Elevating a Fortune 500 Cybersecurity Company through Pricing and Packaging Solutions
As a market leader for cybersecurity and digital risk management solutions, this tech company sought a strategic refresh of pricing and packaging (P&P) for their enterprise-grade Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution.
Background
IAM solutions are at the forefront ofenterprise security, enabling businesses to have more control over their useridentities and sensitive information. After leading the market for decades,well-funded Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) competitors were starting to eat intotheir market share. The company wanted to reverse that trend. Otherconsiderations included:
The tremendous growth in cloud computing(e.g., SaaS, IaaS) and the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), have shifted the dynamics of IAM security from perimeter-based approaches to identity-context-based approaches that provide real-time adaptive access to all target resources.
More agile, cloud-first IAM vendors were offering a streamlined portfolio and purchase customer experience. To effectively compete, this Cybersecurity Company (along with other long-standing vendors) had to constantly adapt and expand the components and capabilities of their IAM offerings, resulting in increased complexity of their P&P. TheIAM solution had been developed and refined over the years and had numerous components and authentication methods (see Figure 1), which made the purchase process more complex for the customer.
Due to the evolution of the market, thecompany wished to refresh P&P and develop a strategy that allowed thetransition of a significant portion of its customer base to migrate fromperpetual licensing to term-based licenses.
This cybersecurity leader approachedOrchid Black to update their P&P for their IAM solution
Challenge
- The packaging concepts differed from the market.
- The portfolio had too many components and SKUs, and quotes had become too complex.
- There was friction in selling through its channel (a large portion of product sales).
- It was challenging to move traditional, long-time customers from term-based to license-based models.
- A perception of being expensive existed, which led to continual high discount expectations from customers.
- Pricing pressure in certain markets (e.g., Latin American).
We knew assisting a market leader with evaluating and reimagining their pricing and packaging approach would be a challenging engagement. Our experience with enterprise clients and the importance of balancing the needs of multiple stakeholder groups was a key part of driving through to a successful solution.
Partnership
IAM solutions are at the forefront ofenterprise security, enabling businesses to have more control Orchid Black’sdeep market research capabilities and operational experience with assistingenterprise software and technology companies was a highly relevant fit for thecompany’s objectives. The primary goal for the project was to develop optionsfor repositioning the IAM solution from a license-based pricing approach to auser-based subscription program. Caruso and Joyce brought extensive experienceworking with other technology organizations similar to this cybersecurity enterprise thathad gone through P&P transformations.
Some examples of Orchid Black’s work over the years include managing channeloperational changes in Microsoft’s transition from perpetual-based licensing tosubscription-based licensing, developing packaging approaches for SaaSconversions, and establishingsubscription-pricing schemas for multiple clients. Additionally, they brought adeep knowledge of channel sales, optimization and economics, a significantasset, as the company primarily sold through a two-tiered channel.Orchid Black’s experience working with channel optimization as both channelpartners and consultants to clients with extensive channel distributionprograms was highly valuable.
Insights
There were two big “aha moments” that were encountered during the engagement.
The first was the disparity between the market's perception of the company's solution capabilities versus their competitors. New competitors were being viewed as “cloud-built” and therefore having deeper capabilities than this market leader. This misperception, wide-spread with customers and channel partners, was anything but true. The company had one of the most comprehensive IAM solutions available in the market.
The second “aha moment” was found in reviewing competitive offerings. Conspicuously missing from the company was an easy “get-started, cloud-first” offering. This offering was a key differentiation from their competitors, who were utilizing it quite effectively in head-to-head sales situations. The team agreed this was a gap and was excited about having a “wedge offering” to use to get a foot in the door for new logos, or new departments within current clients.
These “aha moments” led to a P&P strategy that could utilize the “wedge offering” to reduce sales friction and effectively compete for new sales, but also lay the foundation for easily expanding as customers’ needs might require in the future.
Solution
When a company has a history of success as long as this one, there is a reluctance to change. It’s easier to maintain the status quo as they would still be rated as a highly successful company by most metrics. If one metric needs to be improved moving forward, it would be growth (both new logo and existing customers), and that became the north star for this entire engagement. Our work included:
We completed 55 interviews (internal and external) with 103 individuals to first understand the problem internally and the opportunity in the market. The compilation of our Summary of Findings evolved into a recommendations report, which included the new P&P and important considerations for the roll-out. Once a recommendation for the updated P&P was made, an in-depth financial analysis was conducted to understand the effects of the change from both a historical and future projections viewpoint.
We worked with Orchid Black on a P&P project for one of our key portfolios. Overall, the project was a success. The team excelled in gathering and synthesizing a ton of qualitative and quantitative data through internal, customer, and partner interviews and primary/secondary market research. The team members added a lot of value with their B2B Enterprise Software expertise and rich experience of having worked in large enterprise partner programs.
