2 min read

Embracing Industry 4.0 in Billing

Picture of Marc Wullings Marc Wullings : Nov 17, 2021 9:45:00 AM

Billing automation IoT Billing data Subscription Billing pay-per-use billing Agile Billing

The Accelerated Pace Of IoT Adaption

As a central part of Industry 4.0, digitalization has been supercharged with the usage of IoT. Studies show that manufacturing companies see favorable use cases for IoT and are planning to increase IoT in their processes.

Smart Factory or optimization, supply chain, and customer service are the most mentioned areas where investments are made. In this blog, we talk about putting all this sensor data into use, from a billing perspective.

Putting IoT In Practice

The technical potential of IoT and the data stream it delivers are often well recognized. Especially in supply chain and factory optimization, or otherwise internal processes, technical feasibility followed by a pilot is often enough to take solutions into production.

However, in customer-related applications, like predictive maintenance, XaaS, or servitization, pay-per-use companies often experience the harsh reality that the processing of the data is preventing them from going into production. And often it is the limitation of the ERP or more specifically the B2B billing capacity, that is the functional bottleneck.

Solving The Service Bottle Neck

As with any communication, more data means more dialogue. From a service perspective, this means that customers demand more service transparency when they are aware that their usage is monitored.

More flexibility or better usage optimization will lead to better customer satisfaction. But the moment of truth will always be in the invoice: usage data should lead to user transparency and cost efficiencies. Can you provide this information to the client? Attach it to or reference it in the invoice?

Optimizing Your Core Systems For Iot Processes

The core systems are not considered in the IoT transformation process very often. As a result, the optimization in Industry 4.0 leads to a very traditional workaround in the core systems of the company. Like manual steps to incorporate the data in billing. Handling the internal cost and revenue sharing of the new service in a good old spreadsheet.

Thinking further ahead, some of the most promising developments of IoT-driven business models, pay-per-outcome looks daunting to implement if the core systems are not considered.

Make It Work From The Start

Organizations that adopt IoT in Industry 4.0, but struggle to scale should look into the ordering, delivering, and billing capacities of the organization.

In Industry 4.0, you need to cater to more complex offerings, deal with multiple partners and vendors in expanding ecosystems, and face dialogue with a more informed and more demanding customer. A strong backbone, in the form of an agile billing system, will bring the capacity needed to reap the benefits of IoT in full.

Take Us To The Test!

If you feel your billing needs will outgrow your current recurring revenue 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 the new world lies beyond just subscriptions.