How to use SaaS metrics to gain real-time visibility

Recession fears driven by inflation and other macroeconomic headwinds put a squeeze on sources of funding that were previously available, which has led to a variety of cost-cutting measures across the SaaS industry. Today's reduced access to easy capital has forced business leaders to balance growth with operational and capital efficiency not only to weather the current storm but also as a method to attract potential investors.

Bessemer Venture Partners, in their latest State of the Cloud report, stated in the new cloud environment, fundability comes down to whether you are in control of the levers of your business. So what does this mean for SaaS companies? To face today's headwinds and be in control of the core levers of your business, you must be able to measure and monitor them accurately and consistently.

All too familiar basic analytics setup

For many SaaS companies, their data analytics strategy is reliant on aggregating information across a variety of siloed systems. For example, a company will have an accounting system or ERP, such as Sage, where they manage or track sales and marketing spend, gross margins, enterprise contracts, billings and credits. The company may also have a CRM system, such as Salesforce, for tracking opportunity pipeline, booked deals, customer accounts and attribution and a payment processor such a Stripe, where they manage low-touch recurring billings and various payment processing activities.

All too often, all the data from these siloed systems are manually aggregated into Excel as the business’s operational reporting tool. Although Excel-based analytics are commonly used by businesses, it often leads to low-quality and error-prone data.

Top challenges with Excel-based analytics: