MIME 2017 Annual Report

22 We depend on highly skilled personnel to grow and operate our business, and if we are unable to hire, retain and motivate qualified personnel, we may not be able to grow effectively. Our success depends largely upon our continued ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain highly skilled personnel, including senior management, engineers, software developers, sales representatives and customer support representatives. Our growth strategy also depends, in part, on our ability to continue to attract and retain highly skilled personnel. Identifying, recruiting, training and integrating qualified individuals requires significant time, expense and attention of management. Competition for these personnel is intense, especially for engineers experienced in designing and developing software and software as a service, or SaaS, applications, and for experienced sales professionals. We have, from time to time experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining employees with appropriate qualifications. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we have. If we hire employees from competitors or other companies, their former employers may assert that these employees or we have breached their legal obligations, resulting in a diversion of our time and resources. In addition, prospective and existing employees often consider the value of the equity awards they receive in connection with their employment. If the actual or perceived value of our equity awards declines, or experiences significant volatility, it may adversely affect our ability to recruit and retain key employees. If we are not able to effectively recruit and retain qualified employees, our ability to achieve our strategic objectives will be adversely impacted, and our business will be harmed. Any serious disruptions in our services caused by defects in our software or otherwise may cause us to lose revenue and market acceptance. Our customers use our services for the most critical aspects of their business, and any disruptions to our services or other performance problems with our services, however caused, could hurt our brand and reputation and may damage our customers’ businesses. We provide regular updates, which may contain undetected errors when first introduced or released. In the past, we have discovered software errors, failures, vulnerabilities and bugs in our services after they have been released and new errors in our existing services may be detected in the future. Real or perceived errors, failures, system delays, interruptions, disruptions or bugs could result in negative publicity, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our services, loss of competitive position, delay of payment to us, lower renewal rates, or claims by customers for losses sustained by them. In such an event, we may be required, or may choose, for customer relations or other reasons, to expend additional resources in order to mitigate or correct the problem. We seek to cap the liability to which we are exposed in the event of losses or harm to our customers, but we cannot be certain that we will obtain these caps or that these caps, if obtained, will be enforced in all instances. We carry insurance; however, the amount of such insurance may be insufficient to compensate us for any losses that may result from claims arising from defects or disruptions in our services. As a result, we could lose future sales and our reputation and our brand could be harmed. If the prices we charge for our services are unacceptable to our customers, our operating results will be harmed. As the market for our services matures, or as new or existing competitors introduce new products or services that compete with ours, we may experience pricing pressure and be unable to renew our agreements with existing customers or attract new customers at prices that are consistent with our pricing model and operating budget. If this were to occur, it is possible that we would have to change our pricing model or reduce our prices, which could harm our revenue, gross margin and operating results. Pricing decisions may also impact the mix of adoption among our subscription plans and negatively impact our overall revenue. Moreover, large enterprises, which may account for a larger portion of our business in the future, may demand substantial price concessions. If we are, for any reason, required to reduce our prices, our revenue, gross margin, profitability, financial position and cash flow may be adversely affected. Our research and development efforts may not produce new services or enhancements to existing services that result in significant revenue or other benefits in the near future, if at all. We invested 15%, 12% and 12% of our revenue in research and development in our fiscal years ended March 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. We expect to continue to dedicate significant financial and other resources to our research and development efforts in order to maintain our competitive position. However, investing in research and development personnel, developing new services and enhancing existing services is expensive and time-consuming, and there is no assurance that such activities will result in significant new marketable services, enhancements to existing services, design improvements, cost savings, revenue or other expected benefits. If we spend significant time and effort on research and development and are unable to generate an adequate return on our investment, our business and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.