Now Developers Can Tap into the Business Cloud to Monetize Services Built on Cloud Computing Platforms
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — January 20, 2009 — Zuora, Inc., the fastest growing on-demand billing and payments service, today announced the Z-Commerce Platform. The Z-Commerce Platform is the first development platform dedicated to enabling monetization for cloud computing services. The addition of the Z-Commerce Platform to Zuora’s product list, including Z-Billing, Z-Payments, and Z-Force, creates a full suite of Business Cloud solutions focused on helping companies drive revenue from cloud computing.
“2009 is the Year of the Cloud — And developers are clearly shifting to building services on cloud platforms. With the Z-Commerce Platform, we’ve now given developers a powerful way to monetize services built on these platforms,” said Tien Tzuo, CEO, Zuora. “This is the most important product announcement we’ve made thus far —with the introduction of the Z-Commerce Platform, we’ve taken a big step towards our vision of being the de-facto commerce engine for the cloud.”
The Business Cloud, Powered by Zuora
Applications are moving to the cloud and developers are following. Merrill Lynch predicts the addressable market for Cloud Computing is $160B, including $95B in business and productivity applications. There are already millions of developers working on cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services, salesforce.com’s Force.com, and Google AppEngine. To reach the millions of .Net developers out there, Microsoft will launch Azure, its cloud computing platform, later this year.
But technology cloud platforms are not enough. Cloud developers also need a way to make money from the services and applications they build. This creates huge market potential for a provider of cloud-based commerce capabilities such as subscription billing and payments to meet this need. In fact, upwards of 50% of Zuora’s inbound leads are from cloud computing companies looking for a way to monetize their services. This is what Zuora calls the Business Cloud.
“Payments and billing are two of the thorniest – and critical – business operational elements facing both new and mature SaaS and Cloud vendors,” according to Robert Mahowald, director of IDC’s global SaaS practice. “By providing a solution to a key pain point that all SaaS and Cloud Computing vendors share, Zuora is helping to drive new opportunities for SaaS-based businesses and to usher in the era of the Business Cloud.”
The Z-Commerce Platform
Zuora’s Z-Commerce Platform works with any cloud computing platform, including Amazon Web Services, salesforce.com’s Force.com, and Google AppEngine. Never before has a company provided developers with the tools to quickly and easily build subscription management and commerce into cloud-based services. The Z-Commerce Platform brings the following new commerce capabilities to developers:
- A complete set of commerce APIs that allow developers to tap into the power of Z-Billing, Z-Payments, and Z-Force
- A powerful SubscribeNow() call that makes it easy to add one-click order processing to any web site
- Sample code and toolkits for the most popular languages such as Java, .NET, and PHP
- A developer sandbox environment to use for developing and testing commerce solutions
- Z-Store reference implementation, a fully functional web store, complete with source code, that takes subscription orders from a web site and allows end customers to manage their subscription and billing information.
- New Zuora Developer Community Site, a community of cloud computing developers sharing best practices and collaborating around the Business Cloud. The site includes forums, developer events, and full developer support. The Zuora Developer Network is available at https://developer.zuora.com.
Early Adopters Already Seeing Returns
Several companies have already created customized billing and payment solutions using the Business Cloud provided by the Z-Commerce Platform, including:
- DataDoctors, a chain of computer service centers and a Zuora customer, used the Business Cloud to build a billing Intranet for its franchisees
- CVSDude, an international hosting service, used the Business Cloud to add billing and payment capabilities, integrated into its code control service
- Bluewolf, an on demand services consulting company and Zuora partner, used the Z-Commerce API to integrate billing, payments, and subscriptions into custom media applications built on Force.com
- InsideView, a cloud-based business search and intelligence application and Zuora customer, uses the SubscribeNow() API to take subscription orders directly from its website
“Using the Z-Commerce Platform we built a custom billing, payment and subscription management system for our locations to use with subscription customers. Zuora’s open API made it easy to launch an intranet that is now used by our 250+ personnel around the country,” said Brandon Disney, COO, Data Doctors Franchise Systems.
“With the Z-Commerce Platform we easily added commerce to our subversion hosting and project management service” said Jason Seed, CEO of CVSdude. “Now our invoicing and payment process is fully automated and integrated into our end user experience.”
“Our customers depend on our on-demand expertise and we are huge fans of Zuora — Zuora is an asset to any company implementing a SaaS or subscription-based service. The new Z-Commerce Platform makes it that much easier for companies to instantly monetize their cloud services,” said Eric Berridge, CEO, Bluewolf.
Zuora launched its first product, Z-Billing, in May 2008. Z-Billing is the first billing application designed specifically for subscription companies, giving them the flexibility and power to create, manage, and grow their business. In October 2008, Zuora launched its second product, Z-Payments. Z-Payments is a complete payment solution built for subscription businesses and includes the ability to accept PayPal payments. In November 2008, Zuora unveiled Z-Force, the first billing and payment system fully integrated with salesforce.com and 100% native to the Force.com platform. In just seven months, more than 70 customers have selected Zuora, including Cloud9 Analytics, Marketo, and Box.net.
About Zuora, Inc.
Zuora is the fastest-growing on-demand subscription billing and payment service. The Zuora platform changes the way subscription businesses manage and sell to customers and allows them to bring new products to market in less time, with less hassle. Zuora is built from the ground up by SaaS industry visionaries and veterans from salesforce.com, WebEx, Accenture, Postini (now Google), and Oracle. The company is based in Redwood City, California. To learn more about Zuora, please visit zuorainternprd.wpengine.com.