Akanksha Malviya, Author at AcuitiLabs

Why Debt Management is so pertinent for Businesses today?

Do you know with continuing economic slowdown and increasing unemployment, household incomes have been squeezed making it difficult for companies to manage debt.

At the same time, Liberlization & intensifying competition in various markets have posed risk for companies. This is why Debt Management is considered to be really important for businesses today. It is interesting to understand how companies with larger customer base like Utilities, Telecom etc. can be innovative in managing their debt. And how SAP is the right choice?

Let’s go into the details of these question! Companies in Utilities, Telecom, etc. businesses work on the process of capturing consumption and raising bills for their customers. Once these bills are generated, they are sent to the customers giving them a certain period of time to pay the dues. Problem arises when customer do not or cannot pay the due amount in time. This is where companies have to following up with the customers. Challenge with the business process is that due will not become a ‘debt’ until the due date has been traced.

Let’s understand this with an example. Assume that there is a bill with due date of November 25. If the bill remains unpaid, companies will begin the follow up process only after November 25. This follow up with customer over unpaid dues through various channels is part of Debt Management and termed as Collection Strategy.

With millions of customers and invoices to be traced daily, the process requires a robust and efficient tool. This is where SAP provides a powerful tool capable of identifying unpaid customer and invoices, segmenting based on various attributes and perform reminder activities .

So, for Debt management, we use SAP Collection Strategy with BRFPLUS.

Understanding SAP Collection Strategy with BRFPLUS

Based on Business requirement, Collection Strategies are defined in SAP system for different segment of customers. These strategies when executed retrieved all attributes defined in BRFPLUS for each customer to decide the Next Best Action.

When due becomes Debt!

When in a customer account, due becomes debt, the automated process identifies the overdue invoices and how long they have been overdue. All such customers are placed in a defaulter list and this is where debt follow-up beings. Based on parameters like days in arrear, amount of debt, credit profile, last follow-up actions; the list is segmented and the next best action is identified for each customer.

SAP Collection Strategy with BRFPLUS provides a platform which can scale the solution to include dynamically calculated parameters based on mathematical formulas and even can call Function Modules.

Sending Reminder Messages

Next Best Action for Debt Management can range from sending reminder message through text, email to posting charges to performing remote disconnection if customer is not paying of their debt. The most common way that companies follow is to send reminder messages to such customers. If the customer still does not make the payment then, the company decide to send letter or email warning them about the debt, and also the late charges (if applied). This sequence of steps are known as the collection step.

Simplified process with web-based user friendly UI

SAP Collection Strategy with BRFPLUS also offers a web based user friendly UI which enables Business to take control of the strategy changes. Any change to an existing strategy or creation of a new strategy is now no more an IT change. It also allows running multiple strategies to perform Champion-Challenger & do success valuation to identify which strategy is performing better.

Various option available to ensure changes made by Business in the strategy are risk free like simulation run after strategy change or running the changed strategy on a subset (%) of customer base helps Business check if changes made are aligned to their expectation else can be reverted back to existing version.

Seamless integration with 3rd party Debt Collection Agencies

SAP Collection strategy provides seamless integration with 3^rd party Debt Collection Agencies. Let’s talk about a scenario where even after using all means to correspond and remind customer of the overdue, the payment is not received. In such cases SAP allows out of box integration with 3^rd party agencies specialized in debt recovery. It allows 2 way interaction where information of all such customer and their debt is passed on to the DCAs and collection or any other feedback shared by the agencies are then accepted in the system. This is an ongoing process where any change recorded on customer’s master data or debt position is informed to the DCA and DCAs either inform companies of the payment they have received or they also mark closure to case in certain scenario.

Advantages of SAP Collection Strategy

Robust
Flexible
User-friendly
Agile
Scalable
Seamless integration
Reduced TCO
No requirement of getting a new licence

SAP Collection Strategy is not only more superior than its predecessor but also offers all features which other best in breed Debt solution available in the market. With no new licences requirement and no need to maintain complex integration between Billing system & Debt Management system; reduces TCO drastically, making the solution a win-win in all respect.

Why Acuiti Labs for Debt Management?

On Debt Management transformation, Acuiti Labs has collaborated with clients across industry segments like Utilities, Telcom, Postal, Port and supported them in containing their Debt position not only by technology implementation but also by offering Industry best practices. With experts having domain experience and strong technology capability in the required field, we, Acuiti Labs, are best placed to understand your Business objective and co-create the desired solution.

274

23 NovBusinessSAPTechnology

Looking for a Debt Management Solution? How SAP is the right choice?

Are you looking for a debt management solution? ‘Bad Debt’ is a term used by organisations when the user or customers do not or cannot pay their bills. It is difficult to ignore the fact that with the current economic slowdown and rising unemployment, household incomes around the world have seen a downfall, increasing the possibility of delinquency and an upsurge in bad debt charges. The ambiguities arising from global shocks such as Brexit, trade wars, and a possible recession also pose risks for utilities & similar organisations. At the same time, liberalization and intensifying competition in many markets are resulting in higher levels of switching among customers, sometimes accompanied by bad debt when final bills are not paid.

In liberalized retail markets, utilities bear full responsibility for debt collection, but their manoeuvring room in recovering the bad debt is limited by regulatory and political constraints. The focus on maintaining the best customer experience, together with service obligations and provisions such as long grace periods, protection for vulnerable groups, and winter moratoriums, makes it difficult to suspend the service even as a last resort. Public opinion and political pressure act as a further deterrent, and utility companies need to reconfirm to the public time and again that their processes are fully compliant and adhere to the highest professional standards when it comes to debt collections.

Loss of income is becoming a burden on businesses and inhibiting growth, and the situation shows no signs of improving. Sectors like Utilities, Telecom can ill afford to ignore such waste and eliminating it can generate resources to invest in future growth. In a tight economic and regulatory context, utilities need to work harder to prevent and manage bad debt if they want to stay competitive and improve their resilience. Experience shows that companies are better at weathering downturns if they have already cleaned up their credit processes and minimized overdue debt because they are able to move fast to cut costs, protect profitability, and reserve growth capacity. Thus utilities will have to take matters into their own hands. By reshaping their credit and collections processes, they can improve their ability to predict risk, reduce bad-debt charges by, and provide a better experience for customers.

Barriers & Opportunities

Data Analytics & Customer Engagement

Data Analytics isn’t all new for organisations with large customer base like Utilities, Telecom – it’s actually been around for quite some time. there are numerous utilities using – basic behavioural scoring. Analytics is a continuous improvement process to identify ever changing customer behaviour and other collections related trend. Best-practice collections strategies should use emerging trends to segment customers, targeted collection campaigns & quick adjustments to the treatment path.

Continuously improving process requires the ability to monitor the effectiveness of the strategies, performance of customer segment & other relevant KPIs. In addition, advanced data analysis using metrics and trend displays, and collection control dashboards that illustrate KPIs such as status of overdue receivables and corresponding collections actions, will provide the necessary business intelligence to adapt and extend collections activities.

Various trends where Analytics can support Debt Management –

Reactive Collection vs Proactive Measures
Customer Segmentation: Can’t pay, won’t pay….forgot to pay
Customer Behaviour: Payment pattern, preferred mode of payment, initiative customer reacts to
Predictive Analysis
Identifying right strategy, right action for customer
Insight for the next strategy iteration

SAP Analytics Cloud is one simple cloud solution connecting your people, information, and ideas to enable fast and confident decision making. Machine learning technology and embedded artificial intelligence help you to discover deep insights, simplify access to critical information, and empower informed decision making for all.

