Journey towards platform excellence
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Transcript of Journey towards platform excellence
Journey towards platform excellence
An insight into the journey that The Economist took to select a pool of ‘best-of-breed’ partners to build a
scalable ecosystem that helps us project a superior customer experience and trigger unprecedented growth
Subrata MukherjeeVP Product Management, The Economist
GoalsWhy the Economist considered this initiative
Goalsfor this initiative
page03
Customers would gain better experience and are more satisfied
Accurate Access across
platforms
Self helpSmoother service
Better looking personalized content, emails & targeted Ads
More product and payment
options
Goalsfor this initiative
page04
Marketing can make a wider portfolio of products available with superior customer services
Less time spent on Customer access & fulfillment issues
Better segmentation & tracking
Targeted messaging gaining attention
Wider portfolio of products with quicker time to
market
Goalsfor this initiative
page05
Best of breed solutions within
platform
Digital solutions could focus on building a digital ecosystem and become a driver for growth
and efficiencies
Cleaner central master dataBetter targeting, insights & reports
Service oriented Architecture enabling &
smoother integration
Goalsfor this initiative
page06
The Economist Group as a business will gain cost efficiencies and become leader in digital
enablement
Become Industry leader in subscription best practices and gain
from relationships with industry leaders
Cost savings by replacing existing systems & partners, better financial
reconciliation and better Brand commitment with Customer centric
processes
guidelinesfor our discovery
page07
Technical Suitability
?
• Solution Completeness/Fit• Vendor Product Roadmap• Architecture Deep Dives• Support/Maintenance Considerations
Manageability?
• Manage scope• Initial Prioritisation/Value• User Stories• Functional Deep Dives
Affordability?
• Cost Negotiation• Effort breakdown• Total cost of ownership• Long term Support staff
Deliverability?
• Implementation approaches• Mapping delivery to
requirements• Customer References• ConfidenceCapability
?• Domain knowledge• Similar project• Team experience• Forward looking
vision
Discovery
Our journeyHow The Economist went through the journey
Discovery extended
June 2014
14 Front end added to the mix to tackle lack of front end skills
Zoocha, Acquia, Mozu, Echidna, EPI Server, Media Chase, Kentico, Web
cube, Ektron CMS, eZPublish, E-spirit, Cignex, Endava
The EconomistCASE Selection
page09
Discovery phase
May 2014
10 Subscription Partners identified based on Industry reports and market
research
Cleverbridge, MPP Global, Hybris, Cignex-Magento, Atypon, Zuora, Digital
River, Elastic Path, Aria, Chargebee
our 20 month
journey
Feasibility phase
Aug 2014
Felt one partner did not have it allCame around to the idea that we needed to
assemble a pair of Front end with back end partners who understood the publishing business
Formed two partnerships pairsEzPublish / Zuora and E-Spirit / MPP Global
page010
Jul 2014RFP Phase
7 Partners in each bucket2 week response period with 100+
questionsFocus was on how much was “out of the box”, how much “configuration” and
how much “customization”
The EconomistCASE Selection
Elaboration phase 1
Nov - Dec 2014
Elaboration workshops were conducted with MPP Global and we realized our revenue recognition
models and CPQ would be difficult to replicate without customization.
Otherwise it was a great flexible platform but did not meet our complicated business rules. Back to the
drawing board page011
Sep-Oct 2014Awareness Road show
Each pair participated in two sessions – business and a technical presentation
A panel of about 10 executives voted on a dozen different parameters. Scores were tied
at the end with no clear winner. Price tag broke the tie
The EconomistCASE Selection
Elaboration phase 2
Feb-Apr 2015
Elaboration workshops were conducted and most of the complicated scenarios were solved.
We met with three Hybris’ Solution providers and the implementation costs were wide in range. From
$800K to $3M, which caused uncertainity at steering level
page012
Jan 2015Second guessing pairs
Instead of going back to the other pair, we went back to see if any possible pairs were
missedHybris came back with better offering and
that they have paired with Zuora at Research in Motion.
Decided to pair Hybris with Zuora
The EconomistCASE Selection
CASE provisionally approved
June 2015
Elaboration workshops were conducted with Novactive who is our implementation partner for eZpublish and a elaborate fully functioning demo
was organized to show some key use cases.
Contract signed for eZPublish work to begin
page013
May 2015Delivery approach changed
Since the price did not work for the entire package out we decided to phase the project – first tackle the eCommerce and front end and
then tackle the subscription management platform
EzPublish was selected and we went back to the possibility to consider one of our
original pairs
The EconomistCASE Selection Its
happening folks!
Proof of Concepts phase
Aug – Nov 2015
We came up with about a half dozen proof of concepts encompassing our most complicated use
cases
Our Customer Services firm had concerns on Zuora due to the number of steps in the B2C
subscription management flows and we did a gap analysis for each crucial step.
All POCs were solved with one-click orchestration flows
page014
July 2015Zuora signed with terms
We were confident that Zuora had potential to solve all of our business challenges but we were adamant that we did not want to invest
in complicated revenue recognition customizations
Zuora took up the challenge and decided to invest in their platform to upgrade their
offering. We agreed on the acceptance criteria
The EconomistCASE Selection
The real journey begins…
Jan 2016
Team formed and an Agile project schedule created factoring in the prioritization provided by a cross
functional team
page015
Dec 2015Extension platform bornZuora invested in their platform to build an
extension platform to address similar needs from customers
Will allow Zuora to build out-of-the-box functionality for some without impacting all
others. The Revenue recognition package is one of the first in that platform
The EconomistCASE Selection
OutcomeWhat products and services we ended up with
Best of breedecosystem
page017
CustomerDatabaseCRM
EcommercePages with CMS
Access controlPaywall, metering
EconomistWebsite & Apps
Customer ServicesSelf Service
Print Fulfillment
Data WarehouseInsights & Reports
Email & pushnotifications
Media Activation& Digital Targeting
Best of breedend choice
page018
Master Data sourceSegmentation toolCustomer Service toolCall center scriptsKnowledge center
In-bound Call center Outbound telemarketingAgent & offline order processingLabel run managementDistribution managementLetter shop mail processing
Sales Management toolJourney Builder toolTemplate building toolBuyer flowsMy Account portalRegistration / activation pagesPaywall & Regwall toolPersonalized paywallsA/B & Multivariate testingOrder metrics & tracking
Email delivery toolTransactional emailsRenewal emailsNewsletter personalization toolPush notification toolData cleansing & de-dupingAddress & email verification
Circulation ReportingBusiness intelligenceABC reportingMetricsRevenue & Sales Forecasting
Subscription managementCredit / debit card processingAlternate / regional paymentsEarned & Deferred revenueTaxation and VATCash managementMonth / Qtr / Yr end closing
Cloud infrastructureIntegration hub Canonical modelLogin & Single signonEntitlements management
Revenue recognitionIssue based
page019
Setup Products
Select Revenue Model & Rules
Upload Publication Calendar
Revenue Milestones &
Schedule
Transaction Reporting & Accounting
Customer Service
Z-Billing Z-Payment Z-Finance
Salesforce
Zuora
Revenue-Impacting Events
(e.g. Cancel/Refund)
Questions?How can we help you succeed in your journeys