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.

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.

SAP CPQ is one of the best sales configuration systems that any business can use to ease the complexity of selling solutions that feature multifaced combinations. Choosing CPQ can streamline and automate the selling process so that you deliver a solution that perfectly matches the requirement of your customers.

SAP CPQ is designed with a purpose that can help users to automate and accelerate the sales cycle. While combining products, there is a possibility that you might have to deal with product combination complexities. Simplify this entire process with the help of robust configuration tools that SAP CPQ provides and give your user the advantage of defining component requirements, analyzing functional specification, combing various solution components, and settling interdependencies.

Why CPQ and CLM could be better together?

Enhanced sales, better customer experience, quick processing of deals and minimised errors, these are a few basics required by a sales team in any big or small business. CPQ is the most trusted and efficient system to deal with sales-related problems and provide quick and accurate quotes to the customers with the help of which error-prone and time-consuming processes of sifting through multiple spreadsheets can be avoided.
Automating the complete sales process, including the contract, is another added advantage when it comes to improving the sales cycle. The pace of business is growing faster than ever and businesses in this situation cannot afford to experience any kind of delay in deal/contract finalization. And here’s when CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) makes your task easy and provides complete surety to the sales reps so that they do not face any difficulty during the legal steps’ finalization.
There are a lot of companies today that have already realised the importance of Contract Lifecycle Management for the business growth and moreover has understood that it is not just record-keeping system but CLM Software’s combination with CPQ system can be the best choice to get you one step closer to your revenue goals
Here are 5 major reasons that show why SAP CPQ integration with CLM is a good idea for businesses today –

1. Helps in Closing Contracts/Deals faster

The complicated manual process of contract finalization demands the sales team to wrap up the legal formalities which indeed are time-consuming and also carry the risk of losing the deal as the customers can lose patience and step back due to frustration.
While at the same time, the automated process guarantees a smooth and quick deal processing where sales reps have the freedom to:

• Easily create contracts with the help of self-service wizards and templates.
• Import third-party contracts.
• Get the advantage of automated approval escalation.
• Negotiate contracts with the help of pre-approved clause library.
• Get a collaborative workspace that enables real-time tracking of all redlines plus version control

The reason why a CLM solution streamlines and speeds up the contract process is its parallel cloud presence that gives the flexibility of contract reviewing to multiple approvers at the same time.

2. Enhances Sales Experience

The Sales reps, instead of focusing more and more on the selling process, are required to indulge in the manual process of preparing proposals and contracts for customers. This affects the overall sales of the organization and also demotivates the sales team. Using CLM and CPQ together enhances the sales experience by allowing the reps to speed the entire process from the quote to closing the deal with a signed contract. It gives reps a streamlined and easier way to interact with legal teams and the deal desk. They can focus on selling and driving more revenue.

3. Generate for revenue by never missing renewals

The combination of CPQ and CLM is very helpful for the sales reps as through it they can receive email notifications of contract milestones, renewals, expiration dates, etc. well in advance. You will not need any extra process for the renewals as with this combination all the required information remains at the fingertips and can be easily processed whenever the contract is requiring renewal. This facilitates the sales reps to:

• To take action ensuring contracts are renewed correctly
• Follow-ups on upsell suggestions are provided by an AI-enabled CPQ

All this process saves a lot of time and manual efforts which in turn generates more revenue for the business.

4. Boost the overall productivity of your business

Reaching your revenue goals and increasing the productivity of your business is a lot easier with the combination of CPQ and CLM. The SAP CPQ integration with SAP CLM not only simplifies the sales process, but it is also helpful in minimizing the total amount of time that a legal team might take to wrap the entire contract process.
Store all your contracts in a single online repository with the help of which you can have complete visibility and version control to keep a track of each step. You won’t require different applications for different processes like contract creation, negotiation, renewal, etc. and all this can be done with the combination of CPQ and CLM.

5. Offer Better Customer Experience

Deliver optimal customer expertise by providing accurate and quick services with this advanced combination of SAP CPQ and CLM. Avoid any misunderstandings that might occur when working without an automated tool and speed up the entire process by opting for this new online platform. Do not let small manual mistakes and confusions ruin your reputation in front of your valuable customers. When you choose SAP CPQ integration with CLM, you not only choose it for offering the perfect and accurate quote to your customer but also give them the flexibility of being updated with the complete contract processing through this advanced and straightforward integrated system offered by SAP.

