Citrix Partners With Zuora to Grow its CloudPortal Services Manager

Jeff Yoshimura, VP Marketing 

 

Delivering and monetizing solutions in the Cloud just got a whole lot easier. Today, Zuora announced a partnership with Citrix Systems to extend the capabilities of CloudPortal Services Manager. Citrix’s Channel strategy is to aggressively grow its Citrix Service Provider (CSP) channel and Zuora will be an integral part of that, providing the billing solution for Citrix and its partners’ broad portfolio of Cloud offerings.

Not only is Citrix growing, but an entire industry of service providers are evolving to offer cloud-based solutions that meet a wide range of needs-- from line-of-business apps to legacy custom apps to core productivity apps. Every cloud provider must be able to streamline the front-end provisioning of their entire portfolio of services, and accurately meter and bill for those services on the backend.

Together, Zuora and Citrix empower today’s cloud providers with an integrated ability to build, deliver and monetize new cloud app and desktop services. That’s why this partnership is so potent: CloudPortal Services Manager is specifically designed to provide a platform for a broad portfolio of services and multiple tiers of delivery. Meanwhile, Zuora’s industry leading Z-Commerce for the Cloud solution will integrate seamlessly with CloudPortal Services Manager to provide a powerful billing and payment platform that allows cloud service providers to quickly monetize and grow their cloud services.

With the launch of Z-Commerce for the Cloud, Zuora set out to become the Cloud billing leader--- a solution for anyone who wants to build a public, private, hybrid Cloud. When we launched Z-Commerce for the Cloud two years ago, our goal was to ensure that every Cloud provider would have access to a billing system more versatile, flexible, and scalable than any on premise or homegrown system. Since that time, Zuora has become the commerce engine for HP, GoGrid, Dell, Tata Communications, IC&S, Zetta, and Ninefold.

With today's announcement, Zuora offers unparalleled options for Cloud providers to use their Cloud of choice. Whether you’re seeking to monetize, deliver, or scale your service in the Cloud, Zuora's Z-Commerce for the Cloud is the leading billing platform for service providers to capitalize on the unique opportunities of the Cloud.

“To be successful, cloud providers must be able to automatically and easily provision new accounts, empower customers with self-service, and then bill them for what they used," said Bill Burley, Vice President and General Manager of the Cloud App Delivery group at Citrix. "Service providers could struggle endlessly trying to build these capabilities on their own – or they could use Citrix CloudPortal with Zuora's Z-Commerce for the Cloud and leverage the integration developed via our partnership. Our Citrix Service Providers are always asking us to help them be more operationally efficient so they can improve their margins – partnering with Zuora is one of the ways we can accomplish that."

Zuora President, Shawn Price, will be presenting more about this partnership at an exclusive event for Citrix Service Providers attending the Citrix Summit on the morning of Tuesday, May 8th at the Westin San Francisco Market Street.

Subscriptions & Weird Cat Ladies

by Megan Golden, Marketing

 

I would not peg myself as a cat person, per say. Maybe it’s that I'm afraid I’d wake up one day and be 45, single, with nothing to my name but a wardrobe of sweatpants, a rainbow of fabric headbands, and 15 cats in my tiny 600sq ft apartment while known to all the local youths as the Weird Cat Lady. Obviously, the cat being the impetus.

But there's good news for all those Weird Cat Ladies (WCL) out there -- Boxiecat.

Boxiecat has introduced a subscription service that makes owning a cat (or 15) a lot easier: now, instead of going to a store and lugging home a 10lb bag of litter, Boxiecat will deliver kitty litter to your door.  

It’s an exceptionally simple and yet clever solution for “busy cat owners” (aka, WCLs). Cat owners are likely to be repeat customers (everyone needs litter), especially when the alternative is venturing out in public in my hypothetical sweatpants and fabric headband with a shopping cart stacked high with kitty litter -- I mean the visual is offensive alone.

With Boxiecat, you “Set your home cat litter delivery schedule and relax [in your sweats] because you'll never have to shop for litter again [thank god]. Stop lugging heavy bags home from the store and save time with Boxiecat.”

