Editor’s Note: This in-progress overview of three important business metric trajectories is provided as a precursor to the final results of the fourteenth quarterly eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey currently being conducted by ComplexDiscovery.
Since January 2016, more than 1,268 individual responses to quarterly eDiscovery Business Confidence Surveys have been received from legal, business, and technology professionals across the eDiscovery ecosystem. The role makeup of responders in the fourteen surveys, to include those in this in-progress overview, includes executive leaders, operational managers, and tactical execution professionals.
The core quarterly survey consists of nine multiple-choice questions focused on factors related to the creation, delivery, and consumption of eDiscovery products and services. Additionally, the survey includes three optional multiple-choice questions focused on the trajectory of key operational business metrics. It is these three optional multiple-choice questions on days sales outstanding (DSO), monthly recurring revenue (MRR), and customer revenue distribution that are highlighted below to provide data discovery and legal discovery professionals an early, yet comprehensive look at survey responses regarding these important metrics.
The final results of the Spring 2019 eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey will be published upon the conclusion of the survey response period in late April 2019.
Business Metric Trajectory Questions and Responses
How would you characterize the trajectory of your organization’s Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) during the last quarter?
DSO represents the average number of days it takes credit sales to be converted into cash, or when a company’s account receivables can be collected.
n=104 Respondents
- Increasing – 18.3% (Up from Winter 2019)
- Unfluctuating – 21.2% (Down from Winter 2019)
- Decreasing – 8.7% (Down from Winter 2019)
- Do Not Know – 51.9% (Up from Winter 2019)
Spring 2019 Days Sales Outstanding
How would you characterize the trajectory of your organization’s Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) during the last quarter?
MRR is income that a company can reliably anticipate every 30 days. Revenue from one-time purchases billed at the time of purchase is not included in MRR.
n=103 Respondents
- Increasing – 30.1% (Down from Winter 2019)
- Unfluctuating – 19.4% (Up from Winter 2019)
- Decreasing – 7.8% (Up from Winter 2019)
- Do Not Know – 42.7% (Down from Winter 2019)
Spring 2019 Monthly Recurring Revenue
Which of the following statements best describes the distribution of your organization’s revenue across your customer base during the last quarter?
Distribution is the reduction of revenue concentration across the customer base. The customer base is the group of customers who repeatedly purchase the products or services of a business.
n=103 Respondents
- Increasing – 29.1.% (Down from Winter 2019)
- Unfluctuating – 21.4% (Up from Winter 2019)
- Decreasing – 6.8% (Up from Winter 2019)
- Do Not Know – 42.7% (Down from Winter 2019)
Spring 2019 Customer Distribution
Running Listing of Survey Results
Source: Original Research