Developed for real-time BI, planning and predictive analytics that natively integrates to SAP, the solution can predict when proactive action is required, something typically difficult for companies to do. The accelerated value is in enhancing organization’s ability to collect cash and improving its insight into profitability indicators. It also leverages SAC content to seamlessly integrate with SAP data and SAP S/4HANA^®. Advanced predictive analytics becomes the quiet driver behind dynamic operational, tactical and strategic dashboards that have been designed with SAP Fiori for a uniform and modern user experience.

Removing system Barrier

There is a basic understanding in industries like Utility, Telecom on the concepts of collections best practices, but almost all organisation lack the technology to be able to adopt best practices. Traditionally, collections have been the technology domain of the Organisation’s customer information system (CIS). Many companies struggle with weak and restrictive collections functionality in an aging CIS. Others may have a relatively new CIS in place that boasts adequate collections support but is missing key features to support today’s best-practice collections processes.

Collection managers, dependent upon the CIS platform & team to manage collections processes to implement improved collection processes. Debt is not going away. There will always be customers who default on payment. But technology has caught up with the problem, and companies now have the option to implement specialist collection software products that enable best-practice approaches.

Some of the best practices followed across the globe are –

Rapid change cycles executed by domain experts: Analyse, Optimize, Implement
Strategy changes no more an IT change request
Scalable & Flexible when it comes to including new changes/attributes that are based on analytical trends
Design transparency, improved performance & integration with 3^rd party DCAs
Offers tailored treatment based on customer segmentation
Allows Champion – Challenger strategy and success valuation

SAP BRIM – Financial Customer Care with Debt Management using BRF+

Business Rule Framework plus (BRFplus) provides a comprehensive application programming interface (API) and user interface (UI) for defining and processing business rules. It allows you to model rules in an intuitive way and to reuse these rules in different applications.

Flexibility in changing Business rules in Collection process enables Revenue Management team to –

Make their collections rules progressively more targeted, as they become more and more sophisticated with their analytics and customer segmentation
Add more sophisticated customer characteristics (e.g. components of credit risk scores, payment behaviour) as the data becomes more readily available
Adapt their rules to changing macro-economic conditions (e.g. recessions, political climates, etc) or changing customer behaviours (e.g. greater mobile use, email use)
Respond rapidly to unforeseen events

Leveraging BRF+ features to improve Debt Management

Scenario 1: Business running on SAP with Debt Management using legacy Dunning procedure

Debt Management using SAP’s Legacy Dunning Procedure was limited to few attributes like

Days in Arrear
Amount of Debt
Creditworthiness score

Combinations of these parameters were used to define levels and activities where defined as per Business need.

Debt Management with BRF+ is robust, scalable, and way ahead in its offering compared to its predecessor. It is a framework of Business rules which can use a wide range of attributes to determine the correct path for a customer.

Master Data
Transactional data
Derived values using formula e.g. oldest item, energy/non-energy debt
Function Module (data from external system/other modules/calculation of attributes not possible through formula)

Advantage of moving to Debt Management using BRF+

No additional licenses required
Whole loads of attributes to define strategy
Simplifies the process of identifying the right collection path, sequence for a customer based on changing payment behaviors, credit history, Debt parameter, etc.
Web based UI enabling Business User to control the strategy changes
Supports multiple strategies and at run time identifies the strategy or path to be executed on a customer
Supports Champion Challenger concept and reports on Success valuation of the strategies

Scenario 2: Business running on SAP but Collection strategy on 3^rd Party Solutions

Because of limited functionalities offered by the Dunning procedure, many companies moved their Debt Management solution to other 3^rd parties offerings. SAP too understood the need of the Businesses and introduced BRF+ for managing Debt. This has been a game changer for various organisations especially in the utilities, telecom sector who had no option but to move to 3^rd party offerings.

SAP may lag on jazzy screens compared to the 3^rd party solutions but on functionality offerings, it’s no less. GUI look and feel also now has been taken care through FIORI.

The real value what Business gets using SAP Debt Management using BRF+ are

Simulation in system before actual batch run controlling unforeseen scenarios
No additional license cost
Huge saving on TCO as the solution is in the same SAP system.
- Transactional
- Data Storage
- Annual Maintenance
No hassle of managing multiple real time interfaces to keep data up to date in the Debt management system
Improved Customer Service and savings on AVHT as Business User will have to refer to only one system for all the customer relevant information

What comes along with BRF+

BRF+ is like a container for the complete business rules and provides out of box integration with various other processes along with Debt Management. Power of BRF+ can be leveraged in

Billing and Revenue Innovation Management

Product
Discount/Charge Activation
Charge Plan Activation
Charge Plan Parameter Value Determination

Sales and Distribution

Output Determination

Revenue Account Reporting

Integration with Source System (SD, Hybris Billing, CRM, etc.)
Account Determination (POB Attributes, Contract Asset, Contract Liability, Recognized revenue, Deferred Cost)

Industry Solution – Utilities

Advanced Metering Infrastructure Event Management

Why Choose Acuiti Labs for your Debt Management Transformation?

Acuiti Labs is an SAP Silver partner and a digital firm that delivers business and technology consulting services, transforming businesses with pioneering and latest solutions. We have proven expertise in delivering successful SAP BRIM based transformation, thus offering complete support for your Business objective on Debt management.

When it comes to Debt Management transformation, we have collaborated with several clients across industries like Utilities, Telcom, Postal, Port and supported them in containing their Debt position not only by technology implementation but also by offering Industry best practices.

Our professional SAP experts have Big 4 consulting experience and strong technology capability in the area of SAP BRIM, Analytics, AI, Big Data, Mobile & other Cloud technology. We are best placed to understand your Business objective and co-create the required solution.

261

30 SepBusiness

Looking for a media conversion platform? 5 reasons you should try out converter4media today

Any media file converted from one form to another is known as media conversion. Pictures, audios, videos, music, images are the common form of media and many a times users prefer changing these formats based on their requirement. Users look for options that not only deliver the files in desired format quickly but at the same time they keep safety of their file as a priority.

Why is safety of your file matter while converting online?

It is very important to understand the fact that safety of your file remains the priority whenever you look for online options to convert your file in any required format. This still depends on the sensitivity of the file. The more sensitive you think your file is, the more alert you should remain. While looking for options to convert your file, you would find both good and bad services available on the internet and it solely depends on you to identify the right one for you. A proper research is the key to get to the right platform for any file conversion requirements.

What are the different formats that can be supported by Converter4media?

This converter allows you to change image, audio and video parameters easily, making the conversion a simple process. Here is the list of different formats that are supported by Converter4media –

5 reasons why you should try file conversion platform Converter4media –

Available for free – While you use converter4media for any file conversion requirement, you get premium quality service at zero cost. C4M provides you with best output with complete security of the files being uploaded by the user’s end. So if you are looking for a reliable source to convert the file that are also not heavy on your pocket, choosing Converter4media is the absolute choice for you.

Highly Secure – Even if you get premium quality service at just no cost, you are not compromising with your safety and security anywhere. While you use Converter4media, and proceeding with media file conversion, each of your uploaded document is in the safe hand along with the converted document. Be it a single time visitor/user or you are regular visitor, the safety of each of the user will always remain the priority.

User-friendly Interface – The look and feel of the website is designed in a way that even a non-technical person can easily use it for any type of file conversion they might be looking for. The user-friendly interface of the website can easily guide the visitor through the process and help them in achieving the desired output in no time.

Conversion in 3 quick steps – Yes, it is as simple as it sounds! All you need is to just follow the three simple steps that includes uploading a file, choosing the desired format in which you want to convert the file and the last step is to just download the file in the required format and you are done. Even if the conversion steps are simple and quick, the quality of your desired document remains intact.

Works on latest technology norms – The platform is built on the latest technology and thus is capable of delivering the result in the most appropriate form. Be sure about the quality of the file format you are downloading when you use Converter4media.

