The Subscription Economy™ is here
Announcement posted by Zuora 15 Aug 2016
Zuora’s fourth annual Subscribed Sydney conference points the way to the Subscription Economy™
SYDNEY, Australia – Subscribed Sydney 2016 – 15 August 2016 – Zuora, Inc., the world's leader in subscription billing, commerce and finance last week hosted its largest ever Sydney Subscribed conference with over 200 clients, prospects, and industry analysts in attendance.
Part of a global conference series dedicated to the Subscription Economy™, Subscribed Sydney was opened by David Gee, Chief Marketing Officer at Zuora, who delivered an opening keynote supported by Energy Australia and Zuora customer Sensis.
“We now live in a subscription economy,” said Mr Gee. “You see it in the headlines. Subscriptions, not iPhones, are the fastest growing component of Apple’s revenues. The biggest companies in the world by market capitalisation are now Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook – all of whom have a subscription model.”
Mr Gee said the best companies are always re-inventing themselves, and increasingly that means moving to a subscription model. “Unilever recently paid $1 billion to buy the Dollar Shave Club. Surf Air in California has a subscription model for flying. General Electric has moved from light bulbs to subscription services. IBM sells its Watson cognitive computing services on the subscription model.”
“There is a common thread to all this. The way people buy has changed for good. We have new and different expectations. We want on-demand fulfilment and a personalised service. Sellers have to make the transition, and turn customers into subscribers.”
Danny Gravell, CIO at Sensis, described how the company had transformed its own business model as it shifted from a focus on phone directories to digital marketing services. At the core of this transition was an innovative subscription model. “We have simplified the whole company. Thousands of products and services have been replaced with a range of modern marketing services, from digital directories to content services to websites.
Dating back to the days of the very first phone directory in 1880, Sensis has always been about connecting consumers and businesses. Today we continue that legacy through our subscription based marketing services which help Aussie businesses thrive.”
Zuora executives, customers and business partners hosted a number of sessions providing practical steps towards transitioning to the subscription economy, from disruptive business models and scaling your business, to how businesses can monetise subscription services, support payment systems, and develop metrics that drive growth.
“The Subscription Economy™ is challenging the role of many people in the organisation – the CEO, the CFO, the CIO, the CMO,” said Mr Gee. “The business needs to be customer-centric, with a whole new class of financial metrics such as CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), LTV (Lifetime Value), and ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue). There are new financial imperatives, around owning the relationship with the customer, who is now the subscriber.” He quoted Gartner, which talks about the need to evolve IT from “systems of record” to “systems of innovation.”
Mr Gee said three quarters of the attendees at Subscribed Sydney were prospects – organisations looking more closely at the evolving Subscription Economy™. “That’s very exciting because we want to communicate the possible and give a peek of what is doable. They can learn from those who have blazed the trail for running a successful subscription business — including developing and nurturing lasting customer relationships.”
Zuora’s Subscribed events have become more than conferences, he said. “It’s now a movement comprising a rapidly growing community of visionary individuals and companies that see how the world of business is changing and want to share their experiences and learn from others in order to be the dominant players in the Subscription Economy™.”
Additional resources
The Subscribed Community comprises worldwide events, online tutorials and a dedicated business magazine. In addition to the annual Subscribed conferences in San Francisco, Sydney and London, the Subscribed Community includes Subscribed Pop-ups, which are single-day events that have taken place in Stockholm, Boston, Munich and Paris.
Follow us online:
Facebook: Facebook.com/zuora
Twitter: @Zuora
#SubscriptionEconomy
About Zuora, Inc.
Zuora’s Relationship Business Management (RBM) solution 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 behaviour, open new revenue streams, and disrupt market segments to gain competitive advantage. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Zuora also operates offices in Sydney and in Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco, London, Paris, Munich, Beijing, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Vienna, Copenhagen and Stockholm. Zuora clients come from a wide range of industries, including media, travel services, consumer packaged goods, cloud services, and telecommunications. Australia and New Zealand clients include Deloitte, Fairfax Media, iSeekplant, Sensis, Servcorp and Spark.
