Sign of the Times

Visual Designer and Art Director Sam Jennings worked for Prince for nine years, starting with the Love4OneAnother.com project at the end of 1998. After several websites, he led the launch of the NPG Music Club in 2001, the first online music subscription service. Tom Krackeler and Rachel English had a chance to talk with Sam […]

Box shows strong sales growth in third quarter earnings

By Katie Roof Cloud storage company Box reported third quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, beating Wall Street expectations with a record $102.8 million in revenue, a 31% increase year-over-year and above predictions of $100.64 million. Adjusted earnings per share showed a loss of 14 cents, better than the negative 19 cents that analysts […]

Sage’s growing subscription business boosts revenues

By Lauren Fedor Sage, Britain’s biggest software group, has reported improved revenue growth and operating margins as faster-growing subscription revenues continued to offset a decline in its traditional software sales. On Wednesday, the Newcastle-based company, which provides accounting and payroll software for clients in more than 20 countries, reported organic revenue growth of 6.1 percent for […]

Social media, the subscription economy and the new face of retail

By John Donnelly III If you’re an impulsive person, online shopping might be your best friend, worst enemy or a little bit of both. In the past year in the US, shoppers spent more than $300 billion online, and their spending in the past quarter accounted for 8.4 percent of all retail revenue in the US. […]

Xiaomi admits it doesn’t make money on smartphone hardware sales

By Darrell Etherington Xiaomi’s business model isn’t about selling handsets, except insofar as those handset sales lead to recurring service revenue later on. So said Xiaomi global VP and former Android VP Hugo Barra in an interview with Reuters. The executive for the device maker was commenting on a drop in its smartphone sales in […]

Reimagining Black Friday: Business Models Based on Services, Not Stuff

By Manish Bapna and Kevin Moss Black Friday. The name sounds ominous, but for retailers, it’s a day for thanksgiving after Thanksgiving. Historically, it’s the biggest shopping day on the U.S. calendar, so named because it puts businesses in the black. Somewhere in our psyches, though, we know our acquisition habits are excessive. Our economy […]

The on-demand economy now includes printers

By John Pletz Jonathan Treble sees opportunity in the gig economy, catering to the needs of freelancers and mobile workers who make their offices in coffee shops and cars. Anyone with a laptop, tablet or smartphone can ply their trade from virtually anywhere. But what happens when they need to print something? His startup, PrintWithMe, […]

Assessment Tales: Big Firms Taking the 606 Plunge

Whether you like it or not, the impending effective date for ASC 606 is soon upon us all. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Some of the bigger companies well into implementation efforts are finding as much work lies ahead as behind, according to commentary recently reported by Compliance Week, based on a Financial Executives International […]

Episode 47: Give Thanks for Revenue Recognition

Hosts Matt and Jim extend the “Thanks” portion of your Thanksgiving holiday one more day with a fun-filled episode rolling through an overflowing cornucopia of reasons folks in this industry should be thankful. Also, it’s that content review time of the month. Important note: No turkeys were harmed in the making of this episode. Help […]

LIBERTÉ (…to Grow, Experiment, and Reinvent)

Following Subscribed London 2016, Zuora took to the Westin Paris Vendôme, right between the Place Vendôme and the Tuileries Gardens, to share a message that would resonate among the hundreds of French business leaders who showed up on Friday for Subscribed Paris: La liberté. Freedom is a fundamental value (outside the realm of business) in […]