
There are many software companies today that run on various business models and offer a wide range of products and services. As such, there are also many different factors to consider when investing in the stocks of these companies. Here are some of them.
Customer Profile
Customer profile includes customer-specific information like geographic, demographic, and psychographic characteristics. This also includes buying patterns, business requirements, software spend estimates, and purchase history.
The customer profile can affect the revenues and profits significantly for a software company. A business with only a small number of large customers contributing most of the revenues can focus on customer service.
On the other hand, this kind of customer base also means risks because the loss of just one customer could mean a massive loss for the company.
Partner Profiles
A partner company, like a hardware manufacturer for a customized software offering, or a depending source, like search engine rankings for online research, can affect software business revenues. For instance, some type of OS may only be compatible to a number of devices, while other types of devices may require specific kinds of hardware.
Any direct or indirect problem in the business model, infrastructure, and revenue between the two dependent companies can affect the business profits. If you are aware of such dependencies, you can better assess the risks of investing in such profits.
Customer Engagement Patterns
Another crucial factor in determining the success of a software business is the amount of time that the business can keep customers hooked for recurring revenues.
Among these determining factors are customer’s cost for switching to a competitor, operational challenges in a switch in terms of dependencies on processes, people, and technology, new offering from rivals, and the duration of license or service contracts.
In a nutshell, a long engagement cycle with high costs and challenges in switchover is ideal and helps investors make close predictions about the outlook for software revenues.
Scalability
Always ask yourself the question of scalability. A financial software company selling market data via end-of-the-day daily files can boost revenues without any additional costs. In general, increasing software revenues/sales lead to increasing profits as little or no additional cost. Scalability potential assessment is another crucial parameter in evaluating a software business.
Adoption New Technology
It is no longer in fashion to sell software on a CD and then leave the customer for to himself for installation, self-learning, and usage. On cloud, mobile, and social platforms, you can readily find newer software-as-a-service (SaaS) with continuing subscription fee instead of software as a widget for one-time payment.
You should keep close tabs on the openness of the company to adapting to newer, emerging business trends.
Expansion to New Business Domains
A software company must show the ability to embrace the changing world by offering new products that suit newer needs and requirements, and this also means expanding to new business domain. Take, for instance, Microsoft’s decision to move outside the realm of laptops and desktops and offer mobile gadgets. The software company, therefore, needs to show that it is also compatible to the changing world.
Unique Branding and Top Management
Having an assessment of the brand value and uniqueness of software product and services offered can give insights into business future and associated revenues.
Meanwhile, stability, driving guidelines for future directions, decision-making, and strategy for future investments are some of the key competence that you have to look for in the top-level management of a software firm. Reach out to Wibest Broker Cryptocurrencies and to learn more about it you can visit Wibest Top Brokers