Theme A: Knowing the Market, Cloud Models, and Ecosystem
1. Describe which market segment(s) Zuora serves in the time-frame and setting of the case?
Zuora Inc had been engaging in the industry as a top player in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) billings and in the payment systems. This was due to the experience and expertise that had been brought to the company by the technical management and the technicians (UC Berkeley 2009). There is also The Z-billing that the company had been majoring was aimed at the market of the development community, offline subscription businesses and all the businesses including the smaller ones such as the plumbers and law firms that usually operate using the subscription models . These kinds of companies are the target market for Zuora Inc.
2. Summarize from the case the nature of complexity of Services business (vs. Manufacturing)? Specifically, why do Services businesses have billing complexities? Cite examples of such complexities from the Zuora case – and optionally, from other sources– in order to substantiate your reasoning.
Service businesses have billing complexities. This is due to the fact that companies that operate under the SaaS model including the Salesforce.com have vigorous and effective payment and billing system was crucial. Billing for the services is more complex as compared to the manufactured products more so during the times when the SaaS was introduced to the market. It is imperative for companies to try out different billing and payment systems before settling on one optimal billing and payment model that fits the business. This should be accompanied by the by factors that cover temporary promotion, discounting to ensure effectiveness. The examples of such complexities in the billing systems are found in the Cell phone billing systems and the pricing systems, the AT&T carriers. Such carriers provide variety of plans that target small business plans, family plans, and individual plans.
This billing also depends on the geographical locations of the customers in consideration to the preference in making the monthly payments and whether the phone was purchased under the plan or not. Billing systems that are able to customized, scalable and extremely flexible are needed for the purpose of calculating millions of dollars monthly (Stanford graduate school of business 2009).
3. Elaborate which cloud delivery / consumption model(s) and which deployment model(s) is used by Zuora products? Draw simple diagrams to clarify and accompany your brief narrative.
The cloud delivery and consumption model that are used by the Zuora Inc is the latest Z-Commerce. The Z-Commerce is an online billing system that works towards ensuring that the cloud model developers are satisfied. Users of Zuora’s products are able to access the plug-in services through the plug and play cloud model (UC Berkeley 2009). Zuora Inc has also come up with the brand new latest API system that makes the Zuora Inc’s products to be utilized with the consumers alongside the normal Zuora’s software. The success of the Zuora’s cloud consumption model, the Z-Commerce has ensured that Zuora Inc has a heavy presence in the cloud computing market not only in the US but worldwide.
4. Gleaning from the case, draw a diagram of the ecosystem of payment and billing providers, show their role / relationship with each other and/or with merchants, and show clearly Zuora’s place in this ecosystem.
Zuora’s place in this ecosystem is the AmCoBi’s utility wizard that offers the billing and payment software to the consumers from all the businesses that utilizes the billing software from the
There are many challenges which Zuora, Inc faces when venturing into cloud computing. The biggest challenge which the company faces in the IT sector is security. Security is high on the agenda of Zuora, Inc. The security issue is very important because it can determine the performance of the company. The company is sweating to cope with external and internal attacks, threat and vulnerability detection. Security is important in Zuora, Inc because it protects the company’s resources.
Theme B: The challenges & opportunities of multi-tenancy in cloud
The main reason why Zuora, Inc needs to install security in its database system is to protect and prevent the loss and leak of the organization information, to resolve any network weakness, to protect the database system from harmful spyware attacks, and to curb any act that will result to the company’s system been accessed or exploited by introducers. A common problem that has increasingly affected the performance of the company is how information of customers has been accessed by both external and internal forces. Delay in installation of security will further worsen the situation as the risk of confidential information leakage with continues to grow and more and more customer will be unsatisfied. Once customers become unsatisfied they will stop purchasing products of Zuora, Inc thus reducing the amount of revenue received by the company. This will affect the growth and development of the company. The establishment of company will also be affected.
Many customers of the company has reported to the company that their information is been accessed by both internal and external sources and some have even threaten to exposure their information to the public. In addition exposure of information gives competing companies an edge over Zuora, Inc due to the fact that they will copy and use the business strategies of designing and sales used by the company. As a result rival companies will start producing the same products as Zuora, Inc and in the process the market competition will intensify. The market share of Zuora, Inc will reduce dramatically and hence their need to install security to prevent leakage of information to unintended sources.
Installation of security pain points in Zuora, Inc is not an easy task. The procedure of installing security is complicated and requires a lot of investment from the company. The cost of providing security to the company’s database system is expensive. The older methods that were used to tackle the problem of insecurity in the company are no longer effective. Current database attacks are converted, well organized and more sophisticated as compared to past attack.
