Category: Business

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/

 

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.

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 –

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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 –

  1. No stopping of vehicles at a toll booth
  2. Time-saving
  3. The reduced traffic congestion problem
  4. Can save gallons of gasoline every year
  5. 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!

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.

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.

 

SAP CPQ integration with SAP CLM: Why this is a better idea for your business?

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.

Top 5 reasons why 2020 is the year for SAP subscription billing-based business models

A lot of industries across the world are extending their business models by adding subscription options to their offerings. Whether you sell products or services, subscription billing makes it feasible for your customers to make choices based on their convenience and budget thus allowing them to utilise your services in a much better way. One of the greatest benefits of choosing Subscription billing for your business is the ease that it gives to the customers so that they do not have any trouble in coming to a decision of what to buy, when to buy and how are they going to manage the budget for it. Well, when your customer buys any of your service or product and go for subscription-based plan, they will have a choice of paying through recurring paying method which is the most feasible and budgeted way to own anything that they are looking for.

Why SAP Subscription Billing?

One of the greatest advantages of choosing SAP Subscription Billing solution for your business is the effectiveness with which it handles the entire billing and invoicing process for your customers. This billing solution is crafted to grow your business in all directions and provide a simplified, automated approach to billing and ordering processes. It can successfully handle your customer’s end-to-end subscription billing life cycle which makes it the most commonly used subscription billing platform today that is transparent, effective, customer-friendly and economic all at the same time. Following are a few reasons why you should get rid of the traditional way of creating and sending manual bills and invoices to your customers and opt for the innovative way through SAP Subscription billing:
  • Great customer experience
  • Increased Transparency
  • Better customer engagement
  • Highly Automated Billing and invoicing management solutions
  • Bill across the globe and stay tax compliant
  • Highly secured and reliable
Meet the needs of the outcome economy with the advanced subscription billing solution likes the one offered by SAP that allows you to plan, innovate, and adapt your business model with speed and agility. ­Market is constantly evolving and keeping yourself updated with the latest trend is the best way to remain in the race. Below are top 5 benefits that makes SAP subscription billing the perfect solution for the businesses and clearly describes why 2020 is going to the year for businesses that are using Subscription Billing-based model:

1. Deliver Exceptional and Accurate Results to your customers

Accuracy and perfection are two important aspects for which most of the customers look for while choosing to buy a service or a product. With SAP subscription billing, your business can increase customer satisfaction and retention by providing them with a reliable and automated order-to-cash process. Give your business the capability to deliver superior results to your valuable end customers by choosing SAP Subscription Billing option and integrating it in your current billing and invoicing system. Most businesses in 2020 have already integrated this in their current billing system and are significantly delivering better and accurate results along with great customer satisfaction.

2. Helps in creating new business model

Create a more advanced and precise business model with the help of SAP subscription billing that not only monetizes any combination of usage which could be one-time or a subscription-based consumption but also provides complete transparency for the customers to understand the entire flow. Subscription billing is all about offering the flexibly of getting a service or the product on subscription basis and pay for it accordingly. As the technology is growing and changing very fast, most of the customers are inclined towards taking the subscription for the required time instead of completely owning it and this is only going to increase in the coming years.

3. Streamline Sales and Billing

Faster delivery and more effective experience for your customers with SAP subscription Billing! It simplifies and harmonizes sales and payment processes in a way that entire flow turns out to be seamless and time saving. Automation and streamlining of the billing and invoicing process not only saves your customer’s time but also gives them the flexibility to understand the complete flow. Preciseness, accuracy and timely delivery are a few attributes every customer look for in the product or service they are buying. This desire of customer is rapidly enhancing with time. In coming years, it will become really important for any business to deeply analyze the requirement and move ahead with such a plan that is completely aligned with what the customers are looking for.

4. Rapid Innovations and Continuous Evolution

Change the way you deal with the billing and invoicing process in your organisation and start enhancing your business with one of the most efficient and fastest growing business models – ‘SAP Subscription-based Billing Model’. Get the privilege of delivering the right mix of subscriptions, charge based on the usage and periodic fees and enable product bundling and service bundling to create personalised offers for your customers. SAP Subscription billing allows your business to remain upgraded with the latest billing tools and tactics and always provide your customers with the most updated version of billing system. This not only retain your old customers for your business but also build trust for the new customers to come onboard and experience the best of billing and invoicing that you are going to offer to them in 2020 and in the coming years.

