Things Repeat Themselves

Back in the days of onprem software, software vendors differentiated between, on the one hand, bug fixes, upgrades, and light improvements in functionality and, on the other hand, more substantial improvements in functionality.

The first was:

Maintenance Release – a release of the Software that corrects faults, adds functionality or otherwise amends or upgrades the Software, but which does not constitute a New Version.

The second was:

New Version – any new version of the Software which from time to time is publicly marketed and offered for purchase by the Supplier in the course of its normal business, being a version which contains such significant differences from the previous versions as to be generally accepted in the marketplace as constituting a new product.

The software vendor’s view being: if we are going to spend money and develop some serious new features, we want to be able to get additional revenue for them.

When SaaS first kicked off, there was none of that in SaaS contracts. The product was going to be ever improving and you, the customer, were on an exciting journey with the vendor. You would get all the benefits of the journey at no (visible) additional cost.

Of course, business is business and money is money, so now we are back at the position we were with onprem. The wording is different, but the effect is exactly the same.

Plus ça change.

11 March 2025