent, down from 32 percent in 2020 and 35 percent in 2019. Among suppliers that use a commercial usage analytics software solution, 38 percent gather product usage data very well, a number that drops to only 23 percent of suppliers that use a homegrown solution.
  • Reliance on manual interventions, which may indicate the lack of or insufficiently automated processes, went up from 28 percent in 2020 to 44 percent in 2021.
  • Among suppliers that do not collect usage data, 33 percent can’t see common metrics of usage. This number plummets to 2 percent among suppliers that do collect usage data.

Resources:

• The Revenera Monetization Monitor: Software Usage Analytics 2021 report.
• The companion report, Revenera Monetization Monitor: Software Monetization Models and Strategies 2021.

Methodology
The 2021 Revenera Monetization Monitor Software Industry Survey was conducted by Revenera from mid-April through mid-June 2021. This research project looks at software producers’ software business models, pricing, usage and transparency. The survey was undertaken globally. Job levels of the 374 survey respondents were: director and above (33 percent), manager/team leader (33 percent), and individual contributors/consultants (34 percent).

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