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Table of Contents
Automated Workflow. Patent-pending Guided Paths™ automation codifies the best practices of the support organization’s highest-performing technicians and ensures that agents get the right guidance at the
right time to help resolve customer problems. Guided Paths go beyond knowledge articles and decision trees to gather pertinent device data and automate time-consuming, multi-step activities in ways that lead to
effective and consistent problem resolution and satisfied customers.
Data and Analytics. The Nexus data architecture brings “Big Data” benefits to technology support, delivering business insights from rich data captured during service delivery and enabling organizations to track
program performance and identify potential issues and inefficiencies.
Web-based APIs. Open APIs enable integration to other contact center applications so Nexus can be fully integrated into the agent-customer interaction. The open API’s allow for data transfer and sharing
between applications.
Our End-User Software Products
Our end-user software products are designed to maintain, optimize and secure computers and mobile devices. Certain software products are licensed on a perpetual basis while others are offered on a
subscription basis.
Our principal software products include products designed for malware protection and removal (SUPERAntiSpyware®), PC, smartphone and tablet maintenance and optimization (Cosmos
®), and PC registry
cleaning and repair (ARO®).
Sales and Marketing
Technology Support Services. We sell our services principally through partners. Our partners include leading communication providers, retailers, and technology companies.
Our partnerships typically begin with a pilot phase and can take several weeks to more than a year to progress to a broader roll-out. We typically wholesale services to our partners on a per-incident, per-
subscription or labor rate basis and our partners resell the services to consumers and small businesses at prices our partners determine or bundle them with other services. In these partnerships, the services are
generally sold under the partner’s brand. In certain cases, in addition to service delivery we sell the services on our partner’s behalf and receive commissions.
We acquire partners through our business development organization, and we support partners through our account management organization. We organize account management along industry lines.
Nexus SaaS Offering. We license Nexus separately from support services provided by our technology specialists. In such an arrangement, customers receive the right to use Nexus software in their own
technology support organization, using a SaaS model under which customers pay us on a per-user basis during the term of the arrangement. We also provide implementation services to customers, typically covering
integration of our software with other customer’s systems. We charge for these services on a time-and-materials basis or as part of a fixed-fee package.
We acquire Nexus customers through our business development organization, which uses a variety of Internet-based lead generation strategies, thought leadership initiatives and industry presence marketing
to drive demand. We expect to increase the sales and marketing investment devoted to Nexus during 2015.
End-User Software Products. We license our end-user software products directly to customers and through partners. To date, a majority of our end-user software revenue has come through direct sales to
customers. Online advertising allows customers to click through to our software offerings where they can order and download our products on demand. In addition to fully featured software products available for a
license fee, a substantial percentage of our end-user software revenue arises from customers who download free trial versions of our software or free versions of our software with limited functionality before making a
purchase decision.
Research and Development
Technology is at the core of our business model and a direct source of revenue and growth in our SaaS business, and as a result our recent investment in research and development is substantial. We believe
that this creates significant competitive advantage in the quality and cost of our technology support service offerings, in our ability to meet the rigorous requirements of partners and customers, and in the new
capabilities we introduce. We maintain dedicated research and development teams in Redwood City, California, Bangalore, India, and Eugene, Oregon. Research and development expense was $5.1 million in 2014,
$5.7 million in 2013, and $6.8 million in 2012.
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