Delivered via USPS, the litter is $20 a shipment and you can cancel anytime. It’s also green (saving driving time to the store and coming in Cradle to Cradle certified shipping boxes) so at least you’ll be an environmentally-friendly WCL. 

Unfortunately, Boxiecat does not take away your old litter, discipline Cat Damon for doing unspeakable things to your couch or provide a WCL Anonymous hotline. But the added convenience and flexible shipping schedules makes this a rather inventive and practical subscription solution to a formerly singular-transaction-focused problem.

K-Cup Coffee As Subscription Service

Chris Holt, Marketing

 

In college, I lived with a friend who was a coffee addict. The guy simply couldn’t function unless he had his morning cup ‘o joe, and then needed another pickup by early afternoon. He was very specific and brand loyal too: he’d always journey to the same coffee shop by the campus library. He wouldn’t tolerate any of that mass brewed cafeteria stuff. When he moved out to the real world, he was an early adopter of K-Cup single-serving coffee.

Well, it seems that coffee addicts like my former roommate, or at least connoisseurs, have been noticed by retailers. Online megastore Amazon has a “Subscribe and Save” program for buyers who commit to repeat purchases on k-cup consumption. Participants can reap big benefits too, like discounts of up to 15% on select items.

My roommate was useless if he didn’t get his specific cup of coffee, and would grow irate if the barista messed his order. Thankfully, Amazon’s program is a bit more forgiving than he was. You can indicate if you want to skip deliveries online or change the frequency of the shipments. Of course, if you require a steady diet of K-Cup consumption and can find your specific brand available through Amazon’s subscription service, then there’s very little downside to participating.

But K-Cup subscription services to coffee addicts is likely only the beginning. More and more goods are going from single transactions to subscribed, continuous relationships. Target, the discount retail giant, revealed “last month that it's exploring a subscription service to provide shoppers with discounts on regularly purchased merchandise,” explains DailyFinance.com. So if you’re regularly buying things like toilet paper, milk, or cereal you may be rewarded with a service of your specific need. Me? I’m looking forward to a subscription service that delivers Cocoa Puffs to my front door.

 

Washington Post Misses Link Between Sharing, Subscriptions, and Services

Tien Tzuo, CEO

 

The Washington Post’s Lifestyle section published a piece on Sunday highlighting many subscription-based companies that have challenged the conventional single-transaction business model. While the Post’s analysis is mainly on retail-products-as-services like Zipcar, Rent our Boxes, Netflix, and Tie Society, the simple fact that subscription businesses have penetrated into the lifestyle section of newspapers speak to the growth of the subscription economy these past few years.

Personally, I prefer the term “Subscription Economy” to the Washington Post’s use of “sharing economy” as “Subscription Economy” encapsulates products and services that aren’t merely tangible objects to be shared. Dell, The New York Times, Billmyparents, and Pearson’s move to subscription monetization isn’t simply about “sharing,” it’s about having a stronger relationship with the customer that (hopefully) will be longer lasting and deeper.

But The Washington Post poses an interesting question: is the move to subscriptions partly generational, as each generation approaches ownership differently? Is the younger generation simply more okay with sharing their toys, cars, movies and ties? Or are we simply too impatient/cheap to put up with inefficient models of consumerism? Why bother owning a car that is idle for the majority of the time? Why invest in a tie you’ll wear only twice? And, if you know you’ll use a service continually, why not invest in a monthly payment system?

Babysitting as a Service…The Importance of Trust in Subscription Success

by Megan Golden, Interactive Marketing

Are you a busy Bay Area parent? Do you and your hubby work late nights? Or do you just need a night to get out, away from your rugrats? Well then Wondersitter.com might just be what you need.

For all those Bay Area parents working Silicon Valley hours, subscriptions have come to the rescue, saving marriages one babysitter at a time. Since I’ll be checking No Dependents on my taxes this year, clearly I haven’t been in the market. However, I can confidently say this is the first subscription-based babysitting service I’ve seen. But the idea behind it is ages old: parents want a reliable, responsible babysitter who will reward their loyalty.

