EOL vs. Lift-Out

Once the decision has been made to dispose of a software business, there are a variety of exit options, each with a distinct set of implications depending on which road you take.  Do you end-of-life (EOL) the asset for a hard landing, or do you work with DKG on a lift-out strategy delivering a soft landing?

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End of Life

• Hard landing for customers

• Short-term cost to seller is low

• Long-term costs are potentially high

• Relatively fast process

• Liabilities and include customer satisfaction, brand damage, multi-year ELA commitments, spill-over to other business units, sales morale, and ongoing support

• HR issues include terminations and severance package expenses

• Long-term support commitments persist and become problematic

• Cloud & High- Service Level Agreement (SLA) assets require special treatment

 

Lift-Out

• Soft landing for customers

• Short-term cost to seller is higher

• Long-term cost/risk is much lower

• Slower and more complicated process

• Protects and potentially improves customer satisfaction and in-pipeline deals, boosting sales morale

• Ensures that multi-year ELA commitments are met

• Mitigates brand damage

• HR issues mitigated via transfers

• Support, cloud and high-SLA transitions can be mitigated

• Process is complex – most organizations do not have processes or expertise to manage the disposition process and ongoing transition