5. Simple yet effective order-to-cash cycles for consistent growth

Get the feasibility of creating and editing orders instantly as and when required with the right mix of subscription services and products. Also, you can easily automate order fulfilment processes throughout the different systems. Easily monitor all the order arrangements, right from initial stage to activation of the subscriptions. Customers have become too smart and are continually evolving with every passing year. 2020 will be mostly based on a mantra from customers – ‘The simpler the better’ They will be looking for simple yet very effective systems to deal with their billing requirements. And, this is the reason a lot of emphasis is being put on SAP Subscription Billing system. This is the complete package for modern day billing and will surely be the best choice to deliver complete customer satisfaction efficiently.

Agile billing system – An added advantage to Enhance customer experiences

SAP Subscription billing is an agile billing system that gives an added advantage of improving the overall experience of your customers. We cannot ignore the fact that the billing solution of any business is highly responsible to provide a rich opportunity in delivering positive customer experience and gather valuable insight. According to a new Forrester study, billing and revenue management solutions are basic requirement to project digital transformation and superior customer experience. In its report “Transform Your Business To Deliver Superior Customer Outcomes With An Agile Billing Solution, an October 2018 commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP,” Forrester has clearly explained how most of the organizations are planning to move away from highly customized, on-premise billing systems to modern SaaS billing and revenue management platforms. This study provides invaluable insight into:
  • Why the market is tipping towards Subscription billing solutions
  • How Subscription billing solutions help you build better customer connections and deliver superior outcomes.
  • Why billing needs to be a part of your overall customer experience strategy

Why Choose Acuiti Labs for SAP Subscription Billing?

Acuiti Labs is a UK based organization which is also an SAP Silver partner. SAP subscription billing solution is one among many SAP solutions that are offered here. The SAP Subscription Billing solution offered at Acuiti Labs is flexible and can meet changing business needs with speed, and agility. No matter how big or small your business is, Acuiti Labs can provide complete billing solution based on your requirement. The solution offered here are personalized for each individual user, enabling companies to successfully build, maintain and promote customer loyalty. Contact us to learn more about one of the most scalable solutions for a subscription-based business model that can easily be integrated with other Cloud solutions such as SAP Sales Cloud. Acuiti Labs can also help your business by providing other sap solutions like SAP BRIM, SAP Sales Cloud, SAP Commissions and more. Explore the website to have proper understanding about the services and solutions offered here.

Business Benefits of using Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) Software

Contract activity is an essential business aspect that requires proper management during the complete cycle. SAP Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) service is a practical and systematic way to manage the entire contract lifecycle right from initial stage, through award, agreement and renewal (if required). A few advantages of using CLM for your business includes simplifying sourcing and procurement processes, accelerate compliance with negotiated terms, and enhance competitive advantage.
Below listed are a few reasons why businesses find it difficult to manage contracts –

  • Contracts management take significant time to copy, file and store which businesses fail to give and thus the process becomes difficult for them.
  • There’s no streamlined process to keep a track of price and payments which creates revenue loopholes.
  • Lot of time consumption in approval process from various ends can put a wrong impression on the customers and can also make you less valuable in their eyes
  • If working without a proper CLM software, split management can result in incorrect and incomplete information or even overlook policy compliance

Choosing SAP CLM can be very helpful in overcoming all the problems that you might face and can also be helpful in improving cost savings and efficiency of your business. Having proper understanding and automating CLM minimises organisational liability and increases compliance with legal requirements.

Benefits of Using CLM (contract lifecycle management) for your business

Here are certain ways through which you can understand the use of automation software and how it can benefit your business with contract lifecycle management (CLM):

1. Standardized and managed process right from start to end

You need to first properly understand how the complete process of customer lifecycle management works. We can take an example of following steps that a CLM could involve:

  • The first step is ‘generating a quote’ with the help of CRM (Customer Relationship Management system) that you might be using.
  • Next, you will be sending over an e-sign document to bind the contract.
  • Further, you might have to carry out the operation of making the sale and supplying the product
  • Once all this is done, you will store your contract in a database
  • And at the last, you will book the contract using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and keep track of your contracts from there.

CLM, instead streamlines all contracts based on the business’s operations thus helping you in managing multiple applications like separate CRM and ERP software from the same place. By doing this, you will be able to manage all steps of all contracts in one single program, where the collaborating with your partner or client becomes faster and you can also easily manage and track different tasks.

CLM minimises your chances of missing any deadlines and also provides access to required information from any part of the process just with a few clicks.

2. Minimises the requirement and dependency of manual tasks

Contract Lifecycle management is the new generation, smart software with the capability to deal with contract’s front end and back end experience without any requirement of creating custom code. The standard businesses today use a dedicated CRM software for customer relations, and an ERP software for doing the booking. However, they carry out the steps in between manually.