Apart from CPQ, CLM can be integrated with –

SAP C4C

The combination of C4C with CLM allows businesses to manage contracts and quote negotiations more efficiently! This happens because a new CLM tab is added to C4C just after the integration is done thus giving the users the privilege of switching between both the applications (CLM and C4C) without having to log in again and again. Other settings such as Contract status check and permissions etc. are configured in CLM just the way it is done in CPQ.

Salesforce

CLM’s integration with Salesforce can help businesses in leveraging CRM data in making informed decisions and managing contract negotiations efficiently. While using this combination, your sales team can easily manage all the related activities through a single dedicated platform thus simplifying the entire workflow for them.

Netsuite

while used along CLM, Netsuite can help users in utilising the guided selling capabilities that are provided by the ERP solution. This integration is also most helpful in streamlining the entire contract management process for the businesses.

DocuSign

CLM and DocuSign integration cut downs the unnecessary costs that you might be spending on printing, scanning, and copying paper documents and enables a completely electronic workflow. This automated system collects information, and sign contracts online with electronic devices like your computer or mobile phone and speeds up the process.

Adobe Sign

Speed up the workflow, manage contracts efficiently, offer clear and full reporting compliance by integrating CLM with Adobe Sign. This combination allows businesses to securely automate workflows and sign contracts online electronic devices like computers, laptop or mobile phones. As an administrator, you can integrate and set up Adobe Sign with CLM and add the e-signature capability by signing an agreement.

How Acuiti Labs can be your best choice for integrating CPQ with CLM?

Acuiti Labs is an UK based SAP Silver partner with expertise in SAP’s latest technologies including Configure Price Quote (CPQ), Cloud for Customer (C4C), Contract Life-cycle Management (CLM), SAP Billing (BRIM), SAP Subscription Billing, and more. We have already deployed several SAP solutions successfully with Global Clientele and have also created a system with the help which you can easily go for SAP CPQ integration with SAP CLM.

Contact us to get more details about how Acuiti Labs can be your best partner in getting CPQ integrated with CLM and making your businesses process a lot more seamless and quicker.

SAP is the new age technology and calling it as one of the most intelligent, yet simplified technology of the last decade couldn’t be wrong! From digitally transforming a lot of businesses to giving them an entirely new face for the customers, SAP has truly been a technology that has changed the business game for many in the past years.

As 2020 is already here, many businesses involved in big data spaces are eager to understand and grab upon the next set of SAP Innovations and latest technology trends that this new year has got in for them. Measures to achieve organisation’s bigger goals, transforming and redefining business strategies to offer significantly better customer experience, and focusing on the latest trends to remain ahead of the competitors are a few points that every business promises to follow while at the starting of a new year. 2020 is no different when it comes to enhancing the business and following the latest tech trends.

Another thing that remains static, is the focus on innovation. These innovations could be in the form of anything like launching a new product, or a solution, or it could also be a service. The businesses that will keep innovation as their primary focus in 2020, will flourish and here is when SAP’s latest tech trends are going to help you!

Role of SAP Innovations to fulfill Customer Demands

Customers are evolving over the period of time and so are their expectations. This has somehow created a virtual world of outgrown competition with which every business is dealing in reality. If you are looking for a solution to solve the most complex business problems and want to bring your company’s vision to life, SAP’s innovative solutions can help you. Many businesses are already taking advantage of SAP’s offerings and had achieved the greatest goals through unique and leading-edge software innovations. In 2020, it’s your turn to collaborate with SAP to provide a unique experience to your customers right from discovery to delivery.

Industries that have been benefited with SAP innovations in 2019:

SAP’s latest tech trends and innovations had already helped many organizations in bringing their vision to life and transformed the way they use to deal with their business problems.

Get Benefited from SAP’s experts who have built over 4000 innovative solutions for more than 1500 clients across the range industries including:

1. Health Care

The American Society of Clinical Oncology is shaping the future of cancer care by providing individualised solution. With the help of big data stored in the cloud, people can easily access it and use it to create personalised evidence-based treatment plans which will further result in better patient care.

