Subscribed15 Brings Together The Market Leaders and Fast Followers Of Digital Transformation
Over 2,000 attendees convened May 20th – 21st, 2015 at the Hilton Union Square in San Francisco for the 5th annual Subscribed Conference. The early adopters in the subscription economy and those seeking to build for a post-sale, on-demand, attention economy were treated to keynotes from thought leaders, demos of the new Z Insights product, classes at the Zuora Academy, and numerous networking opportunities among the market leaders and fast followers in attendance. CEO and founder, Tien Tzuo, kicked off the event with a look back at the pioneers of the subscription economy and the humanized digital future ahead. Customer presentations by the Chief Digital Officer of Arrow, Matt Anderson; The EVP of Digital Transformation of Schneider Electric, Cyril Perducat; and President of Taser International, Luke Larson; showed how three very different types of companies powered their digital transformation initiatives with Zuora. A CXO dinner hosted by SVP of Global Services, Keith Costello, showed how CXO’s in all functions have embraced the solution as part of the business model shift. Key analysis of the event include:
- Delivery of new features to the core Z-Business offering. On stage during the product keynote for Day 2, Guillaume Vives, SVP of Products and Marketing, announced enhancements to the Z-Business platform, Spotlight, and RBM Connect. New features in the Z-Business offering include the ability to ramp deals, enable multi-action orders, support suspend and resume situations, support new payment gateways across Europe, and configure payment retries. Spotlight, the reporting solution, adds a new report builder, more best practice template reports, and collaboration features to share with team members. In RBM Connect, the Zuora marketplace, users gain access to a community of developers and technology partners with over 89 applications and integrations
Point of View (POV): Over the past seven years, Zuora has delivered 75 product releases addressing the core subscription economy. The current engine plays a key role in driving the components required to win in digital business. The system supports the post-sale requirements and addresses the on-demand challenges that most billing systems miss. Hence, commerce, quoting, pricing, billing, payments, revenue recognition, and GL integration are key features required to deliver on brand experience at the smallest unit cost of product and experience. RBM Connect is a smart play to provide a marketplace for partners and customers to share ideas and solutions.
- Showcase of Z-Insights as the future of Zuora. Z-Insights, to be launched Fall of 2015, is the foundation behind the customer analytics software to help Zuora’s customers understand their clients and their behaviors. Key functionality include subscriber identity, subscriber moments, subscriber segments, subscriber triggers, and subscriber dashboard. Subscriber Identity gives customers the ability to capture subscriber identity by demographics, user counts, social data, account balance, and company data (see Figure 1). Subscriber Moments brings together a real-time interaction history around events such as new signups, cancellations, accepted offers, tickets filed, etc (see Figure 2). Subscriber Segments applies analytics to subsets of customers who may have a propensity to convert from freemium to paid, churn, consider an upsell, reduce usage, etc (see Figure 3). Subscriber Triggers uses email, notifications, alerts, and messages to help improve customer success. The solution enables customer communcations via third parties. (see Figure 4). Subscriber Dashboard delivers a command center and user activity console that can be published to other systems (see Figure 5).
(POV): Fresh off of their March 11, 2015 announcements of triple digital growth and $115M in funding from Wellington Management Company, Blackrock Inc., Azim Premji, and Passport Capital, Zuora made the acquisition of Frontleaf on May 18th, 2015. Founder and CEO Tom Krackeler will be part of the executive team. Constellation believes that should Zuora launch this product (in limited availability) as described in the fall of 2015, this will create a game changer for users who will be able to build off of insights to create brand new business models.
- Emphasis of Academy as a resource to digital transformation. Academy is Zuora’s on-line resource guide and learning center as well as a series of programs and workshops designed to help customers move into the world of the subscription economy. Foundational course titles include The Subscription Pricing Journey, Defining A Winning Subscription Pricing Model, 4 Ways Subscription Subledgers Can Help YOu Close Your Books, B2B vs B2C Subscription Payment Strategies, and The Modern CFO from Geek To Guru. The academy provides courses and guides for topics such as growth and leadership, pricing strategy, customer success, marketing, finance, operations, IT, Connected Devices – IOT, and media.
(POV): Given that most of Zuora’s customers are Market Leaders and Fast Followers, the course provide a good reference base for the cautious adopters learning how to enter the subscription economy. In general, prospects and customers should start with the Subscription Economy 101 guides and them move up. The course ware does vary in quality but most do provide key concepts and good examples of how to get started and succeed.