CLM is the best solution to automate the complete manual process and streamline it in the following ways:

  • An auto-generated contract sent to the customer to sign based on the quote that has been selected
  • Approval and renewal notifications are sent to the appropriate people and applications in charge of moving the contract along once the task is complete
  • Contract is automatically updated and stored in the database once it has been signed by the customer.

When you choose to use CLM, you make sure that you are not missing any important steps in your contract’s lifecycle with the freedom of running through the complete sales process without worrying about completing and focusing on manual tasks.

3. Automate everything between and after first and last step of the contract

The above two steps clearly signify how CLM can imitate the contract procedure and manage it smartly for you. Though, these steps are covering up the entire process of managing a contract, there are many businesses that need to be smart enough while taking care of a few little details that they might come across before and after the first and the last step of the contract.

This can be better explained with the help of an example in which, when you are sending a quote to you customer, then first you will have to go through your business’s pricing module to understand it and find out in which category your customer’s profile fits perfectly. You will also look for the discounts that your customer might be eligible for. Similarly, while finishing up the contract, there are some formalities that you might need to finish.

Once you choose CLM software for this, it will automatically take care of the all the details that require attention right before you start the contract and after the deal is done. Irrespective of what platform these details function in, CLM software can easily access them from anywhere. For example, if after the booking is done and contract is signed and now you need to activate a special benefit plan, CLM does it for you automatically.

4. Streamlined Process of Personalizing Contracts

When it is about details, we have to understand that contracts are the strong connection that two parties share with each other and it should be feasible enough for both the parties to remain updated and navigate through it. A streamlined process to personalize contracts assure that the both you and your customer have accurate and up-to-date info and neither you nor your customer is wasting time during negotiations.

Once you start using CLM, it takes all the responsibility of creating and managing numerous drafts of your contract. It accesses and edit the necessary information whenever you need. Contract Lifecycle management software along with easy tracking options also offers advantages like:

Transparency : When using CLM, you don’t have to worry about where and by whom the contract has been drafted. The details of the contract will always remain easy to track so there is no pressure on manager of going back and forth to manage the contract.

Effectiveness : Using CLM increases the efficiency as you and your customer will get alert notification about the latest drafts that are being used so that both the parties are not wasting time on the incorrect draft.

Accuracy : Stay more accurate as any manual or automatic change is always is being tracked, documented and automatically stored along with all the previous version.

5. Measure and stay updated about the Success of your contract

SAP CLM that you can use for the Contract Lifecycle management of your business comes with an analytics tool which will help you in having a 360-degree view of your success. It is very important to keep a track of how your contract is moving and how is the progress and this can be easily done with the help of SAP CLM Software. Here are a few ways how CLM software with the help of already installed analytical tool can help you in managing and tracking the whole process of contract signing or renewing:

  • The software can easily find out steps in the process that are taking too long for the approval and get them wrapped up quickly.
  • You can also check for step that require permanent changes in a pricing model.
  • You can also remain updated about any change that customer might want to make in the e-sign document that needs your attention.

The CLM software keeps you ahead in the race so that there is no delay from your end when it comes to signing the agreements of making very important changes in contract’s lifecycle early on. This makes it easy to verify whether or not that particular contract is helping your business to reach the planned goal. By this it will be easy for you to determine if there is any serious change that you have to make in the process or even you have to continue working on the project. This is very helpful at the time when your business is dealing with a large number of complicated contracts.

Reasons to Implement Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) Software for your Business

1. Saves money and Time : When you choose good CLM, there are less chances that your business will have to deal with issues like penalties for non-compliance, missing important opportunities from special terms and rebates, missed payments or other payment errors, incurring fees and other penalties. This all is handled in the right manner because of good contract administration thus saving a lot of money and valuable time for you. CLM helps in simplifying processes in the contract administration and thus saves a lot of time and cost.

2. Prevent any legal process from contract non-compliance : There are many contracts that deal with a major of compliance. If contractual commitments remain incomplete, the potential for a legal action can be higher. A good CLM software prevents you from any such situation.

3. Deliver best to your customers : Being a business, what else would you need than fulfilling and exceeding your customer demands and expectations. This is only possible through a planned contract performance that can enhance any organization’s value and lead to better customer relationship.

4. Justifies the difference between the functionalities of contract managers contract administrators : The Contract managers and contracts administrators are different and are assigned to do different tasks. CLM software helps in letting them do their tasks the best, thus saving time and it also avoids any confusion that might occur.