Converter4media is an easy to use online media file conversion platform with utmost safety and it is all you need while looking for an online file converter. From being safe to providing the smart interface, this product by Acuiti Labs is certainly going to make your converting job easiest than ever. Look no further, while you have any conversion requirement like image conversion from .jpeg to .png or a video conversion from .mp4 to .flv, it can do it all for you. This online converter is capable of providing higher quality file conversion options for almost all the file formats available today thus offering you a one stop solution for all kinds of file conversion requirements you might have.

Converter4media is surely worth giving a try and all that you want in an online file converting platform! Wait no more and visit to explore the amazing converter today – https://converter4media.com/

263

25 SepSAP

BRIM Dispute, Dunning and Collection Management. Role of Acuiti Labs

What is SAP BRIM?

SAP BRIM, also commonly known SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management is nothing but a high-volume usage-based solution that’s sole purpose is to ease complex billing and invoicing processes and simplify the entire process for the businesses. It improves the flow of selling and re-selling of products and services and sharing revenue in the most appropriate way.

SAP BRIM for Dunning and Collection Management – Process Overview

Here are the few steps that can help you in understanding the complete process of SAP BRIM –

1. Define Service Products and Bundles: During the first step, along with defining the product, product relationships such as cross-and up-sell is also identified. Then further comes bundling of any services & products followed by a configuration process based on the requirement of the customers. There can also be Reuse of rate plans for different products

2. Contract Creation and Management: Next in the process comes the contract creation part where order decomposition and Contract lifecycle management in initiated.

3. Mediation and Rating: The third step in the process is responsible for managing high volume, real-time and batch mediation and rating. All the metering, balance management and splitting of debits and/or credits are carried out in this step of the SAP BRIM Process.

4. Billing and Invoicing: Not only simple but also in a very effective manner the summarization is done, special attention is given so that there is no loss of detail. Required Billing and Payment Statement support, Reverse-and-rerate process support is provided during this step.

5. Accounts and Receivable: This is the final step of the process and here the receivables management dunning & collections payment handling is done. Line-item Dispute Management Credit Management is also part of this final step.

What is Dunning and Collection Management? How can SAP be the best choice?

Using SAP BRIM for Dunning and collection Management – Dunning is the process of methodically communicating with customers to ensure the collection of receivables

During this process notices are sent to the customer with overdue items, requesting payment of the outstanding amount by a specified date

SAP BRIM leverage the concept of the Business Rules framework to identify the appropriate collection step (action) as per the latest parameters of the customer account.

Features of using SAP BRIM for Dunning and Collection Management

Dunning –

Configure multiple collection step for the Collection Strategy.
Tailored treatment for different segments of the customer
Running Champion-Challenger – Multiple strategies running in parallel
Success Valuation of each strategy, each action for continuous refinement of strategies
Dunning history and traceability of all actions to overdue items
Automatic interest/charge calculation & posting in the run
Customer-specific activities based on pre-defined function modules like integration with 3rd party debt collection agencies
Mass reversal of dunning runs including dunning activities
Simulation in production before any major in the strategy being deployed

Collection Management –

Significant way to reduce the time spent in collections from customers.

By using collection management software it becomes easy for the organizations and the individual to manage, control, and align the entire collection flow. Buying and spending a lot on software like CRM or ERP for bringing in more leads and get those closed quickly is fine but not on the cost of ignoring the remaining part of the process. Rest of the process that comes after the contract has been signed or the product has been delivered, where to close the loop you have to collect the money that is owed to you.

The process of collecting the money isn’t as easy at it seems and requires a lot of time and efforts. Opting for a collection management software to streamline this process has turned to be really beneficial and time saving by a lot of businesses today.

Here are a few benefits that a lot of companies have already realized by using collection management software –

Faster Payments – The organizations that are already using collection management software receives the payment 20% faster when compared to the organizations that are still following the traditional way and using the manual systems.

Better and Accurate Cash Forecasting – A typical collection system often fails when it comes to cash-forecasting but while you use collection management software, your team will be given the advantage of tracking the expected payments along with providing a statistical cash forecast. Companies can easily get details about the expected payments that can be further utilized for confirming the statistical cash forecast for more accurate cash flow management.

Increased fresh/unused credit lines – A collection management software is very useful in identifying unused or fresh credit lines and get details of the lower-risk customers. Once these customers are identified, you can help them in buying more products and services from your company. The receivable end of the collection management software helps in getting a holistic view of the complete accounts receivable process so that you can have a clear idea about how improved and systematic credit management is positively impacting the future sales of your company.

Become trusted receivable with better borrowing position – Every organization requires capital for better growth and future improvement. Having said that, it is not an easy job for many companies. When you choose to borrow money for capital improvement, banks thoroughly calculate and review your receivables to determine what amount of money can be provided to you and at what interest rate. The organizations that are using collection management software mostly have healthier accounts receivable and are considered qualified for larger amounts from the banks that too at minimal interest rate. A lower interest rate can help the companies in getting huge potential savings over the course of each loan.

Highly reduced bad debts – The organizations that use collection management software systems typically cut down bad debt by 15-25% as this software successfully identifies and resolves any disputes very quickly and prevents them from aging to the point where they’re uncollectable.

Better reporting and analysis – The use of collection management software makes it highly feasible for organizations to get better reports that are pre-configured, consists of labels, catalog, templates, checklists etc. CMS ensures that data can be easily exported in a variety of useful formats.

Acuiti Labs – SAP Consulting Firm

Acuiti Labs is an SAP silver partner with a specific focus on Lead to Cash processes including SAP Billing (BRIM) and SAP CX Sales Cloud. We are a consulting firm with proven expertise in delivering successful SAP Billing (BRIM) based transformations. With Big four consulting experience in delivering digital transformation programs using SAP and other enterprise applications, we also have strong open source technology capability to deliver projects end to end with AI, IoT, Big Data, Mobile & Cloud technologies.

Advantages of choosing Acuiti Labs

Supporting various clients in Postal, Utilities & Telcom in their Debt Transformation journeys

European & US Experience

• Team of consultants with Big Four consulting experience.

• Delivering solutions to US, EMEA clients

Full Range of Services

• Delivering in the new age of digital transformation by providing a wide range of business and technical capabilities.

Relationships and People

• Partnership with our clients and maintaining a strong relationship is of utmost importance to the firm. We always go the extra mile

Teams based in UK & India

• Creating value through a mix of cost effectiveness and exceptional talent pool by leveraging geographical advantages

Flexible Delivery Models

• Providing multiple options of engagement and resource mix to ensure exceptional quality whilst allowing clients to maintain control

Acuiti Labs – We are an advanced BRIM competency centre because we offer:

· BRIM Solution Architecture

· Subscription Order Management (SOM)

· Convergent Mediation

· Convergent invoicing and FICA

· Convergent Charging

· BRIM Technical, FIORI & Integration

257

27 JulBusinessSAPStartupsTechnology

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) – How is it changing the future of Transportation?

Time is not so far when customer-centric options like self-driving cars, carpooling, people opting for greener options and choosing public transport, etc. will take over, and owning a car will be rare. This is what the future of transportation certainly looks like. The concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) makes it even more clear and certain.

In the past few years, a huge shift from using personally owned cars to choosing public transportation or using mobility as a service has been noticed. The current way of traveling from let us say point A to point B has changed and is transforming and shaping up the whole ecosystem of individual mobility. Not only will be the entire transportation industry will be affected by it, but other sectors including health care, energy, media, insurance etc. will have the impact. These industries should reevaluate and opt for more advanced solutions to create value in this emerging environment.

What is Mobility as a Service (MaaS)?

