Customers are becoming ever more demanding in the way they purchase and use products and services. Utilities, B2B services, communication providers, SaaS platforms; consumers are expecting nothing but the best.
One aspect of the purchasing process that customers seem keen on is customizable billing. Such models include product and service bundles, personalized billing, usage caps, promotions, cross-product discounts, varying rates, and other payment incentives.
In a nutshell, customers want to be able to pay only the amount they need, only when it is convenient, and only if the payment method is easy. And why shouldn’t they be so demanding? Competition is fierce in all markets, and customers are in control. If a business can’t or won’t meet the customers’ needs, they’ll move on to one that can.
Traditional and legacy billing platforms were not designed with the flexibility needed to deal with today’s customers’ varied and changing needs. These older systems were created to manage fixed price and billing models. For them to have the finesse required to handle new types of pricing, would require considerable reprogramming.
As businesses attempt to adapt legacy systems to the present customer environment, the results are often less than optimal. Data processing errors, revenue leakage, delayed invoicing, and payment obstacles are common, leading to dissatisfied customers and sales loss.
So, what is the solution?
Agile Monetization Platforms
One solution to a clunky legacy billing system is to upgrade to an agile monetization platform. Indeed, if your business has a subscription model, and you are experiencing, or planning on, rapid growth, now is the time to consider such an upgrade. An agile monetization platform will allow your business to grow, evolve, and pivot as it scales operations.
Agile Monetization Platform Benefits
Traditional and legacy billing platforms cannot easily handle change or rapid growth. Adapting to such events may require a billing expert and several weeks to make the system’s necessary adjustments.
Agile monetization platforms, on the other hand, are specifically designed to meet the varying needs of the modern customer, even anticipating their needs in advance. Choosing a suitable agile platform will satisfy your customers’ needs, and ensure your AR is streamlined to your operations. You will have the power to offer a wide range of billing options, quickly launch or repackage services, and set up promotional offers. Ultimately, it will help you control costs and give you a clear view of the entire quote-to-cash process, regardless of your speed of growth.
What To Look For From An Agile Monetization Platform Vendor?
Like every other industry, the billing sector has an abundance of vendors with solutions to assist growing businesses. But, what should you look for in a vendor offering agile monetization platforms? Here are a few things worth considering about your potential vendor’s solution:
- Can handle and process data, securely and reliably.
- Has a powerful rating engine, able to combine recurring charges with usage-based billing in any configuration.
- Includes a flexible product catalog, so launching new products is easy.
- Can repackage existing offers, create promotion without SKU proliferation.
- Can entity upselling or cross-selling opportunities without SKU proliferation.
- It provides transparency across all workflows and all steps of the billing process, thus allowing you to prevent discrepancies developing.
- Easy to operate for non-technical people.
- It can integrate with other front and back-office systems.
- Vendors should be willing to understand your business and industry, so they can provide a billing system to meet your requirements and help your business grow.
Choosing The Right Billing Platform
As your business grows, so does your customer base, and usually, your business offerings become more complex and varied. This growth can put stress on existing systems, causing friction and points of failure.
Too many businesses accept this, and either persevere with legacy systems or adopt patchwork solutions to keep the system functioning. However, with continued growth, this ad-hoc approach will cost you time, effort, money, and lost customers compared to investing in an agile monetization platform.
If your business is feeling the friction caused by your legacy system already, we would love to hear from you. Better still, if you are not yet feeling this stress, but there is growth on the horizon, Tridens Monetization can help you prepare.
We would be delighted to hear from you to learn about your business and discuss whether we can provide you with the right billing platform.
Please take a tour of our agile monetization platform, and contact us today to organize a personalized demonstration.
