Software vendors moving to the subscription model are feeling customers’ breath on their necks as contracts are easy to slip out of and competitors stand by. To cut losses, they ought to pump up customer support and bundle it with products, according to Ansa Sekharan, executive vice president of global customer support and Informatica University at Informatica LLC.

“When you make a purchase, there’s an expectation of an outcome,” Sekharan said.

He spoke to Peter Burris (@plburris), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, during Informatica World in San Francisco, California. (* Disclosure below.) 

This outcome in its entirety, rather than a one-off Band-Aid for an immediate pain point, is the focus of the company’s customer service, he explained. For a business to achieve a broad outcome, it must have a plan. A big data strategy, in particular, is a must before a company can benefit from big data software, he added.

To assist customers with their big data strategies, Informatica regularly introduces service offerings for customers that complement its products, Sekharan stated.

Use it or lose it

In a lucky twist, the subscription model is turning out to be useful here, affording Informatica a way to stay close to customers and monitor their use of the products to better serve them.

“We have a product called DiscoveryIQ [data analytics for product usage insights], which mines that information and offers recommendations on how the customers could better leverage our products,” Sekharan said, adding that Informatica and customers use DiscoveryIQ jointly to improve performance.

Later in the year, Informatica will be including five or 10-day customer consultations with subscriptions, Sekharan stated. “As we pivot to subscription, we’re kind of bundling the services along with the subscription,” he added.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of Informatica World 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Informatica World. Neither Informatica Corp. nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE