RightNow, known for its Web customer experience management software, believes that the cloud provides a new opportunity for cloud software vendors to provide fair pricing that reflects a new level of economies of scale.   RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte stated  The “Cloud Challenge” is directed at other major players in this space including Oracle, SAP, Salesforce.com, and other vendors.   "We are challenging the industry to finally deliver on the full promise of the cloud. I challenge our peers to step up and engage with clients like true cloud vendors, not on-premise vendors in cloud clothing," stated RightNow's chief marketing officer, Jason Mittelstaedt.

A number of on-demand contracts are geared toward charging based on the maximum number of users expected to use the software at some point in the future.  Longer term contracts for 3 to 5 year periods provide lock-ins which appear to be a good deal but in reality are still higher that actual usage.  To provide fair pricing and service, RightNow issued the following points as part of its “Cloud Challenge”;

1. No shelfware; pay for what you use with long term price certainty.

2. Transparent pricing; customers should get five-year fixed pricing

3. No lock-in; customers should have the right to walk away from the contract if service levels or application functions don't meet expectations.

4. Flex up or down; customers should be able to adjust the number of seats they are paying for, capacity of servers rented, or nature of application modules they're renting with prolonged negotiation with the vendor over the contract. Again, with charges based on actual usage.

5. Cash for failed service requirements; on-demand vendors offer apologies when service disappears, but seldom cash. If a contracted service goes down or SLA isn't meant, there should monetary reimbursement to the customer, not just words acknowledging the outage.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/hosted/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223200018