B2B SaaS Companies Are Going Mobile (And They Need New Metrics)

Mobile Apps Are the Next Big Wave in B2B SaaS

Today, we are experiencing an exciting turning point in the evolution of B2B SaaS. In just the past three years, the growth in mobile business software applications has been tremendous, and that has led to the emergence of a new offshoot of the traditional SaaS model — mobile-first B2B SaaS companies.

The trouble is that mobile SaaS businesses are fundamentally different from their non-mobile counterparts. And as was the case with the initial adoption of SaaS, we’re discovering a need for new metrics that can serve as more appropriate and accurate indicators of mobile performance.

To get better insight into the factors that measure mobile SaaS health, as well as the current level of investment SaaS companies are making into mobile, we surveyed over 60 companies. Some of the findings were surprising:

• Mobile focused companies are growing 70% faster than those with a supplementary focus on mobile
• Companies dependent on mobile applications spend a sky-high 60-80% of their total revenue on mobile product development
• On average, mobile-only focused companies take 3+ months longer to develop their apps than companies with equal emphasis between web and mobile (6/9+ months)
• Cheap and quick mobile development runs the risk of being an ineffective waste of time and resources

To help us further evaluate the findings, we collaborated with Adam Marchick, CEO and Founder of Kahuna, a first-of-its-kind platform for mobile marketing automation, who provided his perspective based off first-hand experiences with hundreds of companies with mobile applications.

Download the full report to get the key data and insights we collected around mobile spending, development, and growth.

Photo by: Viktor Hanacek

We’ve also created a higher level overview of key mobile SaaS metrics and trends in the Slideshare below: