It’s been said that change is the only constant we can count on. With today’s rapidly advancing technologies, this phrase has never been truer. While we have a front-row seat to many of the advancements taking place like driverless cars, digital assistants, 3D printing, drones, and more. But one that may not be as obvious is flexible billing solutions.
Even though billing and collections personnel interact with customers, billing was – and for some, remains – a back-office function. However, in recent years the role of billing has slowly been shifting. With the ever-increasing amount of data being collected by all enterprise systems, a flexible billing solution performs a critical role in bridging the gap between your front- and back-office applications.
How Technology is Changing the Billing Landscape
When it comes to billing, significant transformation is taking place. Monolithic, inflexible, on-premise billing systems are on their way to extinction. Think 8-track tape players, analog TV, the BlackBerry, and of course paper ledgers. Today’s enterprises require a flexible billing solution – one that embraces today’s groundbreaking technologies and is agile enough to easily incorporate the technologies of the future.
Technology is now a way of life and advancements happen faster than ever before. In fact, it’s estimated that worldwide we’ll be using 50 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices by 2030 – up 56% from 2018. Let’s look at how today’s cutting-edge technologies are forming the backbone of flexible billing solutions and putting enterprises on course to smarter billing.
IoT
Billing for data from a variety of sources gets complicated. Accurate billing of IoT data requires an enterprise-grade, cloud-based, flexible billing solution that gives you the ability to develop and deploy innovative pricing models across a variety of combinations such as subscription, one-time, usage-based, tiered, etc. – all on a single platform that is built to scale.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Intelligence
Are you able to accurately predict usage and future demand? Can you, with a fair degree of precision, predict your organization’s future growth and revenue potential? Do you know which customers are ripe for cross-selling and upselling of new features? The sheer volume of data your billing solution – as well as other systems within your financial ecosystem – collects provides a wealth of intelligence. By extracting and converting the data into meaningful information, you’ll have the insights needed to make more informed decisions today, as well as develop the strategies needed for a profitable future.
Payment Processing
Customers want to pay using their preferred method, whether that’s cash, debit/credit cards, checks, wire transfer, PayPal, ACH, etc. Today’s software-as-a-service companies need to allow customers to pay via a wide variety of payment methods, and this means having a PCI DSS Level 1 compliant platform and having the ability to automate credit card and ACH payments with SOC and PCI compliant payment gateways. For customers that prefer to pay by check, you’ll need the ability to configure lockboxes quickly and easily. Whichever way your customers want to pay, you need to ensure that it’s easy and secure. To facilitate even more convenient payment options, online payment platforms are working on developing face, voice, and thumbprint technology. For you to stay in sync with how customers will pay in the future, be sure that your billing solution can easily integrate with online payment platforms.
Blockchain
Also known as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), blockchain allows digital information to be recorded and distributed, but not edited. Going forward, blockchain will be the foundation for unchallengeable ledgers or records of transactions. Allowing greater transparency since its technology makes transaction data available to everyone, at any time. Undoubtedly, blockchain will play an integral role in accounts receivable by ensuring the integrity of electronic invoicing. Additionally, it will help enterprises eliminate revenue leakage by providing a comprehensive audit trail.
Today’s technical innovations, as well as those of the future, require a flexible billing solution that is part of a much larger ecosystem. It needs to not only work as a bridge between itself and other enterprise systems but needs the ability to easily integrate with emerging technologies such as online payment platforms.
Are You Ready for the Future With a Flexible Billing Solution?
The rise of technology is creating a plethora of market opportunities and the possibility to create new revenue streams. However, taking advantage of these growth opportunities requires a flexible billing solution that can easily adapt to intensifying customer requirements and new technologies.
Developed in the cloud, BillingPlatform provides a flexible and scalable billing solution that was built to handle today’s customer requirements, as well as quickly adapt to the technologies that tomorrow will bring. Not a ‘me too’ billing solution vendor, BillingPlatform is helping to shape the future of billing by being on the leading edge of flexible billing solutions.
While we don’t know for certain what the future will bring, we can be sure technology will play a central role. Enterprises that stay current on customer and technology billing trends will be those that will have a competitive advantage. Is your billing solution ready for the future? We’d love to help you find out and plan for the next step.
