The Roc(k)y Horror Show

SubexAzure may well be one of the most successful revenue assurance software vendors around, but forgive me if I am left bemused by their rebranding exercise. Somebody must have thought their products needed new names. And it is not hard to see why when they were called things like SAFMS, SARMS, SAIBS and SAROS. But check out the new product brands: Moneta, Nikira, Prevea, Concilia, Symphona and Optima. These appellations must be leftovers from panto season, because when they picked names for the wicked sisters in Cinderella these must be the suggestions that did not make the shortlist. The new name for the overall product suite is “Rocware”. This an attempt to try take ownership of the concept of the Revenue Operations Centre. Yup, the “Roc” means Revenue Operations Centre, as opposed to Return On Capital, or the giant bird of legend, or even the wrestler turned B-movie actor. But why try to take ownership of such a dry concept? The ROC seeks to equate RA professionals with IT operational support staff, so I would have thought it was a pretty unattractive idea to buy into for anyone wanting to have a long career in the field. Of course, SubexAzure are making their pitch at the exec level so they hardly care if they are trying to present RA professionals as monkeys whilst they grind the organ. But even at the exec level the idea is confused. Half of these products are as much about costs as revenues, so why get hung up on the word “revenue” when explaining the idea? But then, some of the alternatives might not be great either. The Margins Operations Centre would be tempting to MOC(k), the Profitability Operations Centre is easy to POC/poke fun at, and the Costs and Revenue Operations Centre might be considered a CROC(k) of…. ;)