Mobility as a Service also commonly referred to as MaaS is a customer-centric platform for individuals to use as a mode of transportation. This is an on-demand, real-time platform which basically includes a different combination of transport methods like a car and bike sharing, taxis, and car rentals/leases, and it offers its customers everything that is essential for an effortless traveling experience. Right from the user’s travel plan to payments, all this is included in MaaS.

To choose this service, all you have to do is to take a subscription of the application and you will have the access to available vehicles like car, bike, any public transport pass for the chosen time period depending on your convenience. If we talk about further details, it has smart mobility options including various modes of transportation for the ecological and social benefit are also playing a huge role in reducing harmful emissions, cleaning the air pollution, and proving better road safety.

Benefits of Mobility as a Service?

New age service Maas offers various advantages including –

Effortless and smart route planning — Maas offers real-time route planning for the users. it helps them in planning their journeys which might require using multiple transport methods based on the route they choose, with the help of smart suggestions drawn from their particular preferences.
Personalisation for best user-experience – MaaS is known for being offered as a completely personalized service. This creates a unique bonding between the users and the transport service provider. With the help of big data, it provides two-way communication and frequent customer feedback because of which MaaS systems have become the greatest customer-focused transportation platform of today
Easy payment choices — There are various different methods through which the MaaS users can pay for transportation which includes phones, smartwatches, and bank cards, flexibly before or after their journey, or also on a subscription basis.

What were the typical city transport billing platform challenges?

Multiple Booking Platforms – Leading to difficulty in creating bundles, limited integrated view of the customer, poor adaptability to multiple business models and not easy to grow partner ecosystem
Revenue Leakage – Manual processes, no single view of the customer, no streamlined order to cash process, limited Automation of business processes, higher Days of Outstanding.
Customer Experience – Needs to be enhanced, consistence and contextual
Limited Scalability – Bundles as well as combining various billing stream will lead to a massive increase in transaction volumes as well as business rules complexity
Visibility – Limited visibility (for business) of customer booking various commute options

How MaaS -Mobility as a Service and SAP BRIM together can be a game-changer?

The digital economy has completely changed the way how customers use to buy and engaged in the same service earlier. The subscription-based model has opened several options for the customers thus making the complete process hassle-free.

The Digital Economy has enabled new services … and changed the way customers buy

Iteration is based on customer behavior that includes price per month, per use, volume tiers, minimum commits, freemium, per outcome, etc.

SAP BRIM – Advanced Billing Platform for City Transport

Account Registration
- Register customer account
- Add credit card details

Journey Planning (Purchase)
- Check routes and possible legs of the journey
- Buy rides/journeys in advance

Journey: Tap-In & Tap-Out
- Every journey start and end are recorded by NFC, Proximity Sensor Bluetooth devices using the phone
- Separate events are clubbed together to record the journeys for charging
- Digital Presentment

- Responsive and Integrated Reporting / Customer-Centric Statements and Forms
- The customer receives a statement on mail for monthly usage

PayG Payment –Fair Price Promise
- Flexible Billing/Invoicing and Payment process
- End of the day all PayG charges are collated and payment run deducted the total from Credit card Service Charging

- Flexible Business Logic for Services Charging
- If the ride is already purchased that entitlement is used otherwise the charge is calculated for Pay

How Acuiti Labs can help?

Acuiti Labs is transforming the travel industry via the use of SAP BRIM and excellent customer experience-driven mobile apps.

We have innovated the travel of an individual who is using their own vehicle or using public transport to make it account-based pay rather than individual transactions.

These apps and BRIM platforms are designed to operate in any country or city with minor changes. This will significantly accelerate the adoption of account and relationship-based travel.

Acuiti Labs is an SAP Silver Partner offering an accelerated implementation service for SAP BRIM, Subscription Billing, Entitlement management, and more. Our experience and competency in ‘mobility as a service’ market could provide a complete road map for the businesses that are looking for transformation and adoption of a new way of mobility. Our billing and other SAP Services can help you in changing the way you consume mobility by integrating all forms of transport, including local bicycle services, ride-hailing, car-sharing, and a lot more. Contact us for more details.

261

02 JulBusinessSAPTechnology

Role of SAP Billing / SAP BRIM in Transforming Tolling Business

Transformation of tolling business with SAP Billing / SAP BRIM Solutions – Tolling is generally an amount, or a fee paid to access any road, bridge, or tunnel and the revenue generated by this is utilized for maintenance, construction, and/or other such operations

Toll Business can be simply understood as a way to deal with transportation challenges and provides a positive impact on freight transport in several ways. The toll in many ways has been benefiting society without placing an excruciating financial burden on the entire transport system. The advantages the toll business offer include improved transport efficiency increased revenue for the public budget and reduced external costs of road vehicles.

There is numerous research that has time and again proved that tolls can positively impact transportation in several ways. Below are a few examples –

Improved Transport Efficiency – With the road tolls being introduced, empty headings have been seen to decline. Additionally, tolls are also helping in reducing the vehicle km required for transportation as trucks are improving loading rates because of the pricing pressure.
An affordable choice, without impacting consumers’ prices – In most of the industries the range of transportation cost is between 1% to 5% of the total production cost which is comparatively low, and the accumulated statistics will not show any significant effect.
Significant contributions to transport sector funding comes from the toll revenue – This is true that money that comes from toll revenue is one of the major sources of funding that the transport sector earns.

How Tolling business can help in reducing the worldwide challenge of traffic Congestion?

The increased number of vehicles on road is certainly the cause of massive traffic jams during peak hours in many parts of the world. Managing the traffic congestion problem on a high scale would not only be a sign of relief to the economies of various countries across the globe but, this would also be helpful for sustained productivity and competitiveness.

A report by the UK government suggests that congestion may cost the economy of England £22 B a year in lost time by 2015. The U.S Transportation Institute said in 2011 that the cost of congestion is more than $120 billion, nearly $820 for every commuter in the U.S. World’s record traffic jam in China, Hebei province, was 110 km long during 12 days in August 2010.

There are three main purposes of road pricing and tolling among these tolling is utilized to generate revenues. The other two important reasons include congestion or value pricing which helps in managing demand and environmental pricing to reduce environmental impacts.

E-Tolling System – What is E-tolling and what are its advantages:

E-tolling or Electronic tolling collection (ETC) is a wireless means of automatically collecting the usage fee or toll charges from the vehicles using toll roads, HOV lanes, toll bridges, and toll tunnels, etc. without requiring any action or stopping by the driver. This not only is time-saving but also keeps the entire process of toll collection transparent. Electronic tolling is also cheaper when compared to a staffed toll booth as it does not require manual processing and it helps in reducing transaction costs for both government and private road owners.

Advantages of E-Tolling –

No stopping of vehicles at a toll booth
Time-saving
The reduced traffic congestion problem
Can save gallons of gasoline every year
Efficient, safe, and secure

Evolution of Business Models and Non-toll Revenue. Transformation of tolling business with SAP Billing –

Toll pricing models have been evolved the most in the past few years. With the evolution and several new innovations, it has become more complex with customers demanding loyalty benefits, discounts, and vouchers. Especially the customers who own a large number of vehicles, deal with a lot of such task forces, and have to take similar journeys several times.

Tolling charges vary depending on what time of the day the trip was taken. How many travelers are there in a car, total distance covered, or even customer’s residence? The payment itself could be prepaid (wallet based), postpaid (Bank settlement) or hybrid model. Also, taxes could depend on the type of vehicles to subsidize electrical vehicles.

Besides the pricing and billing complexities in Toll itself, tolling companies have a lot of avenues to grow the non-toll business and get additional revenue. The same vehicle cards which are being used for Toll could be used for paying for fuel, parking, E-vehicle charging, hiring bikes, and car wash services.