A good example of a database attack that threatens to pull apart Zuora, Inc is Hydrag attack. This attack is very deadly because it targets the key areas of weakness of a business environment. The key areas of Zuora, Inc which were attacked by Hydrag attack are; the poorly protected information, poorly protected infrastructure, poorly managed systems and poorly enforced information technology policies (UC Berkeley 2009). Zuora, Inc has been forced to innovate and create new technology in order to tackle the problem of insecurity that affects the performance of the company. The challenge of protecting cybercriminals from attacking Zuora, Inc database is the main problem which the company is facing and is yet to resolve (Stanford graduate school of business 2009).
Zuora, Inc can also use yield management technique to perform well in the market competition. The use of yield management procedure and concept at the company will be of great use to the company. The electronic industry has flourished since it started to utilize the yield management technique. Through the use of yield management technique, the electronic company will experience tremendous growth which has result to its development and establishment all over the world. According to survey, companies in the electronic industry that have made proper use of yield management technique have attained tremendous development. Thus in order for Zuora, Inc to meet the growing demands of database security from both the domestic and international level it should incorporate the yield management technique into its system.
Theme C: impact of cloud to business model & business operations
Zuora, Inc has prioritized new approach to security as its main objective in the coming days. The company is now focused on enhancing security continuity as well as bringing both internal and external changes. The company has already established a security strategy that is policy driven, risked based, operational, well managed and information-centric. According to me Zuora, Inc should formulate security measure that will resolve the insecurity problem. Among the security pain points which Zuora, Inc should install in its premises include; enforcement and development of information technology control policies, innovate information protection system, establish a system that will manage information and protect infrastructure.
Developing and enforcing information technology policies such as control compliance policy will provide greater visibility into Zuora, Inc. This policy will also deliver greater compliance risks which will provide high intelligent services at a lower cost. Control Compliance Suite 10.0 is the best information protection system which Zuora, Inc can install in its premises.
This company can also install information protection systems, such as Data Loss Prevention Suite 10.5. This protection system is advantageous because it prevent loss of information and data to the public domain. By use of this system the company will win over the confidence of its customers who do not want their information to be leaked to the public domain. Enhancing customers’ privacy is a cornerstone towards the success of the company as more customers would like to be associated with it. Zuora, Inc. should therefore make use of this protection information system to win back the confidence of its customers are growing unsatisfied with the company’s lack of quality information system. Exposure of information to the public domain is unethical and hence curbing it will improve the performance of the company.
In the bid of improving its security, the company should renovate its management information system by using a soft-ware known as Altiris IT Management Suite 7.0. This soft-ware enhances faster and effective security services. In addition, this soft-ware improves manageability and closes the technology gap through provision of accurate and effective information and infrastructure sprawl.
The company can also opt to install protect infrastructure system such as Symantec Protection Suites. This system will provide a unified information management servers, gateways and endpoints to Zuora, Inc. In addition this system will protect tailored and specified regions with enough security. Among the regions that will be protected by this system include the company information technology infrastructure and the company’s computer database.
Theme D: Summing it up: Take a position
1. Arrive at your independent recommendation on which of the 3 scenarios should Zuora take – in the 2009 time frame the case is set. Provide your reasoning.
The Zuora Inc’s among the three recommendations of continuing to focus on the building and development of the SaaS, expansion for the purpose of capturing larger cloud computing software that is increasing in popularity, or to focus on growth and strife to amass the subscription customers and the opportunity. The Zuora Inc should focus much on the expansion mainly for the purpose of capturing the larger cloud computing software that is extensively used in the world (Stanford graduate school of business 2009).
Thus due to the fact that the cloud computing economics are always taken from the fact that the large scale data in the computers centers are built at low cost places and the factors of operations and networks and electricity also at relatively low costs. Cloud computing will allow the Zuora In to ensure that the customers have software that allows them store other software and fails appropriately. This is important in taking a shift from severs and the hard disks that are prone to loss and unauthorized access to the information.
The web based applications such as the Gmail and the hotmail and the communication centers such as Skype, Sound Cloud, YouTube and Video all use the cloud computing which the Zuora Inc should consider developing and getting identified with. This clearly shows that many people are already appreciating the technology of cloud computing and thus the Zuora should also consider this sites as the prospective clients for the newly developed cloud computing. Video sharing, music sharing, face communication and message sending can be made better by the new cloud computing technique by the Zuora Inc.
2. Determine from current 2012 Zuora web site, company/industry analysis, and other sources which of these paths (or other) did Zuora actually end up.
UC Berkeley (Reliable Adaptive Distributed Systems Laboratory), (February 10, 2009), “Above the Clouds: A Berkeley view of cloud computing,”, p. 1.