Media contacts:
Cameron Donovan and Gloria Lee
Espresso Communications on behalf of Zuora, Inc.
Phone: +61 2 8016 2200
Email: zuora@espressocomms.com.au
Part of a global conference series dedicated to the Subscription Economy™, Subscribed Sydney was opened by David Gee, Chief Marketing Officer at Zuora, who delivered an opening keynote supported by Energy Australia and Zuora customer Sensis.
“We now live in a subscription economy,” said Mr Gee. “You see it in the headlines. Subscriptions, not iPhones, are the fastest growing component of Apple’s revenues. The biggest companies in the world by market capitalisation are now Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook – all of whom have a subscription model.”
Mr Gee said the best companies are always re-inventing themselves, and increasingly that means moving to a subscription model. “Unilever recently paid $1 billion to buy the Dollar Shave Club. Surf Air in California has a subscription model for flying. General Electric has moved from light bulbs to subscription services. IBM sells its Watson cognitive computing services on the subscription model.”
“There is a common thread to all this. The way people buy has changed for good. We have new and different expectations. We want on-demand fulfilment and a personalised service. Sellers have to make the transition, and turn customers into subscribers.”
Danny Gravell, CIO at Sensis, described how the company had transformed its own business model as it shifted from a focus on phone directories to digital marketing services. At the core of this transition was an innovative subscription model. “We have simplified the whole company. Thousands of products and services have been replaced with a range of modern marketing services, from digital directories to content services to websites.
Dating back to the days of the very first phone directory in 1880, Sensis has always been about connecting consumers and businesses. Today we continue that legacy through our subscription based marketing services which help Aussie businesses thrive.”
Zuora executives, customers and business partners hosted a number of sessions providing practical steps towards transitioning to the subscription economy, from disruptive business models and scaling your business, to how businesses can monetise subscription services, support payment systems, and develop metrics that drive growth.
“The Subscription Economy™ is challenging the role of many people in the organisation – the CEO, the CFO, the CIO, the CMO,” said Mr Gee. “The business needs to be customer-centric, with a whole new class of financial metrics such as CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), LTV (Lifetime Value), and ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue). There are new financial imperatives, around owning the relationship with the customer, who is now the subscriber.” He quoted Gartner, which talks about the need to evolve IT from “systems of record” to “systems of innovation.”
Mr Gee said three quarters of the attendees at Subscribed Sydney were prospects – organisations looking more closely at the evolving Subscription Economy™. “That’s very exciting because we want to communicate the possible and give a peek of what is doable. They can learn from those who have blazed the trail for running a successful subscription business — including developing and nurturing lasting customer relationships.”
Zuora’s Subscribed events have become more than conferences, he said. “It’s now a movement comprising a rapidly growing community of visionary individuals and companies that see how the world of business is changing and want to share their experiences and learn from others in order to be the dominant players in the Subscription Economy™.”
Additional resources
The Subscribed Community comprises worldwide events, online tutorials and a dedicated business magazine. In addition to the annual Subscribed conferences in San Francisco, Sydney and London, the Subscribed Community includes Subscribed Pop-ups, which are single-day events that have taken place in Stockholm, Boston, Munich and Paris.
Follow us online:
Facebook: Facebook.com/zuora
Twitter: @Zuora
#SubscriptionEconomy
About Zuora, Inc.
Zuora’s Relationship Business Management (RBM) solution 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 behaviour, open new revenue streams, and disrupt market segments to gain competitive advantage. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Zuora also operates offices in Sydney and in Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco, London, Paris, Munich, Beijing, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Vienna, Copenhagen and Stockholm. Zuora clients come from a wide range of industries, including media, travel services, consumer packaged goods, cloud services, and telecommunications. Australia and New Zealand clients include Deloitte, Fairfax Media, iSeekplant, Sensis, Servcorp and Spark.
Media contacts:
Cameron Donovan and Gloria Lee
Espresso Communications on behalf of Zuora, Inc.
Phone: +61 2 8016 2200
Email: zuora@espressocomms.com.au