ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø

Desktop Software Subscription Analysis
A WCAI Research Opportunity Sponsored by a Fortune 500 Software Company

 

November 21, 2014
Noon – 1pm Eastern Time

The Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative is pleased to announce an extraordinary dataset from a Fortune 500 Software Company that allows for deep analysis and exploration of how customers use and renew software licenses.

This dataset contains 8 cohorts of 10,000 customers each. The cohorts are randomly selected from customers who made their first purchase in each calendar year, 2006-2013. Included in this dataset are all licensed products for every year, purchase history (including free trial conversions and channel source), and 4 years of weekly "heartbeat" data to indicate software use & renewal communication. In addition to using a subscription model for licensing, the data sponsor also has implemented "auto-renewal"? in the past, requiring customers to opt-in or opt-out of automatically extending their subscriptions.

Through this Research Opportunity, the sponsor wishes to better understand:

• What factors impact an individual customer’s likelihood to renew? What are the major elements that influence renewal?
• How does the portfolio of products evolve for any given customer? How do customers migrate from one product to another?
• Does purchase channel impact likelihood of renewal or portfolio evolution?
• How does auto-renewal affect customer behavior?

To learn more about the company and the dataset, interested faculty, doctoral students, and other researchers can attend a live webinar on November 21, 2014 from 12:00-1:00pm US Eastern. During the webinar, the data will be described in detail, and executives from the Corporate Sponsor will be available for Q&A. Register for the webinar .

Interested researchers should submit proposals online through the by December 8, 2014 to be considered for access to the data. Proposals will be evaluated based on their potential for academic contribution and the researchers’ ability to address issues of strategic importance to the program sponsor. A committee including representatives from the Corporate Sponsor, Eric Bradlow (The Wharton School), Pete Fader (The Wharton School) and Elea McDonnell Feit (Drexel University) will select the teams to receive the data.

Researchers are encouraged to review and before submitting their proposal. Additional questions on the data or the process can be directed to wcai-research@wharton.upenn.edu.