Customer Centric Commerce

The software and cloud services industry has been disrupted by macro trends such as cloud computing, increased mobility, and consumerization of the workplace. Software is now more ubiquitous than ever before, and plays an increasingly central role in daily life as well as business operations. This in turn has created expectations of a more intimate, on-going relationship between software and its buyers, requiring a major shift in how software companies develop, promote, sell and support their products - a shift that places more power in the hands of individuals.

With this shift toward the individual comes the need for a new software sales model: business-to-individual, or B2i. Gone are the days of sensationalist B2C promotions, dull B2B slide decks, or lock-in to a specific vendor. The software market is more fluid, and every software sale is more demanding than ever before, requiring vendors to reach the individual buyer at the right time, in the right context, in the right market.

Shifting focus to the individual requires meeting many new challenges. Individual buyers expect the ability to buy any product combination they want, through any channel, using any payment model, at any time they please - all while enjoying rapid access to competent resources and support. As the buyer progresses through the purchase process, many new challenges in serving the individual arise.

This paper explores how this shift toward the individual is changing how software companies operate, and proposes a bold new customer centric commerce blueprint for interacting with customers in order to secure future revenue streams.