Top 6 takeaways for software companies at AWS re:Invent 2024

Software companies are making leaps in efficiency gains and customer experiences by embedding generative AI into both their products and operations. From powering growth through cutting-edge co-pilots to transforming development practices, a rising number of companies have implemented high-value use cases.

This session shone a light on how AWS customers like New Relic are using generative AI-powered agents to handle complex customer queries quickly and boost developer productivity. It also surfaced key considerations to help others achieve results, covering the importance of your workforce, infrastructure, and data management on product strategies.

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The changing economic climate has stirred a significant shift in software companies’ mentality. Rather than pursuing aggressive profit and growth strategies, many are moving to a balanced, long-term approach. But this means that product and technology leaders need to work in harmony and carefully manage investments across multiple dimensions.

So how can you innovate freely without damaging prospects of profitability? From this session, it was clear that strategies must span operations, capital allocation, product development, market expansion, and more.

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The move to SaaS offers many benefits for software companies, including higher margins, reduced customer churn, and faster innovation cycles. However, as AWS customers Fortra, Phrase, and Miro discussed, SaaS demands more than just rethinking infrastructure—it requires new organizational structures, processes, reporting, measurements, and cultural changes.

While a SaaS mindset isn’t built overnight, the three software companies shared their experiences and highlighted the importance of a holistic approach. The session explored how far each company had progressed in their SaaS journey, as well as practical insights and best practices that helped them along the way.

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One clear message emerged: to succeed with new technologies, both software leaders and employees alike must continuously learn and evolve. After all, the cloud empowers talent to innovate at speed, and so establishing the right skills throughout organizations is critical to unleashing potential.

The advice? Move away from traditional training methods in favor of an integrated, experiential approach. Speakers shared insights on cultivating a culture of curiosity, knowledge-sharing, and diversity of thought, offering a proven framework for capitalizing on the cloud.

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Entering new markets is a powerful way of accelerating software companies’ growth. But it isn’t as simple as replicating approaches from one region into another given various regulations and cultural nuances. This session emphasized that the right resources and expertise are critical to fast-tracking entry into new regions and minimizing risk.

Customers Freshworks, Verint, and Devo shared what they learned about managing new technical, regulatory, and go-to-market challenges. They demonstrated how the AWS Global Passport program's four pillars—strategic planning, technical readiness, compliance, and go-to-market strategies—supported their international expansion.

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Spotlighting HelloFresh's explosive growth, this customer session also revealed hard-earned lessons of how the business made data their superpower. On a mission to decentralize and transform their data, they took a more structured, user-friendly strategy.

When implementing a data mesh structure, they discovered that user-centric data platforms and a data-driven culture play powerful roles in promoting adoption. HelloFresh’s experience is proof that empowering people with simple design, seamless integration, cross-functional collaboration, training, and enablement is the key to a robust data strategy. Not only were they able to scale across 18 countries, but they were also able to deliver personalized customer experiences and strong operational efficiencies, all while maintaining compliance and security.

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With these frameworks and best practices, software companies can start planning how to reinvent product strategies, business models, and operations. Whatever your ambitions, there are several ways AWS can support—from providing the right infrastructure and tools for your team to offering hands-on programs to accelerate your progress.

Learn more about our specific resources that give your software or technology company the freedom to migrate, build, or scale on its own terms.