Moving Past Quote-to-Cash in Order to Face Disruptive Change

Looking back over the past twenty years in the enterprise software space if I had to pick a key theme that had the most mindshare, among CIOs, CFOs and CROs alike, it would clearly be the focus on Quote-to-Cash initiatives. Following the drive to update ERP systems, this Front Office revolution dominated the enterprise space over the past couple of decades with a relentless push to optimize the customer-facing experience. From QUOTE functionality geared to make it easier to get a sales order to payments technology simplifying the collection of CASH, the Quote-to-Cash mantra swept through companies in their drive to shorten the Time-to-Value curve.

But in an era of profound disruption of business models across industries the drive to optimize existing processes is not enough to maintain value and drive top-line growth. Savvy businesses that want to disrupt or self-disrupt (changing their model on their terms before others do it for them) are looking for a new paradigm that provides the ability to continually pivot their model and evolve as they gain data and insights into their customer’s needs, unlocking value in new and unique ways. At Gotransverse we’ve begun to talk to our customers about the Product-Price-Profit loop – a closed loop that allows you to quickly innovate and continually ride the wave of disruption into a profitable future.

Product

What is your product? This used to be a straightforward question. Take network media companies – they sold eyeballs to advertisers. Until they didn’t. Now they sell subscriptions, and on-demand and content placement and merchandising, and something new tomorrow and so on. “What is your product?” is now a multi-faceted question that evolves over time and you need to continually evaluate that as you move through a rapid product lifecycle from your old products, to new products and all the while focused on what comes next. It’s no longer something some smart folks in a room in New York or Los Angeles can agree on – nor even something a focus group can tell you. It has to be crowdsourced and able to evolve.

Price

There used to be one price. Then there were Premium tiers. Then no price. Then a monthly fee. Now you might charge someone only for what they use. Try ALL OF THE ABOVE. You need to be able to micro-segment your customers to maximize value. Some won’t pay a high monthly fee – but might pay something less if you can charge just for what they use. Others would love to pay the monthly fee but use 100% of your service and cost you too much – so you’d love to charge THEM for what they use. Maybe you want to charge a one-time fee for certain things, a base monthly fee for a class of service and then some usage fees for going beyond the tier of service. You need to be able to spin up and down these monetization models quickly.

Profit

Ultimately, we’re all in business to make money. You need to be able to take all of these product changes and price plan changes and flow them straight to the bottom line without an army of people doing revenue recognition machinations. Seamless Front Office to Back Office integration and detailed data to understand each of the changes and its impact on profitability are an absolute must. This is about detail in your general ledger – and about the capability to do analysis and apply AI to understand where you should invest next, closing the loop back to Products where the process starts again.

Gotransverse + Workday + Accenture

To drive to a future-focused on the Product-Price-Profit loop requires both discipline in strategy and a core set of technology to enable nimble business decisions. At the heart of that agility is our Advanced Monetization engine – the core of the Gotransverse platform. It delivers the ability to create almost any pricing model and do so rapidly at internet-scale volumes. But Price alone isn’t enough to ride the waves of disruption – so Gotransverse partners with companies like Accenture and Workday to deliver a Product-Price-Profit solution. Accenture delivers leadership in guiding businesses to understand how to re-evaluate their view of their product in relation to the real value customers are seeking. Workday offers leading capabilities in financial accounting and the analysis capability of Prism to close the loop on the billing and monetization data, feeding it back to your team to iterate on the next product you’ll deliver. Together we can change your world – before it changes you – and deliver a true Product-Price-Profit solution.

Mark Swanholm is the VP of Partnerships & Alliances at Gotransverse, a former management consultant and CIO as well as the maker of Texas only Vermouth. He works with Gotransverse's diverse group of global partners to find compelling solutions to our customers' most urgent problems.