States may soon have the authority to compel online businesses to collect sales taxes on their behalf, if the U.S. Senate has its way. President Obama already has indicated he will sign such a measure, but it still must clear the House of Representatives. The going may not be so easy there, as some lawmakers have registered vehement opposition to the bill, arguing that it would amount to imposing a new tax.

Avangate's Enterprise Edition Platform has been updated once again, just two months following its Spring release, but this time with major changes the company said addresses a dramatic shift in the way companies and consumers alike are buying.

Avangate wants resellers to help end users who have been baffled by the changing rules of the software licensing game.

As the IT industry permanently shifts the goalpost, Avangate has launched Summer '13, which it describes as the first customer-centric commerce solution for software and cloud services businesses. This latest version of its Enterprise Edition Suite allows software companies to address the disruption of their traditional business and sales models, it claims.

SAP's planned purchase of hybris points to a fundamental change happening in the way customers buy, says Michael Ni.
SAP's recent announcement regarding the acquisition of hybris reflects the maturation of what is fast becoming a key software market, commerce, and the need for unified solutions that tap into ecommerce growth across the globe. First, companies like Oracle and Netsuite acquire commerce systems, and now, SAP aquires hybris.

An increased reliance on e-business and consumer-oriented payment strategies used by Web-based businesses such as Netflix has democratized the subscription billing model. Adobe, too, announced recently that its Creative Suite software would be moved to monthly Creative Cloud subscriptions.

For the next two weeks, the MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing newsletter will feature articles on two cutting-edge marketing concepts - the emerging "B2i" or business-to-individual idea, and the challenge of marketing to digital natives versus digital immigrants.

These articles will not be the typical how-to instruction, although you will find some tactical advice for tackling these emerging marketing topics.

The world has changed. There is no more B2C or B2B, it's simply B2I (Business to Individual). Individual shoppers, now being courted with sophisticated, lead-driven nurture campaigns -- something previously reserved for corporate clients and businesses -- are making purchasing decisions 24/7 that are influenced by the convergence of personal, professional, and social networks.

Avangate's customers are software, SaaS and cloud services companies that want to provide better customer experiences for their customers at any customer touch point, in the customer's specific context. Carl Theobald, Avangate's CEO, says the complexities of today's market with increasingly new sales and pricing models now more than ever require software and SaaS marketers to segment the value of their products [...].

Avangate offers a quick setup process and its users can customize the purchase experience for customers and even offer their products to consumers around the world. It also comes with the industry's highest security standards, including fraud checking, secure order pages and PCI compliance.

Solutions Providers for Retail published a contributed piece by Mike on the very actual and relevant topic of customer centricity and the need to provide a consistent customer experience across channels and touchpoints.

Internet Retailer talks about how Bitdefender gets a bigger bite of b2b market and Avangate’s role in helping them do that. This is a great validation of how Avangate can help drive B2B sales.

Software and SaaS vendors are in a dual quandary: how can they carefully follow what buyers want and have context-aware touch points that allow them to adjust their product to their needs at any time, while simultaneously balancing and nurturing existing channel relationships to leverage sales?