Research Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: RSSS)

Research Solutions, Inc., often recognized by its stock symbol RSSS, operates in the information services industry. The company specializes in offering a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) research platform and published scientific, technical, and medical (STM) content to customers. Its operations span across various countries, with subsidiaries in the United States, Latin America, and RESSOL LA.

The company's main business activities revolve around its two primary service offerings. The first is a cloud-based SaaS research platform, known as the Platform, which provides a personalized yet turnkey solution for customers' research needs. This platform allows customers to initiate orders, manage transactions, obtain spend and usage reporting, automate authentication, and connect seamlessly to in-house and third-party software systems. The second offering is the sale of STM content, which is sourced from over 80 million existing STM articles and over one million newly published STM articles each year. The Platform enables customers to find and download digital versions of STM articles critical to their research.

Research Solutions generates revenue from two sources: annual licenses for the Platform and the transactional sale of STM content. The company's primary products include the Platform and individual STM articles, while its services encompass providing access to these products and managing, sourcing, and delivering STM content. Its customer base primarily consists of researchers and knowledge workers in life science and other research-intensive organizations.

Within the industry, Research Solutions holds a competitive advantage due to its proprietary software, sophisticated information logistics technology backbone, and Internet-based interfaces. The company is dedicated to developing an ecosystem of new interactive app-like components for researchers, aiming to deliver time-saving efficiencies in core research workflows and knowledge creation processes. Additionally, Research Solutions benefits from an experienced management team with extensive knowledge of the information services, STM publishing, and technology industries.

Although the company faces competition from various sources, such as piracy, STM single article delivery vendors, and customer in-house services, it maintains a loyal customer base, with the majority of its revenue coming from repeat customers. This loyalty is reflected in its low single-digit gross churn rate and high single-digit net churn rate as a percentage of revenue.

The Platform is the primary brand name of Research Solutions, while its STM content offerings are sold as individual articles. These articles are sourced from a vast database of existing and newly published STM content, providing researchers and knowledge workers with the critical information they need for their research activities.