Imagine the significance of offsetting your utility payment, mortgage, an employee’s wages, or your child’s college tuition. The most successful profitable retail IT VARs are figuring out ways to increase the amount of recurring revenue they earn on a monthly basis to do just that.
Despite the obvious benefits, some VARs seem to be slow to adopt this model. Those who “get it” and see the value are converting more and more of their services and adopting new technologies that fit into the subscription model.
One opportunity that I’ve touched on in the past is cloud-based POS. I recently spoke with AerisPOS who was showing off their wares at RetailNOW last month. During the conversation with Dave Miller, national sales director for AerisPOS, I learned that — apart from being a recurring revenue source for VARs — there are some additional benefits to the cloud.
Speaking for the AerisPOS product (and this is in no way an endorsement for them), implementation is easier because it’s done from a central location and you pretty much just point terminals to the cloud to run the software. Additionally, AerisPOS uses a Linux OS (do competitors? I don’t know) which cuts out all the baggage (read: viruses and licencing fees) a Windows OS drags along. Also, software upgrades are free. Finally, due to the centralized nature of the solution, there are a host of business analytics, P&L statements, and other reports made available to the customer.
I know what you’re thinking. Apart from the Linux OS, my current software provider has most, if not all, of those features. That’s true. The point is to illustrate that you can offer your customers a fully-functional product based in the cloud. And, of course, you’ll be earning a monthly check and be further on your way to offsetting your next bill.
All that said, cloud POS is just one way to earn more recurring revenue. Think outside the box to figure out how you can take each and every one of your products and services and offer them in a way that makes you money every month. That’s the key to a healthy longstanding business.
August 23, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Mike – you make some excellent points, and I think it is so important to continue to get the message out to resellers, particularly in retail and hospitality, that the cloud brings a whole new set of reliable recurring revenues streams. At SaaSMAX we have identified and continue to meet new SaaS Vendors who are offering recurring commissions for the life of a customer’s relationship/license with a Cloud/SaaS App. And we’ve had some smart early adopter retail and hospitality VARs sign up and start to take advantage of the opportunities in our marketplace and participate in SaaSMAX SsnAPPshot webinars to learn more and meet the Vendors directly. One such vendor is AirPOS, another all-SaaS POS provider who’s offering excellent commission potential.
If a VAR has a sweet spot in a specific market or with a specific type of solution, there is no reason that they shouldn’t extend their product offerings to include at least a few additional complementary SaaS Apps that bring value to their clients and recurring revenues to their own monthly cash flow. It’s a no-brainer!