The great software pricing shakeout of 2026: What every IT leader needs to know

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• Software pricing is moving to outcome-based models.
• Users and vendors need to agree on success metrics.
• The nature of software engineering work is evolving.

In the year ahead, your relationship with your software vendors may change radically, perhaps even a greater shift than the switch from disks to Software as a Service. You may start paying only for the actual results the software delivers, versus simply paying a monthly charge that you pay even if the application sits on a shelf.
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Of course, paying for results requires consistent, agreed-upon metrics to determine what exactly is being advanced, and this will be the challenge for users and their vendors. For example, for users of Zendesk ...