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Frameworks, core principles and top case studies for SaaS pricing, learnt and refined over 28+ years of SaaS-monetization experience.
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In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, the sharing economy has transformed how consumers access services and products, from transportation to accommodation. But what happens when we take this collaborative approach and apply it to enterprise software? The intersection of the sharing economy model with enterprise SaaS presents fascinating opportunities for cost optimization, resource utilization, and collaborative value creation.
What Is the Sharing Economy and Why Does It Matter for Enterprise Software?
The sharing economy represents a socio-economic model built on the shared creation, production, distribution, trade, and consumption of goods and services. It empowers organizations and individuals to share resources that would otherwise be underutilized.
This model has disrupted consumer industries dramatically:
- Uber and Lyft transformed transportation without owning fleets
- Airbnb revolutionized hospitality without owning properties
- WeWork reimagined office space without owning buildings
Enterprise software, traditionally characterized by rigid licensing models and siloed usage, is now experiencing similar disruption through collaborative approaches to SaaS deployment, usage, and cost management.
Emerging Models of Sharing Economy in Enterprise SaaS
Collaborative Pricing and Consumption
Traditional enterprise SaaS pricing has followed a predictable path: per-seat licensing or tiered subscription models. Today, we're seeing the emergence of collaborative pricing strategies that align more closely with the sharing economy principles:
Consumption-Based Models: Organizations only pay for what they actually use, similar to how ride-sharing services charge only for actual rides taken.
Peak/Off-Peak Pricing: Some enterprise tools now offer discounted rates during off-peak hours, allowing organizations to optimize workloads and costs by shifting non-urgent processes to lower-cost time windows.
Community-Based Volume Discounts: Industry consortiums or business networks collectively negotiating preferred rates with SaaS vendors, creating economies of scale for all participants.
According to Gartner, by 2025, more than 60% of enterprise software vendors will offer consumption-based pricing options, up from less than 15% in 2021.
Shared Resource Pools
Another fascinating application of the sharing economy to enterprise SaaS involves the pooling of digital resources:
API Sharing Cooperatives: Organizations with similar needs but non-competitive relationships sharing API calls, compute resources, or data processing capabilities.
Excess Capacity Marketplaces: Platforms that allow enterprises to monetize or exchange unused SaaS licenses, processing power, or storage capacity.
Joint Implementation Consortiums: Multiple organizations pooling expertise and resources to implement complex SaaS platforms, then sharing ongoing maintenance responsibilities.
Case Study: How Collaborative SaaS Models Create Value
The pharmaceutical industry offers a compelling example of sharing economy principles applied to enterprise software. In 2020, a consortium of five mid-sized pharmaceutical companies formed a shared services alliance for clinical trial management software.
Rather than each company independently licensing and implementing a costly clinical trial management system (CTMS), they:
- Jointly licensed a single instance of a leading CTMS platform
- Established clear data segregation protocols to protect proprietary information
- Created a shared administration team to manage the platform
- Developed a usage-based internal cost allocation model
The results were remarkable:
- 62% reduction in total licensing costs across the consortium
- 47% decrease in implementation expenses
- 53% faster time-to-value through shared learning
Each member company maintained its competitive independence while benefiting from collaborative economics in a non-competitive area.
Challenges and Considerations
While the application of sharing economy principles to enterprise SaaS shows promise, significant challenges exist:
Security and Compliance Concerns
Shared environments require sophisticated security controls to ensure proper data isolation. Organizations must establish clear governance frameworks that satisfy their regulatory requirements while enabling collaboration.
Vendor Readiness
Many SaaS vendors remain resistant to collaborative models that might reduce their total revenue. However, forward-thinking providers recognize that flexible, consumption-based approaches can expand their market reach.
Organizational Readiness
Enterprises accustomed to owning and controlling their software environments may struggle with the cultural shift toward collaborative consumption. This requires executive sponsorship and clear articulation of the value proposition.
How to Begin Your Enterprise SaaS Sharing Journey
For organizations interested in applying sharing economy principles to their SaaS strategy, consider these starting points:
Inventory Your SaaS Portfolio: Identify applications where usage patterns are variable or where significant capacity goes unused.
Explore Industry Networks: Connect with non-competing organizations in your sector to identify common software needs that could be addressed through collaborative approaches.
Engage Progressive Vendors: Start conversations with your most innovative SaaS providers about consumption-based pricing or shared tenancy models.
Start Small: Begin with a pilot project that applies sharing economy principles to a non-critical application to demonstrate value and learn implementation best practices.
The Future of Collaborative Enterprise SaaS
As enterprises continue to seek cost optimization and operational efficiency, we'll likely see accelerated adoption of sharing economy principles in enterprise software.
Beyond mere cost savings, these models promise to foster increased innovation through cross-organizational learning and resource optimization. The most successful organizations will be those that can balance the benefits of collaborative consumption with their unique competitive requirements.
The sharing economy isn't just transforming how we get around cities or where we stay when traveling—it's reshaping how enterprises consume, manage, and derive value from their software investments. Organizations that embrace this evolution will gain not only economic advantages but also increased agility in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.