DexYP released its 2Q earnings yesterday and the results make it clear why the company is aggressively shifting its focus from selling business leads via printed directories and digital products like SEM and into a software as a service model via its Thryv CRM product.

DexYP’s Thryv product is growing at a brisk pace, rising 50% during the first half of 2018 to $51 million. It now accounts for about 10 percent of DexYP’s digital revenue.

Thryv is the right play for DexYP. It gets them out of the business of selling advertising and lead generation and into the business of providing a system of record (CRM) as part of a platform that generates monthly recurring revenue.

DexYP’s Thryv strategy is consistent with the core thesis of the Tech Adoption Index. As small business move more and more business services to the cloud, those who can offer SMBs a suite of well-integrated cloud tools that save time and improve business results will own that customer over the long term.

DexYP’s results underscore why it’s leaning in on its Thryv strategy. In the first half of 2018, DexYP shed 19.6 percent of its revenues, declining to $968 million. Print declined 22.8 percent year to date, a figure that could be seen as reflecting some resilience in the traditional product. Digital revenue on the other hand, declined by 16.5 percent for the first half, a figure that shows that even Dex’s digital products have matured. Digital now accounts for 51% of DexYP’s revenue.

The most challenging datapoint shared in DexYP’s earnings presentation is the erosion of the customer base. DexYP lost 102,000 clients in Q2, a 15.7 percent decline to 549,000.

The key question is whether Thryv will grow fast enough to offset DexYP’s overall losses. Achieving this will require DexYP to bring Thryv to new customers, many of which would otherwise not do business with DexYP. If it can accelerate Thryv’s growth, and make inroads beyond its core customer base, then DexYP has a solid chance of making this pivot.