Freemium for large enterprises : – a case study at Swedish software development company Teleopti about development and application of the freemium business model on the market for large enterprises

Sammanfattning: Many software development companies targeting consumers or small and medium enterprises apply the freemium business model: giving a basic product away for free while charging a premium for an enhanced version of the product or for advanced features. Companies offering more complex and expensive products to large enterprises have not yet adopted the freemium business model to any great extent. This study explores how the freemium business model can be applied to expensive and advanced solutions on the large enterprise market with the purpose of creating a powerful leads generator. How the free product could be technically realized, packaged and marketed was examined through a case study at Swedish software development company Teleopti. The study concludes that self-sufficient customer processes and streamlined internal processes, user-friendly product and processes, adequate marketing communication, substantial stimulation of demand for the premium version and being first-to-market are success factors when applying the freemium business model to expensive and advanced solutions on the large enterprise market. Customer processes have to be self-sufficient and internal processes streamlined in order to avoid soaring continuous costs from offering the free product. Badwill could be created if the product and the processes involving customer actions are not user-friendly. If the free product is not communicated adequately potential customers will not learn about its existence and no leads will be generated. Failure to stimulate demand for the premium product will result in a lack of deals and consequently no revenue. Finally, being first-to-market is desirable, since attention and PR will otherwise be limited. These success factors are further broken down into more specific guidelines as for what to take into consideration when applying the freemium business model in this particular context.