Business model of Cast Software

Customer Segments

Cast provides a range of application analytics and application engineering software products, serving customers across a range of business sectors and segments. The Company’s customers can be organised broadly into the following categories:

• Commercial Entities, comprising a wide range of large commercial enterprises across multiple industries, including the banking and financial services, consulting, and technology research fields; and
• Government Institutions, comprising various state and federal government bodies and public institutions.

Cast serves a range of high-profile companies, including household names such as Coca Cola, IBM, Fedex, Fannie Mae, Capgemini, and Bank of New York Mellon.

As a French company, Cast serves a large client base in its native Europe, as well as a number of large international businesses based in the US. It also serves a substantial number of international clients across Asia Pacific.

Value Propositions

Cast provides value to its clients in the following ways:

• Its industry standing and reputation, with the Company established as a leading provider of application analytics and engineering software, having a positive track record and serving a number of high-profile companies from around the world;
• Its broad range of products and solutions, with the Company offering a wide range of products and services that target different enterprise needs, including architecture checking tools, analytics, and engineering services through its software measurement and quality analysis platform;
• The effectiveness and reliability of its products, with the Company’s products reported to help companies to maintain effective, reliable, and efficient information technology systems;
• Its proprietary technologies, with the Company utilising a range of proprietary technologies and intellectual properties in the development of its products and solutions, enabling it to provide unique services to its clients; and
• Its industry expertise and experience, with the Company employing highly-trained technical personnel across its enterprise, as well as a team of experienced industry executives.

Channels

Cast operates a website at www.castsoftware.com, through which it provides information on its product and solutions, target customers, partners, and corporate activities. The Company does not operate an online sales channel; however, it does offer customers a tool through which they can arrange a demonstration of the Company’s software. Once purchased, customers are able to access the platform on computers where the software is installed.

Cast makes its sales through a direct sales force which operates out of the Company’s international network of offices. This includes sales offices in Brussels, Munich, Madrid, Milan, Bangalore, London, and Washington DC. While Cast has a direct sales presence across the US, India, and much of Europe, the Company makes its sales in other jurisdictions through authorised representatives, including Kalitek in the middle East and Africa, Solupia in South Korea, and Extramile Technologies in Romania.

Customer Relationships

Cast does not make sales of its products and solutions to customers on a self-service basis. Customers can arrange a demonstration of the Company’s platform online, but must make purchases through the Company’s in-house sales force. Once purchased, the Company’s software can be used independently by clients.

Cast makes its sales directly, consulting closely with clients in order to fully understand and fulfil their individual needs, and providing demonstrations and tutorials of how best to implement its products. The Company’s products appear to be provided under sales contracts agreed on a case-by-case basis, with solutions tailored to each client’s individual circumstances.

Cast provides ongoing support to its clients, providing customers with contact detail for technical support teams across its various office locations, allowing clients to access personalised responses to queries and technical concerns. The company also provides a range of online resources, such as troubleshooting guides, articles, and training materials, and hosts a customer community portal, through which users can interact with one another and collaborate on problems.

Additionally, Cast operates a number of social media accounts – including with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn – through which it can provide company updates and interact directly with clients.

Key Activities

Cast is a French software and technology company that specialises in the development of analytics and engineering applications, as well as in the delivery of consulting and outsourcing services.

The Company's flagship product is the Cast Application Intelligence Platform, through which customers are able to analyse applications and garner the relevant information needed to measure, monitor and control application assets. Cast serves a broad range of commercial and governmental customers, including companies across the financial services, banking, consulting, and consumer goods sectors.

The Company operates through several subsidiaries, including CAST Software Ltd, Cast Software India and CAST GmbH, among others, and serves customers in a number of other international markets through authorized local representatives.

Key Partners

Cast works closely with a wide range of partner companies and organisations in the development, implementation, and distribution of its software products. The Company organises its partners into three core groups:

• Practitioners, comprising technical service providers, such as software companies and systems integrators that assists in the development and implementation of the Company’s products;
• Business Partners, comprising various consulting companies and commercial enterprises that utilise the Company’s products to enhance their own service offerings and operations; and
• Influencers, comprising large companies and organisations with which the company does business who promote and refer the Company’s services.

Cast also partners with distribution partners, such as its local sales representatives in certain markets, and supplier partners, which provide equipment, tools, and services across the Company’s departments.

Cast has a number of key partnerships in place. Its practitioner partners include IBM, Wipro, and Capgemini its business partners include Tata, Boston Consulting Group, and Tech Mahindra; and its influencer partners include IDC, Gartner Research, and Ovum.

Key Resources

Cast’s key resources are its technologies and intellectual properties, its software platform and products, its IT and communications infrastructure, its sales channel and support infrastructure, its office network, its partnerships, and its personnel.

While Cast utilises a range of proprietary technologies in the development of its products and solutions, searches of records published by the US Patent and Trademark Office and records published by France’s National Industrial Property Institute identified no patent filed in Cast’s name.

Cast owns and or leases a number of physical properties across Europe, India, and the US, which comprise the Company’s network of administrative and sales offices.

Cost Structure

Cast incurs costs in relation to the development of its products and technologies, the development and maintenance of its flagship software platform, the maintenance of its IT and communications infrastructure, the procurement of equipment and services, the implementation of marketing campaigns, management of its partnerships, and the retention of its personnel.

In 2015 Cast recorded total operating expenses for the year in the amount of €35.4 million. This comprised cost of revenue in the amount of €100,000, research and development expenses in the amount of €7.2 million, and sales, general, and administrative costs in the amount of €28.2 million.

Revenue Streams

Cast generates revenue through the provision of application analytics and application engineering products to commercial and governmental clients, as well as the provision of various software and technical services. The Company derives its revenue primarily under sales and service contracts agreed on a case-by-case basis.

In 2015 Cast generated total revenue for the year in the amount of €36.3 million, up on the €33.2 million recorded by the Company in 2014.