Challenges Faced by Tolling Business

Road transport accounts for around 16% of global man-made CO2 emissions. Also, the number of crashes subsequently increases due to congested roads.
Tolling business deals with a lot of administrative tasks and paperwork which becomes quite a headache if not managed with the help of proper dedicated solution
Juggling between too many transponders and navigating the customer service maze

Role of SAP BRIM Solution in Toll Collecting –

Transformation of tolling business with SAP Billing is super easy with Acuiti Labs!

Billing and Revenue Innovation Management (BRIM) solution under the hood comprises of various different solution components that are pre-integrated in a suite. The Customer, Products Master and Order, Contract Management is handled in the Subscription Order Management (SOM) component that allows new customers to register, along with their e-tag information. On the tolling plaza where the vehicle information is actually captured by tolling operational systems which will then pass that on to Convergent Mediation which allows data massaging and validation.

SAP BRIM Platform can orchestrate information to downstream systems or can couple separate events together like vehicle entry and exist events received from two different toll points on the same route. Convergent charging takes care of the complex rating and charging logic and find out whom to charge and how much to charge for the journey. Finally, Convergent Invoicing can handle billing, invoicing, and settlement processes with banks and postings to subledgers.

Tolling Systems – Open versus Closed

In the closed tolling system, the vehicle is tracked both at entry and exit points. While in the open system toll plazas or charging booths are charging points for the applicable road section.

Customer Journey

The customer journey begins right from the moment when he/she either purchases a card or e-tag from the store and registers it along with the vehicle registration details. Customers can then top-up their card/e-tag using banking services like bank mobile app or ATM. Now when the customer makes a toll-applicable journey, based on a closed or open toll system the toll plaza will record the details or his card/e-tag verifying them against the vehicle plate number to detect any fraud.

These details will then be fed through Convergent Mediation where there will be further validations like multiple journeys on the same path in very short amount of time or improbable time difference between entry and exit timestamps recorded. Once the event data is validated it is rated by the Charging system to create billing items (records) of transactions. These transaction records/items are aggregated to be shared with the customer and the bank for any applicable settlements later. To minimize credit exposure it may very well happen that the entry point registers the vehicle entry and reserves or block some amount on customers’ e-tag accounts and at the exit point the charges are calculated and the e-tag balance is either deducted immediately or send to the bank for settlements.

Advantages of Using SAP BRIM –

Simplified Customer interactions
Meeting real-time expectations
Real-time insight for true customer 360-degree view
Increase Transparency and efficiency
Real-time Execution for context-sensitive offerings
Improved Customer engagement
Innovative pricing and Bundles
Consolidated Billing to manage credit and collection efficiently
Handles hybrid payments

While now you already know what role SAP BRIM plays in managing toll business efficiently than ever, it also important to get a holistic view of some other advancements offered by SAP solutions to its customers and how Acuiti Labs could be the most suitable choice for you –

Business Responsiveness – SAP BRIM offers Innovative pricing model, charging and billing models and also opens up a smart revenue stream that are personalized for your B2B offerings and you get a chance to know your customers better and thus can offer customized solutions to them.

Efficient Revenue Management – SAP Solutions could be the best choice when you are looking forward to increasing customer satisfaction and improve financial performance with a converged view of a customer account, receivables, payables, and disputes.

The flexibility of Deployment – Get the flexibility of deploying complete, integrated customer care and next-gen billing system with SAP Billing Solutions or choose to deploy in smaller implantable steps for targeted incremental value. You get the freedom of doing it the way you wish to choose!

How Acuiti Labs can be the right digital partner for the transformation of tolling business with SAP Billing?

Acuiti Labs’ can help in the transformation of the tolling business with SAP Billing solution and efficiently handles the issues that toll businesses are currently facing. We can manage the toll Industry pain points and also support potential future growth avenues. Contact us for the digital transformation of your tolling industry today!

237

26 JunBusinessSAPTechnology

Transformation of Media and Entertainment Industry using SAP BRIM Solution

What is the need of SAP BRIM Solution for the Media and entertainment industry today? This industry has evolved rapidly over the past few years and has become the early adopters of technology. The evolution of the industry has led to a more subscription-based economy with a healthy dose of usage-based charging. Easy and flexible options to watch movies or their favorite shows which is now at their fingertip with the online streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Video, Hotstar, and the list goes on. The need to modernize and adopt a digital transformation-based approach has become imperative for the industry old timers to match with the new technology based streaming platforms.

Releasing movies on the conventional theaters and cinema houses is now being challenged by the new streaming platforms. There is a big shift in the revenue model for movie makers. More and more movie makers and studios are now releasing content directly on the streaming platforms making the traditional model close to obsolete. Along with this the consumer expectations have changed considerably. They are now looking at pure subscription of their desired bundles or pay per use or a combination of the two. They are no longer willing to be tied to the conventional media content delivery, where the choice was driven by the media service providers.

Imperatives of Media and Entertainment World today –

Consumers of media are now the millennials whose expectations are completely different from yester years. The viewing habits and demands are very technology driven. It is very important to understand that the combination of new digital distribution modalities and evolution of customer’s consumption habits. This is continuously challenging the traditional Media and Entertainment business model. It has already been considered the start of a sweeping transformation that will continue to reshape the entire Media and Entertainment ecosystem.

We cannot ignore the unyielding competition as far as the media and entertainment industry is concerned, with even the biggest of industry players battling for the eyeballs of the viewers and subscribers. The media companies that will rapidly identify and react to the evolving requirements and consumption patterns of the end-users will survive in this rate race.

The rapid growth in advanced technologies has been the single biggest factor behind this resurgence. The same advancement in technologies has also created the commonly witnessed enlightening shifts. The audience now have understood their power and have become more demanding. Gone is the time when they use to adjust their daily routine, to the availability or airing of the content. Content providers are wrapping up their broadcasting and publishing as per the requirement and convenience of the customers. With the growing completion amongst the streaming platforms, the companies have become more customer-centric over time.

When at any given point people can exchange notes with each other about any of the newly launch media content by the means of several social media websites like YouTube or Instagram or review sites, the death or survival of any published or broadcast content can be decided in seconds.

One thing is obvious; consumers are more liberal and are keen to exercise greater choices and express personal freedoms as far as media & entertainment are concerned. Along with independence, consumption has also significantly gone up. This has led to a double-edged challenge for the content providers, greater opportunities, and much higher risks. In the era of technology shifts, it is imperative that only those media and entertainment entities that enable themselves rapidly, identify and act on this tectonic shift in the consumer mindset will survive and indeed thrive.

In summary, challenges faced by Media and Entertainment Industry –

Knowing the fact that the media and entertainment industry is witnessing massive transformation at the moment, it is also reacting by working towards improving the customer experience. Nevertheless, here are some major challenges that are being faced by this industry.
1. Higher Customer Expectations – The customers are expecting the various media and entertainment providers to deliver choice, convenience, and value, all these wrapped inside personalized and customized experiences that should be available on-demand and on a cross-platform basis which should also include limited advertising and strong data protection.

2. Adaption of new realities – Growing competition for viewers and advertisers, combined with ongoing declines in subscribers, has become quite a cause for topline media and entertainment business owners to relook at the new realities and adapt them for being all-time better. All that Media and Entertainment industry requires is a new level of operational superiority — the kind of strategic expense reduction that provides short-term results and long-term efficiencies.

3. Constant desire of customers for something new and unique – Speaking about the traditional Media and Entertainment model, creativity, distribution, and monetization were direct. It was common for consumers to be passive and wait for content that was made available at a time prescribed by others. Digitalization has changed the face of the world and that has reduced the need of an intermediary, that is more atomized, yet a bit complex and, above all, lively. As mentioned earlier, Media and Entertainment consumers are more inspired and demanding. Their expectations are rather high on being able to control how the content, products or services should be delivered to them. This behavior and expectations have been fueled by personalized experiences across their daily life, right from mobility and financial services to communications and indeed entertainment.