Figure 1. Subscriber Identity Brings Together The Composite Customer Profile
Figure 2. Subscriber Moments Capture Customer Interactions Over Time
Figure 3. Subscriber Segments Group Common Types of Customers
Figure 4. Subscriber Triggers Drive Customer Engagement
Figure 5. Subscriber Dashboard Allows You To Publish Analytics To Any System
Figure 6. The FlickrStream From Subscribed 2015
Source: Copyright © 2001 -2015 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
The Bottom Line: Zuora Customers Represent The Disruptors of Digital Business
A key part of disrupting digital business, requires organizations and brands to make a shift in their business model. This business model often represents a shift to a post-sale, on-demand, attention economy. In speaking with over 47 customers at the Zuora event, the common bond is the shift to these new digital business models built on subscriptions. However, most organizations lack the technology infrastructure to support unit cost pricing models, recurring revenue billing, and subscription pricing. Existing financial systems and applications can not deliver the solutions required without the massive cost of customization for a product not designed to support these digital business models. Moreover, this shift to new business models require organizations to understand how to monetize post sale and build long term customer relationships as access to smaller and smaller slices of products and services represent the overall shift from selling products and services to keeping brand promises. This requires not only a shift in business models, but also a cultural transformation in how relationships are designed around the customer. As brands and organizations embark on digital transformation initiatives, they will require a different set of technology that will abstract from and integrate with existing legacy systems. Customers and prospects can expect Zuora and other solutions to provide a key backbone in their efforts to build a digital business.
Your POV
Are you in the midst of digital transformation? Have you shifted to a post-sales, on demand, attention economy? Are you a Zuora customers? Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.
- Developing your digital business strategy
- Connecting with other pioneers
- Sharing best practices
- Vendor selection
- Implementation partner selection
- Providing contract negotiations and software licensing support
- Demystifying software licensing
Resources
- Book Summary: Lesson 5 From Disrupting Digital Business – Build For Insight Streams May 31, 2015
- Book Summary: Lesson 4 From Disrupting Digital Business – Know That Data Is The Foundation May 25, 2015
- Book Summary: Lesson 3 From Disrupting Digital Business – Sell The Smallest Unit You Can May 17, 2015
- Webinar Invite: Disrupting Digital Business – The Customer Experience Imperative May 16, 2015
- Quips: Networked Economy Models Emerge Should Verizon Gain Approval To Acquire AOL May 12, 2015
- Book Summary: Lesson 2 From Disrupting Digital Business – Keep Brand Promises In An Attention Economy May 10, 2015
- Research Summary: The Correct Way to Use Customer Data May 6, 2015
- Event Report: Insights Into The New NetSuite At SuiteWorld 2015 May 9, 2015
- Book Summary: Lesson 1 From Disrupting Digital Business May 3, 2015
- Personal Log: Read Chapter One of Disrupting Digital Business April 22, 2015
- Quips: The Long Tail On Intel’s Latest Earnings
- Event Report: Inside The Apple #SpringForward Event
- Event Report: Inside the #SXSW2015 Phenom – Meerkat
- Personal Log: Our Alliance With Digital Clarity Group
- Research Report: Enterprise Healthcare Management (EHM) – Healthcare Meets Analytics
- News Analysis: Rumors On Apple’s Foray Into Cars “Project Titan”
- News Analysis: Inside the First Industry-Specific Mobile Apps by the IBM MobileFirst for Apple iOS Partnership
- News Analysis: Going Deeper Into The Apple And IBM New Business Model Alliance
- Quips: Digital Transformation – Defining The Fundamental Elements For Digital CXOs
- Personal Log: Coming soon! Disrupting Digital Business – The Book
- News Analysis: Adobe EchoSign’s Electronic Signatures Goes 100% Mobile
- Monday’s Musings: Who Gets To Be A Chief Digital Officer?
- Monday’s Musings: The Seven Rules For Digital Business And Digital Transformation
- Tuesday’s Tip: Five Steps To Starting Your Digital Transformation Initiative
- Monday’s Musings: What Organizations Want From Mobile
- Research Summary: Economic Trends Exacerbate Digital Business Disruption And Digital Transformation (The Futurist Framework Part 3)
- Research Summary: Five Societal Shifts Showcase The Digital Divide Ahead (The Futurist Framework Part 2)
- Research Summary: Sneak Peaks From Constellation’s Futurist Framework And 2014 Outlook On Digital Disruption
- Research Report: Digital ARTISANs – The Seven Building Blocks Behind Building A Digital Business DNA
- Research Summary: Five Societal Shifts Showcase The Digital Divide Ahead (The Futurist Framework Part 2)
- Research Summary: Next Generation CIOs Aspire To Focus More On Innovation And The Chief Digital Officer Role
- Trends: [VIDEO] The Digital Business Disruption Ahead Preview – NASSCOM India Leadership Forum (#NASSCOM_ILF)
- News Analysis: New #IBMWatson Business Group Heralds The Commercialization Of Cognitive Computing. Ready For Augmented Humanity?
- Harvard Business Review: What a Big Data Business Model Looks Like
- Monday’s Musings: How The Five Consumer Tech Macro Pillars Influence Enterprise Software Innovation
- Tuesday’s Tip: Understand The Five Generation Of Digital Workers And Customers
- Monday’s Musings: The Chief Digital Officer In The Age Of Digital Business
- Slide Share: The CMO vs CIO – Pathways To Collaboration
- Event Report: CRM Evolution 2013 – Seven Trends In The Return To Digital Business And Customer Centricity
- News Analysis: Sitecore Acquires Commerce Server In Quest Towards Customer Experience Management
- News Analysis: Salesforce 1 Signals Support For Digital Business at #DF13
- Research Summary And Speaker Notes: The Identity Manifesto – Why Identity Is At The Heart of Digital Business
Reprints
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Copyright © 2001 -2015 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
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