Market attractiveness and growth opportunities for a content delivery software vendor

Estimating the addressable and serviceable market for a leading content delivery software provider; identified adjacent growth opportunities as input to the business planning process

Case study overview

STL Partners assists clients in recognising and prioritising immediate growth areas to pursue within a defined timeframe. We engage collaboratively with client’s key stakeholders to assess the internal and external strategic implications for change, based on core objectives and capabilities. This approach brings together decision makers to align on executing meaningful strategic outcomes.

See how we supported a content delivery software provider to:

  • Assess the market opportunity for Client X’s industry, recognising key trends and drivers of this market
  • Evaluate areas with the highest right to win for the customer
  • Inform strategic decision-makers where to focus their efforts

Digital infrastructure: M&A opportunities Insights Pack

  • 4 key areas driving digital infrastructure demand
  • 9 TMT sectors dominating deal activity
  • 5 potential opportunities for investors to look out

“STL supported Client X in both defining the rapidly developing market and in sizing the opportunity for our company – identifying headwinds and key drivers of growth. We selected STL because of their knowledge of the cloud and edge computing market, their strong relationships with telecoms operators and technology companies, and their analytical capabilities” 

Market segmentation and validation

STL Partners conducted a comprehensive interview programme with top management and external stakeholders to develop segmentation structure, analyse market growth drivers and trends, and outline key players. STL’s extensive programme included:

  • An initial scoping workshop agreeing on desired outputs
  • Primary research with customers, competitors, and the client’s team
  • Secondary research and competitor mapping

Evaluate key market and client share drivers  

STL Partners created robust market models that incorporated the client’s total addressable market (TAM), service addressable market (SAM), and service obtainable market (SOM). This was broken down by subsegment and region, with the factors driving growth analysed and relevant players monitored in a wider market. The model included forecasting for:

  • TAM vs SAM vs SOM worth and growth comparisons
  • Use case growth rates within markets
  • Solution pricing
  • Share of web traffic cached with HTTP protocol
  • Share of traffic cached with open source solutions etc.

Example deliverables


Example deliverables

Inform strategic decision-makers where to focus their efforts

STL Partners leveraged its analysis to provide customer’s key stakeholders with insights, including the following:

  • Identifying immediate growth areas for the company to pursue in the next 5-year time horizon
  • Outlining which use cases would be differentiators in winning big deals
  • Calling out strategic implications for the client’s positioning and messaging to ensure both internal and external alignment
  • Undertaking sensitivity analysis around various market drivers

A follow-up internal strategy workshop was facilitated in-tandem with handing over the financial model for internal use.