The SCORM Cloud is, well, it’s a bit new. We’ve acknowledged all along that this is not how the learning industry has done things before. We like that; we’re excited to be doing something a little different. It also means that we’re going to be making some decisions publicly as we go along, and that we’re going to do that publicly, with rationale. Like us or hate us, at least you’ll be able to see why we’re behaving the way we do.
Today’s question relates to the pricing tiers described here. We chose to go with a tiered pricing structure because we like to buy stuff that way. Our costs for Zendesk are fixed… we’ve picked a tier that accommodates our usage, and we don’t have to think about each ticket carrying a cost. It’s fair to them, it’s fair to us, we’re happy.
There’s a little difference, though. With the pricing of the SCORM Cloud, it’s possible that you would have a month in which you would hit the limit of your tier. So, what should we do with that? Should it be a hard and fast limit? We don’t think so. We think that you, the customer, would want your customers to be able to continue training. So we have to decide how to deal with overages.
We want the overage policy to be fair, but also to be something that doesn’t get us taken advantage of. So here’s the conclusion… Up through “The Big” plan, which includes 300 registrations per month, each registration beyond your chosen plan will be charged at $3.
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Update (later on the 5th): Our Ombudsman, Troy, called me out for the “cliff-like” ending to the original version of this post. I would try to argue, except, well, he was right. In setting the overages, we were shooting for something fair to both parties. We didn’t want something that was overtly penal, but we wanted to respect the tiered structure as well. So we went with $3. Truth be told, Mike and I argued about it until David was annoyed, and then we just decided.
And so I close with this… I thank each and every one of you for taking the time to read this post. If our thoughts on overages seem wrong or unfair, please do email me at tim.martin at scorm.com. If my failure to close the original version of this post disrupted your life in any way, I do apologize. It was deeply irresponsible of me. 🙂
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Update (in March 2010): We’ve lowered the overage prices now… From 300 to 1000, registrations now cost $0.50. From 1000 on, they are $0.25. You can see an explanation here.