How Acuiti Labs can help?

From contract drafting, it’s management, to its completion, SAP CLM software that we provide at Acuiti Labs is capable of supporting businesses to simplify their entire process of Contract Lifecycle. So, choose SAP CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) for your business today and see how it plays an important role in closing deals faster and growing your business. Contact us for more details about CLM and Acuiti Labs.

Why is digital transformation so important for business growth?

To fully appreciate digital transformation and why is it important for your business today, you need to understand how it is influencing & transforming your industry! Whether it’s about engaging with your customers smartly or innovating the workforce with new opportunities, digital transformation is being considered the best investment, for long-term business value.
As per recent studies – worldwide spending on the technologies and services that empower digital transformation will cross $2 trillion by the year 2022, with companies allocating 10% of their total revenue to enhance their digital strategies. This clearly signifies that digital transformation is becoming a fundamental aspect in growing a business. It is estimated that this year, hardware and services will account for more than 75% of all digital transformation spend.
Irrespective of what a company’s vision for future is, digital transformation has become an integral part of all the growing businesses today. An effective strategy can create new competencies by take advantage of existing and upcoming opportunities in latest technologies and also speed up the entire process.

What is Digital Transformation?
Integrating digital technology in all the areas of your business to mostly change the way you deal with your customers in terms of delivery, operations, experience, business models etc. is what digital transformation is all about. It helps you in finding new ways to deliver desired outcomes, generate revenue and increase the efficiency by using innovative and advanced technologies.

In what ways it can help you in growing your business? –

Learn how you can digitally transform your business models, processes, and the way your company deal with digital economy.
1. Innovative business models – Whether big or small, working on innovative business model and digitally transforming it should be a priority for every business owner.
2. New ways of working – With digital transformation you get a lot to explore and a lot to learn, as it offers several new methods and technologies on which you can directly work and experience the difference.
3. Redesign business processes – The latest digital processes improve customers experience, offerings and increases productivity by working on real-time and predictive insights.

Why is it important for any business to opt for digital transformation?
It is perfectly said by Myles Leach – “The digitalisation of business processes has proven to bring competitive advantage to the organisations who exploit them. Significant productivity gains arise when users can seamlessly communicate with colleagues, customers and business partners anytime, via multiple channels, from anywhere in the world. What was once considered futuristic thinking is part of the mainstream today”
Digitally transforming your company can help your business in moving at a faster pace and can take you towards total transformation of your business. With this you can reach and gain customers from all horizons.

A few reasons why to opt digital transformation –

1. Security for your business –

Being a business owner, it must be a real task for you to manage and secure all data. This is not only complicated, but also requires severe enforcement around access, data compliance and protection from cyber-attacks. Sometimes, even the strictest security measures turn out to be useless if a disappointing network forces you to leave for flexibility or faster speeds and choose some other place. Let your business be adaptive towards the digital transformative approach and you can easily achieve the business goals to keep your data secured.

2. Increases employee’s participation and makes them more effective –

Choosing Digital transformation functionalities can provide a valued opportunity for core business roles, like in finance and HR departments. You can now drop working on manual processes and automate key areas like payroll and focus wider business opportunities.

3. Reinforce business partnerships –

Digital transformation is one of the easiest ways to create and strengthen business relationships. As the demand from customer side is increasing, the competition among the industries has also increased. This has led companies to work in collaboration with suppliers and distributors, sub-contractors and specialised consultants, so that the productivity can be increased, and the demands and interest of the customers can be fulfilled. Digital transformation is very important to manage these partners which otherwise could be exhausting. The early you opt for a digital process for your company, the easy it would to handle the entire process.

Essentials of a successful Digital Transformation –

1. Be ready to accept new technologies –

If you think in practical terms, you might have to face technological concerns in digital transformation if your team is not updated with the latest technologies.

2. Be open to experiment and expand –

While you carry out several operations, you will have several new doors opening to digitally transform your business. You should always be ready to grab any opportunity to experiment and expand your business.

3. Lead smartly –

A vision being executed under strong leadership will surely bring success for any organisation.

