Tomasz Tunguz is a venture capitalist at Redpoint and writes about startups, fund raising, SaaS companies, and best practices for founders.

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SaaS company ServiceNow, the “third most valuable public SaaS company after Salesforce and Workday,” just provided, in their Q1 Investor presentation, the first example of subscription metrics as used in public company reporting.

SaaS reporting typically excludes subscription metrics which are non-GAAP, such as monthly recurring revenue, bookings, and churn. This is a significant step in a new direction to embrace these significant subscription metrics.

“ServiceNow’s effort to communicate to investors how the management team measures and guides the business in straightforward terms, rather than industry jargon, is an important step in educating the market on the differences between subscription software companies and traditional licensed software businesses.”

For more on subscription metrics, read PADRE: New Operating Metrics for the New Subscription Business Model