Every few months I take a look at the top read blog posts on OPEXEngine, to make sure I have a solid understanding of the topics that you are looking for more insight on. And month after month, I see some of the same topics come to the top of the list. As a result, I decided to share with you a few of our Not-to-be-Missed blogs. As always, I encourage you to email me Lauren@opexengine.com with any new questions, topics you want me to dive into, provide feedback etc.
Best SaaS Blog Posts You Shouldn’t Miss
What the Heck is the Difference Between Bookings, Billings, and Recognized Revenue for SaaS Companies?
SaaS companies track income with a variety of different metrics, and it can be confusing. Some companies track bookings, ARR and recognized revenues, others track billings. Sometimes companies only include recurring revenues when they talk about bookings or billings, but they also sell Professional Services (and must book and bill them somehow). Definitions and reporting of metrics vary across companies. Here’s a quick guide to the key concepts.
Pros and Cons: SaaS SMB vs. Enterprise Models
SaaS companies selling in the SMB market are structured operationally very differently from SaaS companies selling in the enterprise market. Everything from Sales structures to Marketing to R&D is organized differently depending on whether you are selling a low-priced product to a high volume of customers or selling a high-priced product to a smaller number of customers. You can read more about this always popular topic here.
Monitoring SaaS Customer Cohort Analysis
Investors love SaaS customer cohort analysis. It shows that you are analyzing your business, using data to identify areas of strength and weakness. It shows that you know your customers and can analyze which segments are likely to grow and which are at risk for churn. If you can identify the groups most likely to churn, you can do something about it and improve your performance. If you know the groups most likely to grow, you can better allocate resources to find more of them and drive more sales and revenue growth. Go here to read more about using cohort analysis to define target customer profiles, improve sales performance, and how benchmarking against peers highlights where to start doing your cohort analysis.
SaaS, Subscription, and On-Premise Software: Don’t Confuse Subscription with SaaS
At OPEXEngine, we pull apart the different nuances of each business model to make sure we are benchmarking companies correctly. We sometimes hear companies call themselves “SaaS” companies, because they sell subscriptions, but they do not host software. We work hard to help companies understand these different models, so they can compare themselves to the right peer cohort in our database. Follow this link for an explanation of the differences.
What are some of your faves? Let me know in the comments!