4. Mitigation of Cyber risks – Huge amount of data is being created every minute as a result of millions of clicks, views, and downloads. This data offers media and entertainment companies a real competitive advantage, however, this same data is a real threat for them as it acts as a magnet for cybercriminals. Companies need to have a better plan in place in order to deal with any cybersecurity issue.

5. Race to deliver the best content – The rapid growth in video creation and distribution platforms and a consistent rise in engagement metrics, subscription fees, advertising revenue or a combination of all of these together have created an intensely competitive landscape for developing and acquiring the best content.

With so much content available across many distribution alternatives, Media and entertainment businesses are forced to think of innovative strategies to deliver more compelling programs for their consumers to watch. AI and machine learning technologies can be leveraged by these companies to dissect viewing patterns from multiple perspectives to build personalized recommendations into consumers’ digital interaction.

Role of SAP in changing the face of Media and Entertainment Industry

The content offered by media and entertainment industry plays a crucial role in customer satisfaction, SAP S/4 HANA and the cloud platform can help in streamlining and personalizing the content as per the taste of the Audience. SAP S/4 HANA has collaborated with SAP Cloud Platform and is facilitating the media houses to digitize and innovate their business models.

Here are a few points that can help in understanding the role of SAP in media and entertainment industries –

Creating New Cloud-Based Multipurpose Applications

The SAP Cloud based platform is helping media companies to build new cloud-based mobile applications rapidly which can in turn help them for the next-generation audience, that are more technology driven and are always hooked online through their mobile devices.

Bundling

Many new media companies are opting for bundling service offered by SAP. Product bundling feature enables them to easily create complex and personalized product offerings of digital goods and services for their customers. With the help of this feature you can also offer flexible pricing and availability rules based on the customer selection

Packaging

In this competitive world of new digital a reality, SAP S/4HANA can help your deal with all packaging requirements efficiently.

Monthly Subscription Billing

SAP Subscription Billing solution can help your business with a simplified, automated approach to billing and ordering processes to help you create and monetize new offers quickly and effectively which can also be chosen on the Subscription basis.

Customer Experience

SAP Billing Services can help your company in delivering better customer experience by providing transparency and flexible billing choices. It can help you in managing huge number of users with ease and also keep a track of user-based charging.

SAP innovative software solutions remain the game changer when it comes to targeting the right audience, dealing with customer problems, establishing better connections with them, and a lot more.

Speaking about the facts, as per SAP’s official website, near about 83% of the media-based companies listed in Forbes Global 2000 are SAP customers, 74 % of radio and TV broadcasting content worldwide is produced by SAP customers and 90 % of the printers and publishers in the Forbes Global 2000 are SAP customers.

SAP’s easy approach to solve to your specific your specific media business requirements –

SAP’s intelligent technologies optimizes the overall experience of your customers. Move a step ahead by increasing the transparency of end-to-end processes and leverage real-world awareness which involves consumers, talent, and also business to business (B2B) partners get more innovative.

SAP innovative solutions can help you in unlocking business values and potential with digital technology. Get an all new approach to content delivery by connecting innovative technologies with integrated business solutions and get more closer to creating an intelligent enterprise

SAP CX to improve Customer Experience –

With a lot of new options coming up in the market so promptly, it is quite a task for businesses to win customer’s trust and keep it intact in the long run. These fascinating options for the customers are capable enough to drag their complete focus away from you. SAP Customer Experience is one of the best solutions to make each step of your customers journey count. Understand their intentions, interact frequently to show that you care, offer them complete support at each step of their journey. This is how SAP helps you in providing the best of customer service.

SAP BRIM Solution to improve customer experience – Example of the Use-case

The role of SAP BRIM solution for the media and entertainment industry can be clearly understood with the help of an example of the use-case where the primary requirement was to improve the customer experience.

Business challenges –

In this use case, the media and entertainment industry wanted a system to deal with:

Product bundling and pricing,
Manage subscriptions
Manage offers efficiently
Single billing for subscription and consumption events

They required a provision that can offer the customers bundled product with a lot of unique options for them and a robust OTC process that includes quotation approval.

What SAP Innovative solutions were used to deal with the above-mentioned challenges –

SAP BRIM Solutions can significantly reduce manual efforts and operational cost by offering support for businesses that deal with subscription models. A few SAP BRIM solutions that are involved in this process includes SAP CX C4C, Commerce, Data Mediation, SAP BRIM and Subscription Billing.

Depending on your business goals, SAP BRIM solutions are implemented which helps the businesses understand the scenario of getting numerous advantages for both customers and business itself.

SAP BRIM Solution Architecture for Media and Entertainment Industry

Benefits

After implementing SAP BRIM solution, the end user was provided with a highly scalable and high-performance SAP CX Integrated solution along with a 360° view of customer records to accelerate collections processes and improve customer service. The business also gets the benefit of provision of performing usage and recurring based billing.

How Acuiti Labs can help –

Acuiti Labs is a UK based SAP Silver Partner and offers innovate solutions like BRIM, Subscription Billing, CPQ, C4C and more. Business growth or improving customer relationships, we can help you with customized solutions for all your requirements. We can help you in accelerating implementation time, reducing risks, reducing manual processes, enhancing sales activities, improved customer interactions and moreover, get you ready for your digital journey with our SAP based solutions.

220

29 AprBusinessSAP

Maximise Business Benefits with SAP Subscription Billing and Revenue Management

The word subscription is not a new term when it comes to ease the business flow and offer your customers an option of recurring payment for any service or product could be taken with right combination of subscriptions, one-time fees, and usage-based charges. Industries like telecom, media, entertainment etc. have been providing their services for longer duration with a flexible choice of subscription and payment options. They have been doing this since decades; Earlier it was Newspapers, Cable Television Networks, and Landline Telephones bills, whereas today these have turned into Consumer goods, Jobs, Travelling, Dating, Netflix, and other such offerings.

However, with the increase in growth of mobile communications and the internet, the face of subscription-based business models has dramatically evolved and is changing the way customers use to look at buying options. Every business is becoming a connected one by moving from products to services. Earlier it was only a handful of industries that offered the choice of recurring payments, today a lot of industries have already moved into this business whereas, several others are planning to opt the option of offering services and products on the basis of subscription.

Subscription Based Billing – Win-win for Customers and Business

It is not only businesses that are being benefited with the use of SAP Subscription Billing model, but customers are also get more options to choose from and buy only what is required. This also help businesses in maintaining continuous cash-flow and building stronger and lifetime relationships with the customers.

As growth persists, such companies have already started realizing that to maintain and support the new and more creative subscription-based offerings, stronger, more efficient, and flexible billing solution is required and using traditional ERP and CRM systems will not be enough. These systems lack the capability of managing the diverse requirements like fulfilling the recurring billing demands for the customers or managing large volumes or real-time competencies linked with the hyper-connected world.

Although the internet can help you with the hits on subscription billing, you need to have a proper understanding about the important features of subscription billing to get benefitted as a business.

A Few Key Features Essential for a Subscription Billing System

Flexibility : The subscription billing model is required to be flexible and should come with the option to be easily deployed in the cloud, on-premise or in a hybrid way depending on the requirement of the customer.

Responsiveness : With rapidly changing billing requirement, Agility is one of the most important key features of any billing solution. businesses need to have a solution that is responsive and powerful with the ability to create any type of pricing rules imaginable in hours or days – not months. Any subscription billing system that do not require a lot of highly trained developers for its installation, implementation or management is considered to be the best.

Real-time and Centralised Pricing Model : An ideal billing system possesses a real-time and centralized pricing model. Along with the simple integration of all the systems that require pricing and customer information (typically in real-time), a billing system should also be capable of providing needed support to all subscription products and services that are offered by a particular company.

