Speaking in broad strokes, monetization is the process of converting something into money – what’s not to love? However, monetizing opportunities isn’t as easy as it was even just a few short years ago. To stay ahead in today’s competitive environment, businesses need the ability to quickly launch new products and services. Businesses also need to offer a variety of innovative pricing models. To effectively monetize these products and services, enterprises must be agile, flexible, and scalable, and be able to consistently comply with regulatory requirements. This is where the notion of the agile monetization platform gained a foothold.
With a goal to help companies overcome quote-to-cash (QTC) automation issues, MGI Research introduced the concept of an agile monetization platform. Essentially, this platform encompasses key components of agile billing, financials, configure-price-quote (CPQ), customer service, and e-commerce, as well as covers contract management, payment management, order management, and more.
Is an Agile Monetization Platform Right for Your Enterprise?
Consisting of several moving parts such as product/service configuration, pricing, quoting, contracting/order management, invoicing, collections, payments, and renewals; QTC requires coordination across numerous business functions, including sales, finance, legal, operations, and customer service. While the steps may vary depending on your industry and size of the business, QTC is complex. Recent research, conducted by McKinsey & Company, validated that the complexities associated with QTC result in sale closure delays, poor customer experiences, and hinders a business’s ability to grow. This is especially true for organizations that rely on in-house legacy billing systems.
Think about it… are you able to quickly and efficiently:
- Offer a variety of pricing models?
- Aggregate and analyze usage data from any source?
- Launch new products, packages, and bundles?
- Transition from simple one-time and subscription-based pricing models to innovative metered and usage-based plans?
- Offer and process a variety of promotions?
- Provide and accurately bill for free trials, discounts, etc.?
- Extract meaningful information from your billing system?
If not, these are indicators that your billing system doesn’t have the flexibility needed to react to today’s evolving monetization conditions. Additionally, ever-intensifying monetization challenges require enterprises to launch new products, packages, and pricing models in hours instead of months, weeks, or even days. How long does it take for you to bring a new offer to market? Does your finance team rely on spreadsheets and manual effort? Are you seeing an increase in incorrect products sent to customers or configurations that are inaccurate? Do you have a single product catalog? Is your finance team spending an increasing amount of time re-sending invoices due to disputes? And finally, is revenue leakage on the rise? While this isn’t a comprehensive question list, it provides an idea of whether your enterprise could benefit from an agile monetization platform.
How Agile Monetization Platform Reduces QTC Complexities and Promotes Business Growth
The flexibility of an agile monetization platform is providing businesses with multiple benefits, including the ability to:
Catch errors: Unlike legacy billing systems, an agile monetization platform provides the functionality to review invoices before they’re generated and sent to customers. This gives you the opportunity to catch mistakes – which improves customer satisfaction and reduces revenue loss.
Configure not code: An agile monetization platform provides the ability to replace coding with configuration, enabling you to extend the platform. That way you can support ever-changing business needs, expand the solution’s user interfaces, data model, and workflows, and deploy products and services faster – giving you the self-reliance needed to save time and money.
Handle subscription changes easily: When a customer wants to make a change to their subscription, (increase or decrease provisioned quantities, renew subscriptions, suspend subscriptions, upgrade/downgrade services, etc.), the flexibility of an agile monetization platform lets you amend their subscription quickly and effortlessly.
Comply with regulations: In-house legacy systems typically lack the audit controls needed to ensure you comply with regulatory standards. An agile monetization platform ensures your enterprise’s revenue recognition aligns with ASC 606 and IFRS 15. Plus enables GDPR compliance for businesses that operate in the EU.
Cloud-based Agile Monetization Platforms are providing the flexibility today’s enterprises need to automate all QTC processes. So you can quickly bring new products and services to market for improved monetization.
Monetize Every Revenue Opportunity
Standing out in today’s crowded playing field requires the ability to quickly create, change, and bring to market new products, services, and pricing models faster than the competition. Fundamental to this ability is in having a cloud-based agile monetization platform.
Unlike other cloud agile monetization platforms, BillingPlatform enables enterprises to launch new products, packages, and pricing models in just hours. When modifications are required, our no-code point-and-click configurability puts the power of change in your hands. With us as your partner, you can run your business with greater efficiency, accuracy, and control. All of which enables you to monetize any revenue opportunity. But don’t take our word for it…
As a leader in cloud-based agile monetization platforms, BillingPlatform was named to the Constellation Shortlist™ for Smart Services Digital Monetization Platforms. 2022 marked the sixth consecutive year we were recognized by Constellation Research for best-of-breed billing and monetization solutions. In 2020, for the sixth consecutive year, BillingPlatform increased its standing in the MGI 360™ Ratings report for Agile Monetization Solutions. This report highlights that BillingPlatform provides the unparalleled flexibility that puts enterprises in control of how they differentiate in the market and manage and grow their revenue. And in 2019, BillingPlatform once again raised its score within the MGI 360™ Rating for Agile Monetization Platform vendors.
Are you ready to explore how an agile monetization platform can improve your monetization capabilities? Reach out to our team today and get started.
