Charge Segment Change Log for Subscription Metrics

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Solution Overview

Problem

In multi-tenant computing environments, determining the impact of subscription changes on metrics such as monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and total contract value (TCV) is cumbersome, especially with numerous changes, and existing data storage models require significant capacity and performance degradation when evaluating revenue impacts of amendments.

Innovation Solution

A charge segment change log data model is introduced, which efficiently stores subscription data in the form of charge segment change log records, allowing for direct calculation of subscription metrics without the need for cumbersome comparison of contiguous subscription versions, and requires less storage capacity than traditional subscription versioning schemes.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If traditional subscription versioning schemes are used to store subscription data, then complete subscription history is maintained, but storage capacity requirements increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesubscription history completenessVSAvoidstorage capacity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments subscription data into discrete change log entries, where each entry represents a specific amendment event with before/after states. This segmentation allows the system to store only the essential change information rather than maintaining complete subscription snapshots, significantly reducing storage requirements while preserving the ability to reconstruct subscription history.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent extracts only the necessary change information from complete subscription snapshots. By storing only the amendment details (change type, old value, new value, effective date) rather than entire subscription versions, the system maintains subscription history completeness while minimizing storage capacity usage.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

2Measurement precision

If traditional subscription versioning schemes are used to evaluate revenue impacts, then complete subscription states are available, but calculation performance degrades

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverevenue impact accuracyVSAvoidcalculation performance

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary organization of subscription data into structured change log entries with explicit before/after states and effective dates. This pre-structured format enables direct calculation of revenue impacts by simply comparing the stored change values, eliminating the need for complex comparisons between multiple subscription versions and significantly improving calculation performance.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent changes the data representation parameters from complete subscription snapshots to incremental change log entries. This parameter change transforms the calculation process from comparing large data structures to performing simple arithmetic operations on change values, maintaining measurement precision while dramatically improving productivity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

3Loss of information

If numerous subscription changes are tracked using traditional methods, then complete change history is recorded, but determining metric impact becomes cumbersome

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvechange history completenessVSAvoidmetric impact determination

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by organizing change log entries with specific attributes tailored to different change types (e.g., price changes, term changes, product changes). Each entry contains only the relevant information for its specific change type, making it easy to determine metric impacts by filtering and processing only the applicable entries rather than analyzing complete subscription versions.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent creates a universal change log structure that handles multiple types of subscription amendments (price changes, term modifications, product additions/removals) through a consistent entry format. This multi-functional design allows the same data structure to serve both historical tracking and real-time metric calculation purposes, simplifying the determination of metric impacts across diverse change scenarios.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS20230021962A1Subscription metric generation from storage-efficient subscription charge segment change logs

Publication Date: 2023.01.26 ZUORA INC

AI summary

A charge segment change log data model generates and stores subscription data in the form of charge segment change log records that require substantially less data storage capacity than a subscription versioning scheme employed in a subscription object model. The charge segment change log records utilize a data schema that enables an impact of amendments to a subscription to be readily determined directly from the change log records without requiring the cumbersome and performance-degrading comparison of contiguous subscription versions necessitated by the subscription object model.