Zuora Announces Z-force at CRM Event Dreamforce

By David Sims

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

Zuora, an on-demand subscription billing and payment service, reportedly has introduced Z-force, a new product built on the Force.com platform from Salesforce.com (News - Alert), at Dreamforce.

 

The Z-Force product is integrated with Z-Billing and Z-Payments, “combining with Salesforce CRM to provide a fully integrated lead-to-cash system,” according to the Zuoravians.

 

Company officials say there are three major modules of Z-force -- Z-force 360 “makes all customer subscription, billing and payment data visible within Salesforce.com for a 360-degree view for subscription business,” Z-force Quotes lets sales teams build customer-ready quotes based on a subscription product catalog, and Z-force E-commerce takes orders directly from a Web site, “with minimal IT resources or involvement.”

According to Tien Tzuo, chief executive officer of Zuora, who according to company officials “was responsible for the design and launch of the Salesforce CRM and Force.com AppExchanging offerings,” Zuora offers a complete subscription management platform that is “100 percent integrated” with Salesforce CRM.

 

In May 2008, Zuora launched its first product, Z-Billing.

 

In September, TMCnet reported that Zuora, formed by software-as-a-service industry veterans from Salesforce.com and WebEx to work the subscription billing industry, announced that Scott Thompson, president of PayPal, has been appointed to the company’s board of directors.

 

Thompson joined existing board member Peter Fenton of Benchmark Capital.

 

“With the rise of on-demand and subscription services, there is also a growing demand for online billing products. Zuora’s platform is built with the needs of the subscription market in mind,” Thompson said.

 

Thompson previously served as PayPal’s senior vice president and chief technology officer, where he oversaw information technology, product development, and architecture. Prior to PayPal, he worked for Inovant, a subsidiary of Visa formed to oversee global technology for the organization and as chief information officer of Barclays Global Investors.

 

In June, Boomi, an on-demand integration vendor, announced that it partnered with Zuora to enable Software-as-a-Service integration for Zuora’s on-demand billing application with financial and customer relationship management applications.

 

Zuora embedded the Boomi On Demand offering to provide its on-demand Z-Billing users with “the ability to integrate with any SaaS (News - Alert) or on-premise application directly from the Web without the burden of installing integration software packages or hardware appliances.”