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Impact of pricing schemes on a market for Software-as-a-Service and perpetual software

Published: 01 October 2012 Publication History
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  • Abstract

    In this paper, we present an agent-based simulation system that allows modeling the interactions between software buyers and vendors in a software market. The market offers Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and perpetual software (PS) licenses under different pricing schemes. Four dynamic pricing schemes are analyzed: derivative-follower pricing, demand-driven pricing, skimming pricing, and penetration pricing. Customer (buyer) agents respond to these prices by selecting the most appropriate software license scheme based on four criteria using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) decision support mechanism. The four decision criteria relate to finance, software capability, organization, and vendor. The simulation results show that the demand-driven pricing scheme is the most effective method but hard to implement since it requires perfect knowledge about market conditions. As an alternative, penetration pricing and skimming pricing could be used. In addition to this, it can be stated that SaaS is most attractive for small enterprises while PS is attractive for large enterprises.

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              Published In

              cover image Future Generation Computer Systems
              Future Generation Computer Systems  Volume 28, Issue 8
              October, 2012
              211 pages

              Publisher

              Elsevier Science Publishers B. V.

              Netherlands

              Publication History

              Published: 01 October 2012

              Author Tags

              1. AHP-Analytic Hierarchy Process
              2. Agent-based simulation
              3. Decision support
              4. Demand-driven pricing
              5. Derivative-follower pricing
              6. Dynamic pricing
              7. Penetration pricing
              8. Perpetual software pricing
              9. SaaS pricing
              10. Skimming pricing

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