Zuora Announces Z-Finance Open, the First Partner Ecosystem Built Around Advanced Subscription Finance Metrics

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwire - Nov 15, 2012) - Subscribed 2012

News: Arming Subscription Businesses with the Best in Subscription Finance Analytics

• Zuora, the subscription commerce, billing and finance leader, today unveiled Z-Finance Open, a new partner ecosystem that is designed to open the powerful insights of Z-Finance to advanced analytics solutions to help customers optimize their subscription businesses.
• Earlier this year, Zuora launched Z-Finance, the first financial application designed specifically for companies in the Subscription Economy. Z-Finance delivers a new financial framework that is missing from traditional bookkeeping and centuries-old accounting rules to capture the dynamic, ongoing revenue relationships that are the foundation for the subscription business model. Z-Finance enables subscription businesses, for the first time, to easily generate key, forward-looking subscription metrics, such as ARR, MRR and Churn, alongside traditional financial metrics like A/R, cash and revenue. Subscription businesses have quickly recognized the benefits and insights of Z-Finance, and, since its launch at Subscribed eight weeks ago, the number of Z-Finance customers has tripled and demand for it continues to grow. 
• Z-Finance Open extends the value of Z-Finance to help subscription companies grow their business, reduce churn and maximize efficiency. The Z-Finance Open ecosystem provides select advanced analytics partners access to key Z-Finance data and metrics, and offers Zuora customers pre-packaged solutions that can be rapidly deployed to combine core Zuora subscription metrics with the unique strengths of these partners. GoodData, SaaSOptics, and Scout Analytics are the charter partners of the new ecosystem with more partners to be named in the future.

The Subscription Economy Changes the Way Companies Measure Financial Success

• The shift to the Subscription Economy has broken traditional financial frameworks, and subscription businesses are facing significant pain in translating the complex language of subscription finance into the limited vocabulary of debits and credits and in tracking, measuring, and analyzing their businesses. For example:
  • Subscription companies need to report recurring revenue and expenses differently from one-time revenue and expenses.
  • Subscription companies need to measure bookings, billings, cash and revenue across multiple dimensions of time.
  • Subscription companies need to analyze new forward-looking metrics instead of traditional backward-looking results.
• Finance teams in particular struggle with capturing the advanced, dynamic insights that represent the key indicators of their subscription business, including:
  • Analyzing usage behavior to predict future upsell opportunities, or early warning signs of churn;
  • Monitoring ARR or MRR growth trends and project future growth based on historical patterns; and
  • Assigning resources and funding in a manner that maximizes the overall growth potential of a subscription business.
• In order to be successful, subscription businesses need new systems and advanced analytics designed specifically for the unique rules and metrics of subscription finance and the Subscription Economy.
• Z-Finance overcomes the limitations of traditional finance and accounting models and has taken the subscription finance world by storm.

Extending Z-Finance with Advanced Analytics to Provide Powerful Insights

• Z-Finance Open, fueled by the unique metrics in Z-Finance, addresses the requirements that come with the shift to the Subscription Economy to help subscription companies measure and monitor the health of their business and make more informed decisions. With the launch of Z-Finance Open, Zuora is making key Z-Finance metrics available to external analytics platforms, giving customers access to:
  • Historical trending: monitor MRR growth trends and project future growth;
  • Predictive analytics: reduce churn and increase customer lifetime value; and
  • Rich data visualization: create advanced dashboards for a holistic view of all business operations.
• Z-Finance Open enables ecosystem partners to provide pre-packaged solutions so subscription businesses can rapidly deploy the analytics solution that aligns with their needs. 

Charter Z-Finance Open Partners: GoodData, SaaSOptics and Scout Analytics

• GoodData, SaaSOptics, and Scout Analytics are the first three analytics Z-Finance Open partners, with more partners to be announced in the future. GoodData, SaaSOptics, and Scout Analytics each provide robust analytics and reporting capabilities designed specifically for subscription businesses. For example:
  • GoodData allows customers to mash together Zuora data from any number of external sources to create business reports and rich dashboards that provide a holistic view of all business operations which helps businesses make decisions that maximize their operational efficiency.
    
    "The nature of subscription businesses means you generate a wealth of data about how customers are using the service, giving you unprecedented insight into how spending impacts the top and bottom line," said Chad Varra, CFO at SendGrid. "The GoodData integration will enable SendGrid to pull key metrics and information from Zuora and combine it with data from several sources to gain a holistic view of our business."
    
    
  • SaaSOptics applies algorithms to Zuora's key metrics, enabling customers to make decisions that drive growth and increase customer lifetime value based on historical trending analysis and insights into future projections.
    
    "We are always looking at how we can serve our current customers better and how we can move into new markets faster," said Tom Clark, CFO of CollabNet. "With the deep analytics insights we get from SaaSOptics applied to Zuora, we are better able to understand how our business is trending, and we can use those insights to drive critical business decisions."
    
    
  • Scout Analytics is a predictive analytics platform that helps customers increase subscription revenues up to 15% by optimizing upsells and pricing, and reducing churn.
    
    "Critical to success at Reed Business Information is aligning the right pricing and packaging based on customer usage patterns so we can better service their needs," said Mary Collerton, Corporate Solutions Director at Reed Business Information. "The integration of Zuora and Scout Analytics will provide account managers with new insights to optimize our sales approach and ultimately build stronger relations with customers, without heavy IT investment."

Zuora Commentary

• "Finance and the 500 year-old rules of accounting are broken in the Subscription Economy," said Zuora CEO Tien Tzuo. "We delivered Z-Finance to provide subscription businesses a complete financial picture of their operations. And we're extending it with Z-Finance Open, making key data and metrics available to third-party experts to help companies optimize their recurring revenue business models."

About Zuora, Inc.
Zuora is the global leader in Relationship Business Management solutions. Zuora delivers the subscription billing, commerce and finance capabilities that have become the industry standard to help companies transition to the Subscription Economy. Enterprises and emerging companies alike use Zuora's multi-tenant cloud solution to enable growth strategies, to streamline key processes and to provide visibility into the metrics that matter most in the Subscription Economy. Zuora services innovative customers like Informatica, Tata Communications, Box.net, DocuSign, GigaOM, Xplornet, Ustream and Reed Business Information. To learn more about Zuora, please visit www.zuora.com.