4. Strategies wisely before you choose technology –

After leadership, another important aspect is to put the best strategy in place and execute it through digital transformation. Based on a survey done in 2017 on digital transformation by Constellation Research, 64% of respondents agreed to the fact that great a digital transformation strategy is essential to bring in profits for the organization. Going with the idea that only by using latest technology would be enough to achieve the business goal for your organisation is clearly not going to work. For this your company need to have a well-planned strategy carried out by strong team. This will let you make the most out of this digital era by changing the way you deal with big and small challenges in the industry and allow you to think differently to bring out digital transformation into action. While you have already chose to go on the path of digital transformation, you have to be ready for a few minor challenges including increased cost which is not going to be as high as you are thinking and will be worth each penny. With digital transformation you can fundamentally change the way your organisation work, and get things done more precisely and accurately!

9 Aspects through which ‘Quote to Cash’ can turn the business game for you!

If you think about the most important business processes today, ‘Quote-to-Cash’ is certainly at the top because it is through the quote to cash process only that you can make driving revenue for your organization easy. You would never want to miss your potential customers by leaving any minor faults in the sales process as being a business, converting a prospect into a satisfied and happy customer is what really matters and this is followed by strong partnership and ongoing trust between you and your customers, right from sales to service. Understand the quote to cash flow –

Here are the 9 aspects that can change the way you look at the business –

1. Pricing:

Pricing in ‘Quote-to-cash’ terminology, is understood as a set of rules that decides the most appropriate and suitable price of a deal. Not only the price, but this also includes deciding the right incentives to attract the customers. In today’s time, you cannot just limit to only deciding the correct price, but to drive revenue and win customers, you also have to identify the appropriate discounts, promotions and incentives. Once you understand that what pricing and promotion strategy is working right for your business, you can apply the same strategy for the future deals to win customers and maximise deal size.

2. Configuration:

When you create the most appropriate combination of products and services, it is termed as configuration. Already with the increased product and deal complexity, it has become very difficult to identify the right combination of products and services to recommend to the customers in order to win deals. Automatically provide recommendations of best configuration to your sales reps to ensure that all your sales reps are now configuration experts – and can crack the best deals!

3. Quoting:

Once done with configuration and pricing, next comes Quoting. Based on the pricing and configuration, a quote is generated and approved which is further sent to the end customer. Quote is the first impression that you share with your customers and is considered as one of the most important stages of your sales cycle. Winning or losing a customer depends on the way you are presenting the quote. Presenting a precise, simple yet quick quote increases your chance to win a deal, while delayed, riddled and complicated quotes often end up losing your customers. So, its very important that the quote you present is error-free and is presented in no time. This creates great impression on your customers and increases your chance to have them onboard.

4. Contract Creation and Negotiation:

Without an agreement on the right set of terms and conditions, no deal can be closed. To avoid any situation that might impact your revenue streams, you have to be very careful about the agreement. These agreements usually come with hidden risks and thus to protect your business you should have even the minute details of the agreement. To ensure the security, you need to have experts who are well aware of the built-in clauses like renewal clause or termination clause during the time when contract is created. After this comes contract negotiation where the terms and conditions can be redefined and altered based on the negotiations. As the agreement document undergoes through multiple iterations, it becomes difficult to keep a track the on-going changes.

5. Executing the Contract

The deal is considered final after it is approved and signed. It is recommended to enable an e-signing tool which is very helpful in reducing the time spent in finalising contracts. This tool also can also be a guideline for any existing roadblocks and parties that have yet to sign.

6. Order Accomplishment:

This process includes the complete order cycle; starting from receiving the order, its processing to the successful delivery. After the deal is done and the contract has been signed, the processing starts, and it’s taken into priority that the products are delivered on time and to the appropriate customers. The advantage of having a Quote to cash solution ensures that the end customer is has agreed on the quotes, pricing and other terms and conditions.

7. Billing and Invoicing:

Accurate billing is done where calculations of final charges is done, and a copy of invoice is sent to the customer. The otherwise critical billing process is made easy with the help of integrated Quote-to-Cash process. The ‘Quote-to-cash’ solutions ensure that the exact quotation and contract details are provided to the finance team so that the customer gets accurate billing.

8. Revenue Recognition:

Revenue recognition helps in understanding that the cash from the customer’s end has been received. Here, you cannot afford to go wrong and thus the correct details of the contracting terms like quotes, pricing, payment modes, net payment terms and delivery calendars etc. is passed on to your finance team. ‘Quote-to-cash’ solution is the best way to recognise the revenue correctly.

9. Renewal:

While the revenue recognition is done, your next focus should be on the renewals. This helps in managing customers retention and also the recurring income. If it is the SaaS model, its sure that a huge percentage of revenue is derived in the form of repeated, already existing and subscribed customers. Quote-to-cash is the most important part of your business and will also help you in getting advances in big data and machine learning so that the sales reps are happy, and you can deliver more intelligent sales!

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