CEBP pricing is moving beyond cpm

From the perspective of a service provider like Jaduka and our parent Network IP, the bottom line reason for all this time and energy being spent on Communications Enabled Business Process is one of margin.

The phrase "Falling ARPUS" is one of those really weird pieces of jargon that is common in the Telco space. Because of competition, deregulation, and technological advances (VoIP, IM, Email) the cash cow of voice traffic has been getting skinnier and skinnier for Telcos all around the world.

We ran a quick but useful thought exercise earlier this week with our team. List out all the pricing models that we were aware of in this space.

To be clear, we are only focused on hosted CEBP using a transactional model for billing. With Avaya dropping their CEBP messaging and staffing, I am not aware of any vendor still trying to sell upfront licenses in the manner of the legacy software industry.

Per minute
Per call
Per leg
Per lead
Per record
Per seat
Per contact
Per hit

The cynical might suggest that the cost basis underneath all these different pricing labels is still a price per minute. Thus, we are simply trying to make some actuarial type guesses on usage. Yes, that is partly true. However, with good reporting, good communication with your clients, and a robust telco infrastructure underneath Jaduka the ability to make these usage estimates is not particularly risky. International interconnect or peering agreements are done every day and are based upon similar estimates of future usage patterns.

The more important point is that we are moving towards these new pricing labels in order to model the language our Enterprise clients use. Guess what, new packaging matters, it adds perceived value, thus margins are dramatically improved!

This isn't the end point in our drive towards value added pricing. The goal is to price our efforts based on the value driven by the transaction taking place during the call or message. Honestly, there is a lot more to learn on this topic. It is what the Two-sided business model strives to accomplish. More discussion needed.

If you don't believe me, put down that $3 bottle of water and think a little harder.