OPEXEngine | SaaS Articles

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

SaaS Metrics 101

Here’s a shout out to Dave Kellogg’s Key SaaS Metrics podcast, recently released on Aznaur Midov’s SaaShimi series. Dave does a terrific job explaining the current state of the art on important SaaS metrics. The podcast is an excellent SaaS Metrics 101 listen even for experienced SaaS finance experts.

May 22, 2020

Beyond the Downturn: Recession Strategies to Take the Lead

It’s overdue. Predicting the onset of a recession is difficult, but a downturn likely will arrive soon, with the current economic expansion now more than 10 years old, long by historical standards. Signs of over leverage in the corporate sector, combined with geopolitical uncertainty—including the China–US trade war, Brexit and economic instability in some European countries—suggest the next recession is not far off. For corporate leaders, however, the exact timing and duration of a recession matters less than being ready to seize the moment early, when they have more options. Getting ahead of the curve avoids the painful alternative—being forced to react hastily in a crisis.

May 19, 2020

Member Spotlight - Skillsoft

I’m delighted to share the first of what will be a regular feature highlighting the OPEXEngine member companies. The purpose of the spotlight series is to offer our members an opportunity to share new initiatives, insights, ideas, and benchmarking best practices with the SaaS and Software finance community.Special thanks to Bobby Jenkins, CFO of Skillsoft, an Enterprise level member, for agreeing to be the first in this series. Bobby spoke with my colleague, Donna Rice, this week to discuss how Skillsoft is evolving their business in light of the rapidly shifting business world.

May 14, 2020

5 Reasons COVID-19 Changes SaaS Forever

As I’ve written about, progress normally comes at us gradually, but COVID-19 has changed that and rapidly accelerated our progress toward the future. Virtual work, on-demand delivery, and telemedicine were all catapulted forward due to this terrible tragedy. And I discussed in the previous post, it’s likely we’re going back to the old world for some of these areas.A natural question for SaaS execs and investors is to ask “What will change for the future about SaaS due to this crisis?”Now you might be thinking “SaaS and cloud are already THE future – they replace the legacy software world of the past.” I agree with that. But I’ll challenge you on one implication. I’ve met thousands and thousands of SaaS CEOs and execs and I can affirmatively say that most SaaS businesses have adopted the product model of the future (cloud) but still employ the internal practices of the past.

May 12, 2020

POLL RESULTS - Remote Work and Office Space Planning

In the third of our series of SaaS Quick Polls, we asked the benchmarking community of Software and SaaS companies about whether they expect more employees to be working remotely in the new normal, and how that was affecting office space and office budget plans for the upcoming year. Approximately 50 companies shared information about rent concessions, remote working and more.

May 7, 2020

SaaS Conversations – Working Remotely for Finance Professionals

Last week, we had a terrific conversation with Jon Lau of InVision and Eric Lundeen from Xero about working remotely as finance professionals. Jon’s company, InVision, has always been 100% remote, no headquarters, no rent. Eric’s company, the SaaS accounting vendor, Xero, is a publicly listed company in New Zealand and Eric is based in Boulder, CO. They shared their tips for succeeding with remote work, and why they prefer working remotely. Here’s some of the tips and strategies that they follow.

May 7, 2020

Tech Pulse Survey Gauges CEO Response to COVID-19

As reported in the Boston Globe, MassTLC has been actively working throughout the COVID-19 situation to provide the timeliest information and insights to help our member CEOs make critical business decisions as they navigate the COVID-19 crisis. Through convening of tech CEOs, policy leader forums, member community programs, and research we are bringing relevant and actionable insights to our members.

May 5, 2020

In a Crisis, This Is What Good Looks Like

In the early stages of a major business transformation, the leaders of a large global airline faced an urgent new priority—responding to the impact of Covid-19 on employees and passengers. Their first moves were grounded in empathy and compassion: keeping customers and employees safe, and maintaining the operational network long enough to return passengers home

April 28, 2020

Questions About Returning to Work

When will a start up’s management team feel comfortable telling employees they're safe to return to work? Is it when the government declares it safe? Or schools re-open? Or customer prospects agree to meet in person? Or when we each record a positive antibody test?

April 21, 2020