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Most benchmarking organizations attempt to group companies by industry vertical, sometimes by SIC code, and even by as broad a category as "manufacturing" - regardless of company size, product, customer or sales channel. Surveys of the software industry might cite operating metrics from Microsoft together with a $3 million early-stage emerging application company. That's about as useful as comparing apples to say, chipmunks!
At OPEXEngine, we gather data for targeted industry segments, for example, business to business software, instead of all software, and we use our proprietary research to identify which companies fit into that segment. Then we define comparables around three specific areas:
total company revenues revenue models, and distinct sub-segments, such as infrastructure, content management, business applications, security software or networking software, etc.
Sometimes you need to look beyond the companies closest to you to see new opportunities and innovative trends in, say, geographic market growth or operating expense allocations in order to be the first in your peer group to take advantage of new ways of doing things. OPEXEngine classifies companies by a variety of attributes, such as by sales model (direct, reseller/distributor channel, OEM, mixed channels, etc.), by revenue model (perpetual licensing, rental/subscription/SaaS, etc.) by stage of company and stage of your market (emerging market, growth market, or mature market). That gives you the flexibility to look at metrics in a variety of ways, as well as across your broader industry.
We classify companies by a variety of characteristics, such as sales model – direct, reseller/distributor channel, OEM, mixed, etc., by delivery model – permanent licensing or rental/subscription (SaaS), by stage of company and stage of your market – new emerging market, early adopter market, growth market, or mature market.
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