How do I research partnership/licensing model for my software-as-a-service website?

I run a Saas website and charge a monthly fee. Recently I have been approach by overseas companies interesting in a licensing agreement for the software. I'm cautious about diluting my business value through licences distribution and need to do some homework on what models are currently in use elsewhere. Appreciate any information!

A number of considerations come to mind:

First, do some research on the overseas companies who have approached you, and make sure you are comfortable with their professionalism, and their knowledge of your target market segment. Are they easy for you to communicate with when you need to? Would your customers be comfortable doing business with them?

Second, consider which overseas markets you are thinking about covering through them, and how successful your software service is likely to be there. Some Asian markets have a lot of pirated software, for example, making it hard for software vendors (even if using a SaaS model) to do business there. Pricing is also going to be different.

Third, make sure your contract with the overseas company is not a one-off license back to you, but involves some percentage of revenue or subscriptions on an ongoing basis.

Finally, be careful about cannibalizing your existing market... read this article on that topic: http://www.software-marketing-advisor.co...

For more information on issues related to software sales, software marketing, and business strategy in a service-oriented world, take a look at http://www.software-marketing-advisor.co... Softwareceo.com also has a good discussion forum for this type of question at http://www.softwareceo.com/forums/index....