Cerillion Blog
The Cerillion Blog provides a regular feed of company news, industry insight and informed opinion, all delivered by a team of recognised experts from across the company
The doctor will see you now: subscription health apps
With the world facing the biggest healthcare crisis this century, subscription telehealth services are being deployed at an unprecedented rate, using mobile apps to deliver medical care outside the surgery. What are the pros and cons of telehealth treatments – and who foots the bill?
Zombie accounts and dark patterns: the ethics of billing inactive customers
With Netflix announcing their decision to close the accounts of inactive customers, should other subscription businesses reconsider how they deal with “zombie accounts” who pay their fees but don’t engage with a service? Is the decision a strictly moral choice, or is there a financial benefit behind it too?
Subscription Trends 2020: the mid-year assessment
We cast our minds back to the beginning of the year, once again, and to the five predictions that Cerillion made for the biggest trends for the subscription industry in 2020; how have recent developments treated these expectations over half a year later?
Smart Devices, Smarter Billing: Subscriptions in the IoT Age
Businesses across all industries are identifying new and increasingly innovative sources of revenue, thanks to the ever-growing opportunities presented by the Internet of Things (IoT). How can subscription businesses capitalise on the potential of embedded sensor-based technology?
The call of nature: telecoms for a sustainable future
Massive leaps in telecoms technology and capacity have enabled other industries to reduce their environmental impact – but how is the telecoms sector itself decarbonising and diminishing its damage to the environment? In the first of a two-part examination, we explore the measures being taken, and the role digitalisation plays, in the greening of telecoms tech.
Generation Rent: why the future of subscriptions rests with the kids
Millennials and Generation Z account for a significant majority of users of subscription services. As their share of the public spend increases, how can businesses ensure their offerings meet the expectations of this diverse, difficult audience?
Balance Management: Adding a new dimension to your subscription services
The latest release of Cerillion Skyline, our subscription billing platform, introduces powerful balance management features, extending the monetisation capabilities of your usage-based services with the addition of flexible unit and money-based allowances.
Subscription management software: Buy or Build?
The goal of any major software project should be to solve a business problem or streamline a business process in the most cost-effective way. So, when deciding on mission-critical software for your business operations, what are the relative merits of building in-house versus buying an off-the-shelf solution?
Coronavirus: A clean bill of health for the subscriptions industry?
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to bite into everyday lives, consumption habits have been massively upended by closures and social distancing measures. We’ve previously covered how the telecoms world is faring amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, but how are the many subscription services responding in this time of crisis, and what lessons are there in these cases?
Cerillion Product Forum 2020: Taking a bold step online
Last month, Cerillion was joined by clients from around the world for its latest product forum – the first to take place wholly online – setting out the roadmap for its software solutions for the next year. Adam Hughes reports back from the virtual meeting room.
Cerillion Q&A: Delivering digital best practice from home
Cerillion is a couple of weeks into remote working, with every department striving to ensure that it’s business as usual. Adam Hughes spoke with Amit McCann, Delivery Director at Cerillion, to see what effect the coronavirus is having on the company’s projects.
Coronavirus: how the telecoms world is answering the call
The global outbreak of novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, continues to dominate the news cycle, as it wreaks havoc on all aspects of life; the telecoms industry has been no different. With providers having their usual processes disrupted and users even more dependent on their communications services while in isolation, how is the industry responding to its greatest ever challenge?
Read all about it… online: How newspapers are thriving on digital subscriptions
Once the standard-bearers of subscriptions, print newspaper revenues are increasingly under threat in an ever more competitive market of 24-hour and online news. With papers betting big on digital subscriptions to keep the presses running, what strategies are the biggest publications adopting to avoid becoming tomorrow’s fish and chip paper?
How subscriptions are revolutionising the customer experience
Despite all the focus on the business dividends, it’s the consumer who is the ultimate beneficiary of the subscription billing model. While subscriptions have been around for decades, the unprecedented level of service control now offered has not. But beyond the mere convenience, what are the biggest benefits of subscriptions for customers?
Automated billing: Five reasons why your sales team should care
“Do I feel lucky?” Well do ya, punk? Why MoviePass’ subscription service failed
For all the success stories of the booming subscription industry, we cannot forget there are some high-profile failures of the model too. MoviePass, the cinema ticket subscription service, was once the stuff that dreams are made of; now it’s a business for ants. Adam Hughes performs the post-mortem on this now-bankrupt cinema subscription service to see what their mistakes could mean for other subscription businesses.