This article talks about what enterprise billing platforms are and how they support subscription and usage-based billing models. What are billing platforms? A cloud billing platform is an automated system or application that combines hardware and software to rate, charge, and bill product and services using user information from a customer. It can produce an invoice, accept payments, and generate reports for the organizations.
Why do organizations need an enterprise billing platform?
There are several reasons why organizations need an enterprise billing platform. It can monetize products and services and help you break into new markets. Also, it offers flexibility, automating invoicing, payment processing, and lots more.
The digital reinvention of billing comes with real promise, including the ability for organizations to monetize their model globally. So, let’s take a look at some billing systems.
SaaS billing platforms
SaaS is an acronym for Software as a Service. It’s a modern billing system where engineers store applications on the cloud and access them through connected devices. Also, it’s a distribution billing model where third-party organizations handles the development, installation, networking, maintenance of application on the cloud. A good example is Microsoft office 365.
With Saas billing model, companies subscribe and start using the service immediately without worrying about complex IT infrastructure or software development. Also, Saas offers you scalability- you can add new features and modules easily. It provides you flexibility in payments – companies can purchase the blades that they require instead of buying the entire modules of an application. Accessibility – Clients can access applications from anywhere. Automatic updates – providers can update apps, thereby improving the functionality of the use.
Subscriptions billing platforms
A subscription billing platform is a billing model that bills product or service usage of clients on time basis. One good example is a magazine website that chargers their readers a monthly fee to access their publications. Also, Video streaming services, gaming, software organization, and cable TV use this model.
The purchasing pattern is evolving; in recent times, people do not want to pay a one-off fee for product and services anymore. They want a model where they can pay subscription and opt to cancel or renew a service when-ever they want. So, the system automatically generates invoices and processes payments. That ensures the saving of cost and time, which impacts positively on the organizational bottom line.
Usually, when subscribing to these services, a user provides his credit card information’s to subscribe or renew the services.
Usage-based billing software
Metered billing is another term for usage-based billing software. It’s a billing model that generates bills for product and service use of clients according to usage. These platforms use advanced software solutions to track product or service use and create an invoice for each client. Also, it uses a pay as you go, model. Internet Corporations, water, electricity, and Taxi services, amongst others, are using this model to measure product/services use for their customers.
A business that wants to adopt this model must have a precise unit of measurement for their product/services. It will configure this unit into the platform for accurate billing. Also, they must engage a platform that has a sound metering system or other method of collecting usage data of the client. Lastly, devise a compelling logic to convert product or service usage data into readable and understandable billing information. That will facilitate the creation of an invoice.
Usage-based billing has its advantages. This model works better than paying a flat rate for a product or service. Moreover, for customers that need to subscribe to a product seasonally, this model can save a lot of costs as well.
Metered billing or usage-based billing platforms gives customers control over what they consume and spend, to increase client satisfaction and retention.
Billing platform architecture
Tridens monetization has a highly reliable architecture. It enables horizontal and vertical scalability to support billing of a large amount of usage-based billing events. Also, the architecture is robust and able to handle various billing scenarios. With Tridens architecture, businesses can innovate around the ever-evolving billing models. Java is the language used in developing the platform. It’s a high-level programing language that supports polymorphism, encapsulation, abstraction, and object-oriented approach. Spring Boot, Angular, are other platforms used with Java in developing the architecture. Also, Redis, Apache Ignite, and PostgreSQL are the different tools we use for the full-stack development of the architecture. We use elastic search, which is a distributed multi-tenant system used for real-time intelligent reporting. The platform runs on Amazon Web Services.
Billing platform API
API is an acronym for Application Programming Interface and allows applications to talk to each other. Our Tridens Monetization cloud billing platform has REST APIs, which enables a seamless integration of different third-party applications such as SAP and NetSuite enterprise resource planners (ERP). You can also integrate it with other ERP’s, CRM, Portal, mobile apps, and much more.
Tridens Monetization is pre-integrated with different payment gateways such as Braintree, Wirecard, Authorize.net, Stripe, and much more. Also it’s integrated with different Tax gateways such as Avalara, Vertex, and SureTax. Lastly, Tridens Monetization is integrated with CRM tools such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft CRM.
Why makes Tridens Monetization great?
Our cloud monetization platform comes with significant advantages. We offer flexibility, innovation, and ease of use. Moreover, we deliver real-time usage-based billing, great analytics, and fantastic customers’ service.
Tridens Monetization can optimize and automate your quote-order-cash process, including orders, rating & charging, billing, invoicing, payments, collections, dunning, and much more.