At the root of Wondersitter, lies its “Wonderdollars” program. Wonderdollars are purchased by parents in order to get discounts on booking fees, rewarding parents who frequently book. You can also sign up for a $99 a month subscription for daily day care.  And perhaps best of all, if the babysitter is late, doesn’t clean up, or otherwise fails to meet the customer’s expectations—the booking fee is waived. And this really seals the deal for me, as a someday-in-the-far-off-future Mother, that the company really does stand behind the sitters they send to your home to care for your children.

That’s ultimately the tipping point with service-as-subscription models. In order to subscribe, you need to trust the service to provide quality care every time. No one wants an experience like The Simpsons’ in the infamous first season episode-- you know, the one where a babysitter service sends a sitter who promptly tries to rob the place? So it looks like if Wondersitter’s employees rob your home, you’ll at least have your booking fee waived. Which is highly appreciated.

All jokes aside, Wondersitter is simply taking the service-as-subscription model and tying it to a business that, like massages and car rentals—is all about reputation. As Wondersitter continues to build its sitters’ reputation --  and I hope it does, so that my someday-in-the-far-off-future babies can take advantage of this -- the company’s reward programs will ultimately make it an attractive alternative to simple word-of-mouth recruitment.

Have the Media Subscription Wars Just Begun?

by Tien Tzuo, CEO

 

On Wednesday, GigaOm revealed that Taiwanese mobile hardware developer HTC may be developing a streaming music service in collaboration with Beats Audio’s Jimmy Iovine. Spotify is officially on notice.

 

Iovine, who serves as chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M, is a big mover and shaker in the music industry, and with his clout and HTC’s hardware abilities, could make some real noise in the music streaming race.

 

Lately, of course, the “race” has seemed like nothing but a Spotify monopoly. The popular music streaming app uses a combination advertisement/subscription-based business model combined with purchases with 3^rd party partners. Spotify has taken elements of iTunes, Pandora, and media sites’ models to create a three pronged revenue stream—and yet, despite its nearly 3 million paid subscribers, has not reported any profits.

 

According to the GigaOm piece, Iovine is not a fan of Spotify. And with Spotify’s recent announcement that its no-strings attached, unlimited service will no longer be free after users’ sixth month promotional period comes to an end, it seems that the time to make a move in this industry is now.

 

As Netflix’s handling of their pricing changes revealed, media executives still don’t quite understand how to price subscriptions models yet, and they better have the ability to change prices and bundles quickly and often. If Spotify’s moves spark a similar customer revolt, there could be an opportunity for HTC/Beat’s music service to capture market share.

 

And with Iovine’s backing, there are some major questions to be had as to what the music industry will do—do they throw their lot in with one service and not the other? Will customers, so accustomed to having unfettered access to all types of artists, now have to pick and choose which service they use based on the studios supported? Or will competition and lower prices allow for more specific subscription models, such as charging by use or by artist popularity?

 

But a presumed subscription war between HTC/Beat’s music service and Spotify is likely just another front in a larger media war that is brewing. HTC’s involvement suggests that hardware developers recognize the growing importance and profitability of subscription-based media models, and are moving to position themselves to take advantage. HTC is one of the major players in the mobile phone market, and is arguably one of the reasons why the Android platform has challenged Apple’s iOS. By packaging its presumed music service with HTC produced smartphones, the battlefield suddenly shifts from being just a battle between streaming music apps to a much larger hardware/content player war.

 

That’s what’s going to be the most interesting thing to watch here. HTC and Beat are unlikely allies, but they won’t be the only companies linking up to grab new positions in this evolving marketplace. There is going to be an all-out battle between content players, device manufacturers, Internet brands, broadcast/cable companies, studios, etc. There will be unholy alliances between former enemies just to stay in the game. There will be those that can stand on their own.

Ultimately, it will be a battle to own the customer via the subscription. Who can adapt, customize, and scale will determine the winners.