Scalability : You can easily manage the scenario in the initial phase of using a subscription billing model for your business as you might have fewer customers at that time. But as you grow, this number will also increase dramatically and will require a system that can support a huge number of subscribers and can process billions of transactions in a single day. Thus, scalability is one of the important features of any subscription billing system.

Usage metering : We need to understand the fact that the simplest subscription models are based mostly based on flat recurring fees. There are a lot of businesses that need to meter customer usage so that they can efficiently manage pricing, discounts and other options like up-sell. Another advantage of usage metering is reporting and revenue recognition.

Financials and reporting :  An effective billing solution provide complete customer financial management and integration with the Backend Accounting Module. Reporting and Business Intelligence must be leveraged at real-time speed to keep a check on the company’s health and growth rate.

When it comes to managing the subscription billing process for your business to maximize its benefits and growth, you need to have a billing system that is fast, agile, flexible, convergent, scalable and powerful at the same time. Choosing a billing system with the above-mentioned important features will not only ensures that your business can reap the most benefits from this investment but also offer your customers exciting new products and services with better customer experience.

Advantage of Choosing SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management (SAP BRIM)

While you choose SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management Solution for your business, you get the advantage of monetizing subscription and usage-based business models with agility and with the advanced capabilities like revenue management and recurring billing. This also increases the transparency of the entire revenue management process with the help of its dedicated scalable, agile, flexible, and highly automated software that helps in billing, invoicing, and revenue management.

Below are the key benefits of using BRIM

1.    Supports high-volume processing and Scales up businesses : Provide support to the Internet of Things and connected devices with high-volume, automated, and transparent processing across usage-event and financial postings.

2.    Easy Migration from selling products to selling services and physical goods bundled with services : Offer your customers outcomes-based on subscriptions and real-time usage-based services, while supporting revenue-sharing models across your extended ecosystem.

3.    Ease and flexibility of operationalizing your business model : Get the freedom of enabling any variant or combination of prepaid and pay-as-you-go business models with rules-based, smart automation of invoicing and accounting processes.

4. Supports Partner Revenue Sharing : Partner Revenue Sharing option by SAP BRIM helps the partners in establishing a successful cloud practice with lower liabilities and risks providing maximum benefits to them.
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How SAP Subscription Billing and Revenue Management Contribute to managing Subscription-based order management?

Below are a few points that will help to understand how SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management can help companies that are looking for an effective solution for managing their subscription billing process.

The automated process ensures accurate delivery and billing process. This is done by capturing and monitoring subscription orders.
Promptly and automatically addresses contract changes, renewals, extensions, and billing cycles to avoid errors.
 Provides Ease of managing master agreements, which includes invoicing hierarchies, specialized catalogs, and shared credit.
Automated payment handling from any channel. Integrated Credit, Collection, and dispute Management.

202

26 FebSAP

Looking for a comprehensive Sales Performance Management System? How can SAP Commissions help?

SAP Commissions is a simple yet very effective way to improve and align sales performance management according to your business goals. Already chosen by many successful businesses, this is a new age end-to-end solution to deal with business requirements and helps in streamlining incentive compensation management, distribution process, approvals, and workflow, it also helps in reducing overhead and maximising plan effectiveness.

Grow revenue, meet business goals and keep your sales team motivated with SAP Commissions. This innovative solution allows you to create, optimize and deliver incentive compensation plans and align sale behaviors to maximise profits while gaining the transparency to increase commissions ROI and remove errors. No matter you are dealing with direct sales force or indirect sales force, this solution can easily manage a complete incentive compensation process for you right from sales order to payment.

SAP Commissions is designed in a way that it fits perfectly into your business process and brings in the agility to meet the rapidly changing market scenario. While using this for your business you can eliminate the commission errors, align sales to your business goals, and monitor your expenses wisely that are specifically assigned for compensation budget.

If you are also looking for a simple way to deliver transparent incentives in an agile manner and get your sales team fully aligned with your business goals, SAP Commissions is for you! Powerful and fully customisable dashboards and prepackaged reports with SAP Commissions make sales performance management process even faster, accurate, and transparent.

SAP Sales Performance Management with SAP commissions

Below are the key features that will help you understand how Sales performance management can be best done along with SAP Commissions:

1. Execute your Sales Plan in a better way

This is the best way to align all your compensation plans in one place which is also a great advantage for sales representatives and sales managers. SAP Commissions comes with complete transparency and allows the sales reps to have visibility about the payouts and performances, in a way that they can have a proper understanding about commission plans and raise compensation disputes, see detailed compensation statements and performance metrics and forecast income at their convenience, anytime, anywhere and on any device.

2. Easy integration with the back-end systems

Best part about using SAP commissions for sales performance management is that it can easily be integrated with major and most frequently used latest platforms like CRM, ERP, HR systems etc. where the integration can be done both at data level and at the processing level. So, you can easily enjoy the real-time data insights and have the flexibility to execute business processes across different systems without worrying about worrying about logging manually, every time.

3. Ease of one-click Traceability

This solution comes with complete audit trail visibility & traceability for Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) compliance. Get complete details of audit logs on each of the available screens as information is tracked from time to time and it has all the records about which changes are done, who did the changes and when these changes are done. Sales reps can easily trace any payout amount back to the originating sales transaction just with the ease of one-click traceability.

4. Precise and Built-in Crediting

SAP Commissions allows you to easily and precisely process any complex split; so that any number of direct or indirect payees, that could be across internal and external hierarchies can be credited with being delayed.

This is a robust built-in crediting engine, that you can credit over complex roles, relationships, and numerous functions with the help of simple drag-and-drop actions.

5. Quick Settlements of Compensation Disputes

Every business understands the pain of resolving compensation disputes as the process is not only time consuming, but also can also have a lot of errors to be resolved. SAP Commissions can be very helpful in resolving the compensation disputes quickly and precisely. This not only reduces the number of errors and disputes a business might have to deal with but also simply and smartly deals with disputes as and when they occur.

Who should opt for SAP Commissions?

Businesses that are looking forward to enhancing their sales performance management can opt for SAP Commissions. Visit our SAP Commissions page and learn more about this solution. Also, get in touch to have a brief understanding of SAP Consulting Services that we offer.

186

18 FebSAP

Data Protection Regulations – How SAP Marketing Cloud can help Marketers?

In the era of ubiquitous computing where even your home appliances can contact the service centers and open a maintenance request on your behalf, data of all sorts is getting generated in gargantuan proportions. This might sound like a boon to businesses and marketers as it provides a lot of data and information to be fed into analytics engines and generate valuable insights into most sought after KPIs like customer behavior and loyalty management. However, this boon also comes with significant responsibilities for maintaining the sanctity and privacy of this data which might be personally identifiable information of your customers as well as employees. In the wrong hands it can prove to be very damaging for the customers and in turn to the reputation of the companies who store such data. Regulators and governments have also identified the importance and the risks of such data leaks. Be it instances of customers of financial institutions losing huge amounts or alleged attempts of social engineering, are everyday news.

In such a scenario, the regulations that were created in the past like the Data Protection Directive of 1995 from the European union was created before companies like Google and Facebook came into existence. Law makers and governments soon recognized the fact and brought in new laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as recently as May 2018. If we specifically look at the GDPR, there are some significant enhancements over its predecessor, which includes but is not limited to:Transparency of data collection and utilization.

Transparency of data collection and utilization.
Easy access for an individual to their data and the right to be forgotten.
Audit trail to identify how and when a consent was given by an individual.
Mandatory breach notification.
Independent role of a Data Protection Officer for companies above a certain threshold size and that process personal data.
Consent of parents for processing a minor’s data

There are hefty fines to the tunes of millions or a significant fraction of a business’s turnover in case it fails to adhere to these provisions. These provisions help to enhance the data protection levels but also increases the challenges for businesses and their marketing teams. In such a scenario the responsibility of the data management and marketing tools increases manifolds.

