Businessmodel of MetricStream

Customer Segments

MetricStream has a mass market business model, with no significant differentiation between customer groups. The company targets its offerings at firms of all industries and sizes.

Value Proposition

MetricStream offers two primary value propositions: convenience and brand/status.

The company offers convenience by making life simpler for customers. It maintains the “GRC Journey” methodology, a model through which it works with clients to establish a step-by-step blueprint for their GRC programs based on insights obtained from prior successful projects. It also provides clients with a GRC Journey Guidebook that compiles these insights for easy reference.

The company has established a strong brand due to its success. It bills itself as the market leader in enterprise-wide governance, risk, compliance (GRC) and quality management solutions. It operates ComplianceOnline.com, touted as the largest GRC advisory network and one of the largest GRC communities (with over one million compliance professionals).

It has customers in over 35 countries, including prominent firms such as Philips, Kellogg’s, SanDisk, NetApp, and Pfizer. Lastly, it has won many honors, including the following:

• Recognition for 2015 Cybersecurity Initiative of the Year at the CIR Risk Management Awards
• GRC Innovation Awards for its Enterprise GRC Mobility and Quality Management apps
• Recognition as 2013 GRC Platform of the Year at the Operational Risk & Regulation Awards
• The OCEG 2013 GRC Achievement Award
• The GRC Value Award in the Enterprise GRC Category ### Channels

MetricStream’s main channel is its direct sales team. The company promotes its offerings through its website, social media pages, and participation in events such as webinars, roundtables, roadshows, summits, and conferences. It hosts an annual event called the MetricStream GRC Summit.

Customer Relationships

MetricStream’s customer relationship is primarily of a personal assistance nature. The company assists customers in the following ways:

Implementation Services – The company provides experienced consultants to assist clients with successful implementation of its GRC apps. The consultants come equipped with a set of rules, templates, and best practices garnered from past projects.

Support Services – The company provides support throughout the customer lifecycle, from the implementation stage to production support. At the go-live phase of implementation, it assigns clients a Project Manager who facilitates a meeting with a dedicated Customer Support team. The team offers ongoing customer service and is available on a 24/7 basis.

Training Services – The company operates MetricStream University (MSU), a program that provides training courses on MetricStream products to customers, partners, and developers. Training is customized to the needs of each client, as well as to the requirements for different types of roles (functional users, technical users, and system administrators). Courses are available in instructor-led public, instructor-led onsite, virtual classroom, and eLearning formats. The university also enables participants to achieve certification by demonstrating domain, technical, and functional expertise.

Despite this orientation, there is a self-service component. The company’s website features a “Resources” section that includes useful tools such as white papers, solution briefs, industry reports, data sheets, analyst reports, case studies, illustrations, RFP templates, webinars, and demos. There is also a community component in the form of two forums:

MetricStream Customer Community – Enables customers to interact with peers by exchanging best practices, insights, and success stories and communicate with the company’s project managers.

MetricStream Special Interest Groups – Enables customers to interact with each other in over 20 MetricStream Special Interest Groups (mSIGs) dedicated to various GRC Apps.

Key Activities

MetricStream’s business model entails designing and developing its software products and maintaining and updating its cloud platform for customers.

Key Partners

MetricStream maintains the following types of partnerships:

• Consulting and Implementation Partners – Partners that establish a GRC technology practice in order to implement MetricStream apps for their customers. Specific partners include Accenture, BearingPoint, Cognizant, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, SEI Consulting, UBAC, Wipro, and Zertive.
• Value Added Resellers – Partners that promote and sell MetricStream products in order to extend its reach. They receive training and certifications to ensure they have sufficient expertise. Specific partners include Asterisk Research, Business Connexion, ERP Maestro, iSolutions, and Kinetix.
• Technology and Content Partners – Partners that harness the company’s technology to develop GRC solutions and deliver them to specific market segments. Specific partners include Cognizant, CSC, ECCI, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, Virtusa, and Wipro.
• Zaplet Partners – Partners that use MetricStream’s Zaplet platform to develop and deploy customized GRC apps. Specific partners include Concur, Corporate Risk Solutions, Mindtree, and RiskSpotlight. ### Key Resources

MetricStream’s main resource is its proprietary software platform.

It depends on human resources in the form of engineers to design and develop its software and maintain/update the platform, sales employees to promote it, training/consulting employees to provide instruction/guidance, and customer service personnel to provide support.

Lastly, as a startup it has relied heavily on funding from investors, raising $128.2 million from six investors as of September 2014.

Cost Structure

MetricStream has a value-driven cost structure, aiming to provide a premium proposition through significant personal service and frequent service enhancements.

Its biggest cost driver is likely cost of services, a variable expense. Other major drivers are in the areas of sales/marketing and customer support/operations, both fixed costs.

Revenue Streams

MetricStream has one revenue stream: revenues it generates from the fees it charges customers for access to its cloud-based platform.