Freemium software models for B2B (Business to Business) software, including HR applications, are the next generation in software and are way more superior to traditional models. Here are six reasons why you need a Freemium platform as of right now!
Firstly, we need to understand the concept of ‘Freemium’. Freemium stands for Free & Premium, indicating that the model has a genuine free plan and an upgrade path to premium plans. This is the perfect environment for HR professionals and companies to get a taste of how the software can directly benefit their business. However, I do have to warn you that some platforms might say that they’re Freemium, but behind their smoke and mirrors is a trap to make you pay big dollars. They hardly offer any real or tangible capabilities and instead represent what I call an up-sell frenzy. Every time you click on a button to explore a feature you receive a popup asking you for your credit card – hardly a user-friendly experience, let alone an environment where you can extract a limited but real value from.In my views, freemium software platforms have to offer a genuine free plan that has enough features so it can be used by companies to either:
As I mentioned above, having a genuine free plan is extremely useful for HR, IT and other stakeholders to test the platform before committing to it. Around 30 minutes is all you’ll need to instantly create an account and start having a play to find out if this is something that you want to continue to explore. You can then choose to build a test plan that involves enough stakeholders in your organisation, in order to feel comfortable enough, that the platform you’re testing will actually work in the real world of your organisation.
The biggest barrier to entry for HR when taking up new software such as a recruitment platform is the initial upfront investment. This investment is vastly spent on what they call either the setup fee, the customisation fee, or; the setup and training fee. Well, modern Freemium software platforms are by-design built to be used with self-service in mind and therefore they’re super intuitive to learn how to use and how to customise. Let’s use Facebook as an example. Did you need anyone to help you write a status or send a friend request? The same thing goes for the admin or customisation aspect of Facebook. Did you need someone to show you how to customise your account and upload your picture and all that? I’m sure the answer is no. So the same is true for the B2B Freemium platforms. The way you create your account, onboard yourself and customise your own account should be just as easy as in the case of any consumer-based applications like Facebook.
Training and support can be a significant hidden cost that you get hit by after you’ve signed up for a new system and this can be very embarrassing in front of your CFO and management. So make sure that you understand how the training and support work, how much you will be charged and how much of it you’re going to need. This fact is also explained by the above points – modern Freemium HR systems are intuitive and therefore very minimal training and support should be required.
As implied in the name, modern Freemium platforms offer a free plan as the starting point for the users, along with other premium plans that users can upgrade to. By design, this means those vendors have to publish the various paid (premium) plans and their corresponding prices.
It’s expected that any modern B2B Freemium platform would be one that encourages integrations with other systems, so the chances are integration was part of the original architecture of the platform. You shouldn’t have to beg your vendor to allow you to integrate with another system in your HR ecosystem. And you shouldn’t have to pay for it either! It’s a lot easier and cleaner if all the integration capabilities are published on the website and you can, therefore, trust that it would work with another system that you already have or are about to acquire.
Until next time,
Anwar