2. Agriculture

In agriculture, ‘Stara’ – which is a farm equipment manufacturer is reimagining its ecosystem and fundamentally changing its business models with the exceptional solutions by SAP that are helping to digitally connect ‘the internet of things across people, plants and machines. These innovations are helping the company realise its goals in a better way.

3. Transportation

Trenitalia, a high-speed rail company is using a tailored, dynamic magnets management SAP solution that harnesses the internet of things to analyse censored data from trains in real-time. Now customers enjoy better service and the company is saving 8-10% cost annually

4. Retail

A retailer company, Tata CLiQ launched the first of its kind ‘phygital’ marketplace with SAP Hybris Solution to combine the Physical and Digital world. Now, the customers are enjoying seamless omnichannel shopping experience that is personalized so that they feel special every time they visit or buy from here.

5. Entertainment:

Cirque du Soleil, has revolutionized its fan experience by investing in an interactive mobile app. This app is creating a more impressive fan experience.

Make your innovations real with SAP innovative solutions. Now, it is your turn to best utilize these and let your business bloom in 2020. Bring your concepts to life with high value, individualised solutions built by SAP experts.

SAP Tech Trends and Predictions for 2020

1. Big Data

Big Data is the huge collaborated data that we deal with almost every day in our lives. This data keeps flowing and moving from one computer to another computer or devices like mobile or machine sensors. With the use of the right big data tools, your organization can easily manage, store, and analyse this data and get valuable insights that were earlier impossible to imagine.

Big Data can play a vital role in transforming the decision-making ability of you your business with the help of technologies like in-memory data management, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning. Big data solutions for SAP can easily manage your various data landscape – across data warehouses, data lakes, and databases – with perfect to use on-premise and Big Data cloud solutions.

With the use of SAP HANA, you can easily transform the way you deal with the business challenges and get the responsiveness and processing power to make the most out of new opportunities.

2. Machine Learning

Machine learning is a smart technology that educates the computers to perform tasks in a desired way through learning from data – instead of getting it done to explicit programming.

Through the collaboration done with top universities in the world, SAP is all set to explore the more futuristic choices of machine learning and expand the technology for businesses. This collaboration will help SAP in focusing on a lot of different machine learning research topics and work on resolving open AI challenges in various industries.

3. Cloud Computing

Cloud computing can be simply defined as the process of delivering the applications, platforms, data storage, operating systems, and other computing resources over the Internet instead of doing it over on-premise infrastructure.

Businesses like yours can be benefited by choosing the cloud solution as by doing so you don’t need to make direct investments in hardware or IT staff, but get a subscription to the computing resource based on your requirement and pay the amount only for what you use.

These are three main SAP innovations cloud deployment options from which you can choose the best fit for your business requirement – public, private, or hybrid cloud. SAP promises to provide the most secure cloud platform that is maintained with the highest quality standards so that your data is safest.

4. The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things can be defined as a network of physical objects like vehicles, objects, machines, home appliances etc. that use sensors & APIs to connect and exchange data over the Internet.

5. Blockchain

Unlock the potential to revolutionize the way your business currently operates with Blockchain technology. Blockchain is based on distributed ledger technology, which securely records information across a peer-to-peer network. Join SAP Blockchain group and stay ahead of the competition. Easy communicating and networking with peers, staying updated with the latest industry trends and knowledge from speakers and SAP experts are a few best advantages that any business will be able to take while using Blockchain.

6. Digital Transformation

A fundamental rethinking of customer experience, business models, and operations is what digital transformation is all about. Any business that chooses digital transformation automatically chooses new ways to deliver value to the customers, generate better revenue, and improve efficiency.

Now or later, every business will eventually have to opt for digital transformation. A few businesses are under pressure to go for digital transformation and built a strong clientele, while there are others that are looking forward to it and moving ahead with slowly. Are you among those businesses that need to be transformed digitally in 2020?

Customer Satisfaction remains the primary goal for businesses in 2020 too –

Just like 2019, 2020 will also be a year for businesses that will keep their primary focus on Customer Satisfaction. The market will be dominated by the businesses that will understand the customer requirements better than ever before and offer them exactly what they need, even before they know they need that.

Innovation and success of your business success go hand in hand and thus SAP innovations are going to play a vital role in defining the success rate of business growth in 2020.