Companies have been confronted with dramatic shifts in demand as Covid-19 has disrupted our lives and our markets. This disruption is felt in the service business, where demand shifts directly impact operations, with far-reaching consequences.
Either way, the key to a future-proof service business will be the ability to rapidly adapt to shifts in demand.
In this blog, I will explore why an agile billing system is vital in providing the flexibility and scalability needed to stay on top of your game.
We have all been trying to predict and looked for clues on how to provide desirable services and future services sustainably.
When it comes to monetization, your crystal ball should at least show billing data as a future component.
Businesses used to run straightforward billing in arrears. Now many modern service businesses have an open balance between services performed and services promised in the client relationship.
For example, monetization now increasingly often means billing for future services in advance, and a commitment to perform services already billed.
Such a model has its advantages, but it also complicates the client relationship from the billing transparency perspective. It also calls for special automation capabilities from the accounting perspective.
When you need more flexibility to freely design or re-bundle services to meet the clients’ needs, you also need agile systems.
An agile billing system can readily adapt to new business models. It allows you to instantly price, offer, and bill the new propositions brought to clients.
If there is one thing that we have learned this year, it is that change can come rapidly and drastically, and agility is the key to survive and thrive.
When businesses develop new service business models, it is also essential to take a good look at the service operations to guard profitability.
Can we manage the change and turn our business around? Can we seize new business opportunities? Is our current system agile enough to handle the changes in an automated fashion? Can we scale our services and handle new offerings quickly and flawlessly, and fully supported by our systems?
In an agile billing system, you can find a key instrument to quickly adjust when needed so that your client relationships and your business remain future-proof.
Perfect execution is essential in a service business. It is important to keep good track of your incoming and outgoing cash flows in light of the agreements made with your clients.
Again, an agile billing system can give you the reporting needed to predict future cash flows and service profitability. This is a compelling competitive advantage in a fast-changing environment.
A traditional system might be too rigid to provide the oversight needed and cater to the flexibility that makes your current and future offering successful.
This is why best-run service organizations opt for optimized agile billing systems: to foster quick change without having to do a major overhaul in their ERP environment.
An agile billing solution will always put your contracts in the spotlight.
Your service contracts and your pricing may need to be adjusted to reflect changing market situations. Therefore, your billing system needs to be flexible.
When your new proposition, a new subscription, new contract, or any change is managed in the billing system, it is described digitally. Executing on it is easy. It is automated. It is scalable.
Just think of the endless monetization possibilities you have if you can capture all your contracts in an agile system. Only then the promise of service can be truly fulfilled.
If you want to capture new service business opportunities and you feel your future billing needs will outgrow your current billing solution, or if you are just curious to learn how Good Sign does things differently, feel free to take us to the test!
We will gladly take on your challenge and prove to you it can be done, and that with an agile billing solution quick adaption to change will no longer be a headache for your business.
We help our customers solve existing pain points in monetizing service contracts and managing subscriptions and pay-per-use services. We help companies freely grow scalable services.
Feel free to contact us and let’s have a chat on how we can support your company.
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