Zuora Helps Swiftpage Reinvent Act! CRM for the Subscription Economy

Zuora, Inc. customer, Swiftpage, was able to increase its subscription customers by 140 percent and its annual recurring revenue (ARR) by 131 percent in 2016 due in part to its use of the Zuora® subscription relationship management platform. Swiftpage, the maker of Act! CRM software, selected Zuora to support its transformation to a pure subscription-based business model.

Act! pioneered the CRM software industry 30 years ago when it launched the first version of the contact and customer manager solution in April 1987. Since entering the market, Act! has served more than six million users across hundreds of thousands of businesses. Since acquiring Act! in 2013, Swiftpage has invested significantly in research and development to deploy new product releases, and selected Zuora to help the company move away from its traditional license and maintenance software business to a subscription business model.

“With our subscription model, we’ve shifted our entire interaction philosophy to be more engaged with our customers throughout their lifecycle,” said Joe Greenspan, VP of Commercial Operations at Swiftpage. “We could not do this on existing systems, and chose Zuora because it was the recognized leader in the space and shared Swiftpage’s vision. Moving to a subscription model was not just a technology play, but a cultural shift — and Zuora didn’t just provide a technology platform, but a business aspiration.”

Swiftpage decided that the benefits of migrating its large install base from a traditional license and maintenance model outweighed the risk, and rolled out the shift in North America first and then internationally. Eighteen months after launching its subscription offering to more than one hundred thousand customers, the Act! retention rate increased by 25 percent.

Why Swiftpage selected Zuora to help manage the growth of its subscription business:

  • New Upsell Paths and Cross-Sell Opportunities: To deliver additional value to customers, Swiftpage added more tiers of support, third party products and services, and other integrations. The flexible subscription model appealed to the target market of small to medium sized businesses more willing to pay for a subscription (as an operational expense) rather than a lump cash sum on licenses (as a capital expense).
  • Pricing and Packaging Optimization: The company simplified its product catalog, trimming down a large number of legacy product offerings into a clean handful of rate plans that can easily accommodate both existing and new customers. As a result, the company standardized its pricing across regions, sales reps, and teams.
  • Subscriber Relationships: In addition to creating recurring revenue streams for Swiftpage and its Act! Certified Consultant channel, Zuora helped Swiftpage shift its entire interaction philosophy to be more engaged with their customers throughout their lifecycle. With ever-greater efficiency in attracting, retaining, and growing their customer base, Swiftpage increased its subscription customers by 140 percent and grew its ARR by 131 percent in one year.

“The cloud is creating both an opportunity and a necessity for change among established software providers. The SaaS model is required to deliver new sources of value for customers, but legacy infrastructure is holding these businesses back,” said Tien Tzuo, CEO and founder of Zuora. “To be the disruptors, not the disrupted, companies are replacing their old systems, designed for an era of transactional business models, with modern applications built for the Subscription Economy®.”

Read more about Swiftpage in the Zuora case study about its thirty years of Act! success here.

Additional Resources

The Subscription Economy: A Business Transformation” by Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora

SlideShare: “Drivers of Success in the Subscription Economy

Subscription Economy® Index™ (SEI)

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About the Act! Portfolio

Act! has been a pioneer and an innovator in the CRM space for over 30 years. The award winning solution helps businesses to actively manage their customer relationships, market effectively, close more sales, work efficiently, and make insightful business decisions. Over six million users have trusted Act! to grow their business. Learn more at http://act.com.

 

About Zuora, Inc.

Zuora is a SaaS company and the world’s foremost evangelist of the Subscription Economy. Zuora’s leading subscription relationship management platform helps enable businesses in any industry to launch or shift products to subscription, implement new pay-as-you-go pricing and packaging models, gain new insights into subscriber behavior, open new revenue streams, and disrupt market segments to gain competitive advantage. Zuora serves more than 800 companies around the world in every industry, including Box, Komatsu, Rogers, Schneider Electric, Toshiba, Xplornet and Zendesk. The Subscription Economy Index (SEI) demonstrates that SEI companies are growing revenues approximately nine times faster than the S&P 500. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Zuora also operates offices in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, San Francisco, London, Paris, Beijing, Sydney and Tokyo.

 

Zuora Media Contact:

Jayne Scuncio

jscuncio@zuora.com

408-348-1087

 

Swiftpage Media Contact:

Mallory Bowers

mbowers@swiftpage.com

720-490-4332

© 2017 Zuora, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Zuora, Subscribed and Subscription Economy are trademarks of Zuora, Inc. Third party trademarks mentioned above are owned by their respective companies. Nothing in this press release should be construed to the contrary, or as an approval, endorsement or sponsorship by any third parties of Zuora, Inc. or any aspect of this press release. To learn more about the Zuora platform, please visit zuorainternprd.wpengine.com.

May 26, 2017