How SAP C/4 HANA Marketing Cloud address these challenges and help marketers?

As the name suggests, SAP C/4 HANA Marketing cloud is referred to as the fourth generation CX product from SAP and incorporates multiple tools and techniques to address the regulatory challenges. Let’s take a look at some of the important features that make SAP Marketing Cloud one the most attractive solution in regards to resolving above mentioned challenges:

1. Marketing Permissions Settings: The permissions settings control whether explicit permission of the contact/individual is required or an implicit permission can be assumed unless the contact opts out of the marketing communications. These permissions can also determine how much and what data can be stored from inbound channels of marketing communication including social media channels. These permission settings are based on the communication direction, country and the communication media used. However, there is a caveat here, these permission settings will be overridden by the explicit opt in/out by the contact/customer. Any unspecific setting is overridden by a specific one. Importantly these explicit permissions can also be imported via CSV uploads or OData services.

Below are the 2 types based on the communication direction:

A. Inbound Marketing Permission settings – These settings allow the business to decide how they listen to the customer data on various communication mediums and the country to which the individual belongs. Below screenshot shows the setting details.

Depending on the country, the communication media used for the inbound communication the permission can be set.

No value in the permission fields means ‘No Restrictions’ on storing data.
‘1’ means contact interaction details can be stored but not the personally identifiable data. This disables any engagement possibilities with the contact but the interaction data can be used for analytics purpose.
‘2’ indicates the data cannot be stored in any form at all and has to be discarded.

Below flowchart illustration will further clarify the concept:

B. Outbound Marketing Permissions – These settings allow businesses to validate if an explicit opt-in is required to send marketing communication based on country and communication media. Below screenshot shows the setting details. If ‘type of consent’ is selected as ‘E’ it means explicit opt in is required and ‘I’ implies that implicit permission can be assumed to send communication.

2. Subscriptions: Subscriptions allow marketers to store data related to the interests of a contact. A contact/customer can subscribe to newsletters, etc. and receive communication from the company.
3. Contact Profile – Permission Marketing Tab: One of the very important point in most of the data regulations is transparency of data collection and audit trail of how and when consent was given. This has been achieved by providing visibility to marketers on the Permission Marketing tab where they can view all the marketing permissions given by the contact/customer as well as all the subscriptions data.

Marketers can see if the opt-in was given explicitly or implicitly assumed by switching to the table view in this screen. As seen in the screenshot, the human figure on the opt-in illustrates that its explicit.

4. Double Opt-ins: Double opt-in can be enabled to send confirmation emails to a contact/customer when they sign up or sign out of a newsletter/subscription. It can be of two types viz. email opt-in or opt-out and newsletter opt-in or opt-out. Email formats with confirmation links can be created in the in-built content studio. Double opt-ins make the process of gathering and storing data more transparent.
5. Global Suppression Rules: By defining these rules, marketers can exclude contacts from communications based on contact’s previous interactions or campaign data. Contacts get excluded from campaign execution if they meet the criteria defined in the suppression rules.
6. Communication Category Limit: This feature defined in the communication category setup helps the marketers set limit on the number of times a contact is communicated in a given period of type using that communication media.

Summary

Now that we have seen all the components of the marketing permission and opt-ins individually it’s time to summarize and see how these fit in and work together. We will also see where do these features fit into the marketing cycle. Below process flow gives a better idea.

All the enumerated features and their seamless integration makes SAP C/4 HANA Marketing Cloud an ideal option for organizations to manage their end to end marketing needs. In conclusion, I believe, data regulations are going to be more stringent in coming times as newer and advanced threats emerge but with a robust and exhaustive solution like SAP C/4 HANA Marketing Cloud will prove to be a marketer’s first choice.

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Cookie	Duration	Description
_ga	1 year 1 month 4 days	Google Analytics sets this cookie to calculate visitor, session and campaign data and track site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognise unique visitors.
_ga_*	1 year 1 month 4 days	Google Analytics sets this cookie to store and count page views.
_gat_UA-*	1 minute	Google Analytics sets this cookie for user behaviour tracking.n
_gcl_au	3 months	Google Tag Manager sets the cookie to experiment advertisement efficiency of websites using their services.
_gid	1 day	Google Analytics sets this cookie to store information on how visitors use a website while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the collected data includes the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
_hjSession_*	1 hour	Hotjar sets this cookie to ensure data from subsequent visits to the same site is attributed to the same user ID, which persists in the Hotjar User ID, which is unique to that site.
_hjSessionUser_*	1 year	Hotjar sets this cookie to ensure data from subsequent visits to the same site is attributed to the same user ID, which persists in the Hotjar User ID, which is unique to that site.
_hjTLDTest	session	To determine the most generic cookie path that has to be used instead of the page hostname, Hotjar sets the _hjTLDTest cookie to store different URL substring alternatives until it fails.
_lfa	1 year	This cookie is set by the provider Leadfeeder to identify the IP address of devices visiting the website, in order to retarget multiple users routing from the same IP address.
663a60c55d	session	Zoho sets this cookie is used to build a sales analytics cookie
AnalyticsSyncHistory	1 month	Linkedin set this cookie to store information about the time a sync took place with the lms_analytics cookie.
ga_	1 year	Google Analytics sets this cookie to calculate visitor, session and campaign data and track site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognise unique visitors.
siqlsdb	never	Zoho sets this cookie to generate a unique ID for the session. This allows the website to obtain data on visitor behaviour for statistical purposes.
utsdb	never	Zoho SalesIQ sets this cookie to register data on visitor's website behaviour.

Cookie	Duration	Description
_cfuvid	session	Description is currently not available.
_lfa_test_cookie_stored	less than a minute	Description is currently not available.
1f2feb5d84	session	Description is currently not available.
acuitilabslimited-_zldt	1 day	Description is currently not available.
asst	1 hour	No description available.
cass	2 hours	No description available.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-cookies_ga	1 year	Description is currently not available.
gdId	1 year 1 month 4 days	Description is currently not available.
gdsid	6 hours	Description is currently not available.
GSESSIONID	2 hours	No description available.
trs	1 year	No description available.

Cookie	Duration	Description
bcookie	1 year	LinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser IDs.
bscookie	1 year	LinkedIn sets this cookie to store performed actions on the website.
li_sugr	3 months	LinkedIn sets this cookie to collect user behaviour data to optimise the website and make advertisements on the website more relevant.
test_cookie	15 minutes	doubleclick.net sets this cookie to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE	6 months	YouTube sets this cookie to measure bandwidth, determining whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA	6 months	YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's cookie consent state for the current domain.
YSC	session	Youtube sets this cookie to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.
yt-remote-connected-devices	never	YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's video preferences using embedded YouTube videos.
yt-remote-device-id	never	YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's video preferences using embedded YouTube videos.
yt.innertube::nextId	never	YouTube sets this cookie to register a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.
yt.innertube::requests	never	YouTube sets this cookie to register a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.

Cookie	Duration	Description
_zcsr_tmp	session	Zoho sets this cookie for the login function on the website.
li_gc	6 months	Linkedin set this cookie for storing visitor's consent regarding using cookies for non-essential purposes.
lidc	1 day	LinkedIn sets the lidc cookie to facilitate data center selection.
uesign	1 month	Zoho sets this cookie for the Visitor Live Chat.
UserMatchHistory	1 month	LinkedIn sets this cookie for LinkedIn Ads ID syncing.
wp-wpml_current_language	session	WordPress multilingual plugin sets this cookie to store the current language/language settings.