On April 12th and 13th, Blue Hill attended Zuora’s Subscribed 2016 to see the evolution of subscription billing, relationship business management, and demand-driven monetization. In speaking with over a dozen customers, key Zuora executives, and a variety of Zuora business and technical partners, Blue Hill’s key observation is that Zuora is continuing to evolve from the “subscription billing” market to a revenue platform focused on supporting business models requiring rapid evolution and agile transformation.
This core observation comes from a combination of Blue Hill’s broader conversations associated with subscription- and Internet of Things-based projects, the Subscribed 2016 event itself, and advances made both in the Zuora product and partnership ecosystem. This report provides recommendations to current and potential Zuora customers seeking to maximize their value in the subscription economy and to future-proof their businesses.
Blue Hill’s Key Takeaway from Zuora Clients: The Number Four
At the Subscribed 2016 event, Blue Hill spoke with a variety of clients ranging from content discovery platforms with very high volume usage business models to services managing online giving and donations. In addition, Zuora also invited a variety of clients on stage.
One of the key numbers that got Blue Hill’s attention was “four.” Specifically, multiple clients stated that they had deployed Zuora over a four-month period to translate their former asset- or transaction-based business to a subscription business. This consistency across multiple use cases and business models speaks to the increasing standardization and velocity of implementation associated with selecting Zuora as a subscription business platform.