It’s a move we’ve anticipated for some time, and now it’s finally here. DexYP has officially changed its name to Thryv Inc.

This announcement makes it clear once and for all that the company no longer wants to be seen as a publisher of Yellow Pages directories (a business that still generates a meaningful share of the company’s revenue), but rather as a provider of software as a service (SaaS) tools to small businesses.

This development is emblematic of the shift taking place throughout the industry and it illustrates why the LSA is investing more of its resources into understanding the fundamental shift taking place in the local online market.

Increasingly, companies that once considered themselves part of the local search industry are racing to own the small business share of wallet by proving an integrated stack of solutions that go beyond digital presence and marketing automation to include things like CRM, invoicing, productivity, payroll and more. The game today is about much more than making the phone ring and the door swing. It’s about helping SMBs run their businesses efficiently and effectively.

The Thryv brand made its debut in 2017 as the new name for DexHub (launched in 2015), an all-in-one SaaS software solution for SMBs. We suspected at the time that DexYP was setting up Thryv to do more than serve as a product name.

Today the solution has CRM at its foundation and allows small businesses to book appointments, send invoices, manage online presence and reputation, collect payments, and more. The platform also provides a lead generation component via Thryv Leads.

Thryv also offers 24/7 support, a do-it-with-me approach that many believe is essential to get small businesses to use the SaaS products that they purchase. (For more on the challenges of driving SMB engagement with SaaS, see our latest white paper.)

Data from the LSA’s Modern Commerce Monitor ™️, validated much of the Thryv strategy, in particular, that demand is high for software that handles most or all of what SMBs need to run their businesses.

Here is what Thryv CMO Gordon Henry shared with us about the name change and the rationale for the Thryv product strategy.

“Our rebranding to Thryv reflects our focus on delivering the software that small businesses need to compete today. Consumers expect to do business on their cellphones today. They want to book an appointment, receive a reminder via text or email, send a review, and make a payment all from their phone. And Thryv enables SMBs to do that. What’s more Thryv Leads, our small business leads program, sends the business’s leads directly into their Thryv database. It’s a simple, easy to use, package that lets SMBs run their business the way their customers want. And we provide the support to get the small business up and running quickly and successfully.”

The move to SaaS had placed Thryv into a completely different competitive set. Software companies with origins in CRM, payments, hosting, bookings, and other point solutions have been expanding into more complete small business suites and capturing more share of the SMB wallet for some time now.

On top of this, legacy players in media, banking, telecom, and enterprise software have also been scrambling to adapt to this new app-centric reality. It’s a brutally competitive environment, but it’s hard to see any choice but to enter this arena. The Thryv team did well to recognize the market shift early on and make this pivot. Now it’s a matter of prevailing.