SaaS Business Model

Tradition software business model

• Setup to build and deliver a final product
• Long development and time-to-value (TTV)
• Focus on big one-time deals
• Siloed units with independent P&L responsibility
• Product dev & sales set direction

SaaS business model

• Setup to deliver a service
• Launch with MVP, then expand, for better TTV
• Emphasis on customer retention and lifetime value (LTV)
• Integrated operations across units
• Broader cross-functional exec control

Adopting a service mindset

• Managing real-time relationship with customers
• Meeting SLAs at all times
• Customer experience drives business growth
  • Focus changes from buyer to user

Organisation transformation

• New functions
  • Project Management Office (PMO)
    • Bridge between sales, customer success, and engineering
    • Aligned with agile dev
  • User experience added to product team
  • Ops (Platform infrastructure, and DevOps) are part of engineering
  • Sales extended
    • Customer success
    • Revenue operations
    • Metrics and analytics

Operations

• Operating the service is the business
  • Prioritise backend systems and metrics
  • Create feedback loop for optimisation
• SaaS outages have direct business impact
  • Achieve reliable delivery through DevOps
• Revenue operations track the customer journey
  • Track gaps in the customer journey