What Exactly Does “FREE” Mean?

means. Is the company offering a limited period of free access but will soon start billing you? Do you have to provide a credit card in order to use the free product? Does it have such limited functionality that it’s hardly useful? Are you going to have to put up with annoying ads? Is the company going to sell your information? These kind of nagging questions are what we’ve come to expect in free product offers from many companies.

Also, as a partner, “free” could mean that you are not able to make any money. How do you make margins on a product that the customer is not having to pay for? A lot of companies have jumped on the free product bandwagon over the last decade, and the trend seems to be accelerating, so partners need to find out how to adapt. One of the easiest ways is to find vendors who offer truly free products that are fully functional, and that enable partners to generate revenue. One of our favorites is attachedapps.

attachedapps are a suite of apps that easily “attach” to Office 365, and enable customers to manage contacts, track sales, and more. What makes them unique is that the core product, attachedContacts is truly free for up to 99 users. It enables customers to share contacts from their Outlook address book and keep in them in sync. There’s no time limit, no ads, and no risk of your customers’ data being sold. Plus, the attachedapps team has even come up with ways that partners can generate services revenue, even around the free app. You should check them out. You’ll be surprised to find that, in this case, “free” really is a good thing.