According to Steve Treanor, sales operations manager at Aveva distributor, SolutionsPT, buying software by subscription can cut upfront costs by 65% in the first year, compared to the traditional “perpetual licence” model. In some cases the payback can be as short as six months, he adds.
Some – mainly cloud-based – products are only available on the Flex subscription service. Users can swap the products they use during their subscriptions and pick those they need for a particular project. They can access a configurator that calculates how many credits they are likely to need for a project. If they don’t use their credits, they lose them.
Aveva launched the subscription model in a low-key way about three years ago. According to Treanor, take-up has been tripling every year.
But his colleague Andy Graham adds that “the perpetual model is not going away – it’s still a big part of the business and there will always be those who want a perpetual licence” He expects about 25% of customers to stick with the traditional model.

Aveva customers can now buy their software on a subscription basis
• Schneider Electric, which bought 60% of Aveva for £3bn in 2017, is buying the remining 40% of the business in a deal worth £9.4bn.
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