A new survey has found that more than half of respondents who excel at collecting product usage data use those insights to shape their product roadmaps. The findings are available in the Revenera Monetisation Monitor: Software Usage Analytics 2025 Outlook report.

“Effective usage data collection practices are clearly providing an advantage to those software producers,” said Nicole Segerer, General Manager at Revenera. “Siloed approaches, cumbersome manual processes, or collecting data but letting it go to waste are examples of common impediments that prevent technology companies from analysing their usage data in a way that would support improved software monetisation and strengthen their revenue initiatives.”

Highlights from the Revenera Monetisation Monitor: Software Usage Analytics 2025 Outlook report include:

• Trends in product usage data collection and analysis illustrate room for improved practices.
  • Today, 38% of respondents report the ability to gather product usage data “very well.” The remaining 62% have room to optimise their initiatives.
  • Telemetry data is going to waste for the 29% of respondents who collect it, but don’t analyse it – a concerning jump from 11% two years ago.
  • Reliance on homegrown solutions for collecting and analysing usage data is falling, reported by 31% of respondents, down from 37% a year ago.
  • Siloed approaches can complicate software usage analytics initiatives, yet nearly half (49%) report using disparate systems that make it difficult to achieve a single customer view.
  • Collecting customer intelligence often combines automation of quantitative initiatives, qualitative efforts, and user segmentation: 81% of all respondents (up from 69% a year ago) report taking a blended approach: collecting additional insights and/or asking follow-up questions based on user segmentation from product usage analytics. The goes up to 90% among product managers.
• Software usage analytics provide opportunities for business improvements.
  • The ability to track all customers and their entitlements/use rights, improved significantly over the past year, from 39% of respondents indicating that they are able to track this to 54%. For suppliers that collect usage data “very well,” this jumps to 70%.
  • The top application of product usage data is to identify upsell opportunities, with 68% using it for this purpose.
  • Almost half (45%) of respondents are turning to product usage data for product roadmap decisions. Among those who collect product usage data “very well,” this number goes up to 56%.
  • A significant portion of customers need more insights into their own usage data: 36% of respondents say that more than half of their customers already have access to usage data, while an additional 39% say that more than half of their customers want insights into their data and 36% say that more than half already have access to usage data but want additional insights/functionality.
  • Among respondents who are planning to change monetisation models in the coming two years, 37% will be doing so to offer usage-based models to align with customer value. Usage-based models are also anticipated to grow as a%age of overall software license revenue for 59% of respondents.

This report is the third in a series by Revenera. The first report in this series focuses on Software Monetisation Models and Strategies. The second focuses on Software Piracy & Compliance.