The Challenge

Before partnering with Zephr, SCI already owned a paywall. However, this paywall was complex, outdated and inflexible, and required a lot of time-consuming programming to operate. 

In addition, some subscribers were openly sharing passwords, and others wanted more flexibility in the content they read; this combined with the legacy paywall made it difficult for SCI to legitimise the consumption of their intellectual property. 

In order to be able to handle the many possible product combinations they wanted to offer their clients, SCI needed to modernise their architecture. They needed a solution that gave them control over their pricing and packaging. John Owen Waller, MD of SCI, said, “I wanted to follow a philosophy of flexibility, to be client-centric, and be able to tell clients that they can consume what they wanted to consume.”

The Solution

After talking to a few vendors, Waller and his team quickly made a decision and set up Zephr’s platform within just three months. Instead of the inflexible content combinations they had been able to offer their clients previously, SCI could now present many more specialised packages to their customers, whilst simultaneously being able to control identity and access management with ease. This flexibility allowed SCI to align their customers with the valuable content they created, which in turn gave the sales team at SCI more confidence in the information they were selling.

Additionally, SCI was able to remove the passwords to their websites, streamlining their customers’ online experiences with a secure, GDPR-friendly, one-click login, whilst dramatically improving the security of their content.

SCI was able to do all this without writing a single line of code, thanks to Zephr’s intuitive Rules Builder and custom registration form templates, a far cry from the complex technology that their internal tech teams previously had to grapple with. 

In particular, Waller credited the support that the Zephr teams provided. Thanks to Zephr’s diligent onboarding from day one, SCI could adapt to their new, more flexible, intuitive product quickly and frictionlessly, all whilst minimising leakages such as seat-sharing.

The Outcome 

Within just two years of their partnership with Zephr, SCI saw a significant increase in their top-level revenue. In particular, subscription levels and income notably increased, content consumption was legitimised and each layer of subscription they could offer their clients was flexible. Additional layers of subscription access could also be easily implemented without an onerous task being asked of developers each time. As Waller explained: “We can monetise ideas much quicker with Zephr than ever before”. Emboldened by their expanded matrix of pricing options, improved identity management and security, the SCI sales teams are more confident in what they are selling. As a result, SCI are observing quicker onboarding processes for their sales teams. 

Since working with Zephr, SCI have seen their subscriber revenue retention rate reach over 100%, which John Owen Waller sees as a result of their ability to offer deeper, more personalised subscription offerings. 

Building on these initial successes, Waller plans to continue his journey with Zephr. SCI are keen to understand even more of what their clients want, to deepen their offering. John Owen concluded: “The Zephr platform, as we have used it more, has become even more straightforward … a more mature, flexible solution”

Download the full case study here.