This is why traditional enterprise software is increasingly being sold and valued like a SaaS. A lot of the latest SaaS IPOs (MuleSoft, Elastic, Pivotal, Sola

This is why traditional enterprise software is increasingly being sold and valued like a SaaS. A lot of the latest SaaS IPOs (MuleSoft, Elastic, Pivotal, SolarWinds, DocuSign) derive a lot of their revenue from installable software. The economic model is annual subscription (with incentives for multi-year pre-pay) rather than big perpetual deal followed by 25% maintenance annually in perpetuity. Wall Street likes this model, understands this model, and it's less prone to boom/bust and aggressive sales tactics. The result has had a huge positive impact on making enterprise sales more driven on actual results rather than schmoozing. It leads to more sustainable, stable revenue for the software company that's directly tied to ongoing perception of value from the customer. The customer also in theory gets a LOT more attention from account teams and support than they otherwise would. Screw-ups or shelfware at worst lead to 1 year of revenue and hit the churn rate.