Our latest Partner Insights features Neocol. Neocol advises the world’s most innovative B2B organizations on how to optimize their subscription management and billing processes to gain competitive advantage, promote cross-functional transparency, and provide a superior customer experience. We sat down with Jenn Meehan, SVP of Revenue Automation to get her thoughts on Quote-to-Revenue automation.
What industries are most of your clients in?
Our clients are typically in the technology industry and more specifically, subscription businesses. Neocol specializes in the complexities of subscription revenue models: the technology that is important to them, the metrics they need to be successful, and the people who keep it all running. Many of our employees come from other subscription companies and bring domain expertise to our projects.
How does revenue complexity play a role in your assessment/consultative approach for Lead-to-Revenue strategies?
Some companies have really complex revenue rules. Other companies have very little complexity. There are solutions for all of them and everything in between – including the little guy who doesn’t have complex revenue recognition today but knows that things will become more complex because of their growth strategy and future needs. This example is my favorite because they don’t know what they don’t know and we get to help guide them through what to expect and how to prepare at every stage of the journey.
From a technology perspective, I don’t think companies should be spending their time drowning in spreadsheets to get the revenue numbers at the end of the month. These are incredibly important financial numbers, whether the company is private or public, and the level of risk in having these processes executed manually every month is staggering. Manual processes significantly increase the risk of costly restatements for public companies. Think back to the little guy who doesn’t have complex revenue recognition today; they probably have a single, burnt-out accountant running all sides of the accounting process (hello, segregation of duties?). As a leader, there should be fear in having a single point of failure. The company likely has investors to report to, whether private or public, and need to have visibility into VERY important financials to make informed decisions and maintain confidence in the health of the company. Manual processes limit visibility and increase the risk of error for crucial revenue calculations.
To give another example, not every company has a need to solve for SSP (Standalone Selling Price) allocations or contract modifications today, but their future considerations greatly impact the solution stack we recommend and implement for our customers.
How do you see RightRev as part of the solution for those looking to advance their Lead-to-Revenue processes?
RightRev has been an absolute game changer for those in the Salesforce ecosystem and beyond. When ASC 606 was introduced it turned every accountant’s world upside down. The billing solutions that solved for ASC 605 weren’t compliant with ASC 606, so those solutions either chose not to solve for ASC 606 or they acquired a standalone revenue recognition solution and spent years trying to integrate entirely different technologies. The customers with these billing systems that used to handle all of their revenue recognition systematically are now throwing their hands in the air because they’re right back to the manual processes that drove them nuts. We saw progress regress due to lack of strategic and compliant solutions being implemented from the beginning.
In addition, you’re dealing with new complexities because of the guidance change, having to re-write your accounting memos, and figuring out how to operationally solve for the increased complexity (read: Excel). When RightRev came along, it was purpose-built for Salesforce, so it doesn’t require any type of integration magic or Excel gymnastics; it just WORKS. However, every customer is different in how they both interpret ASC 606 and how their contracts are structured, so the way they execute the accounting standards will also be nuanced. Legacy applications required heavy customization to account for these nuances, which compounds over time to lots of hard coding and a large undertaking for the implementation. Using the power of the Salesforce platform, the technology doesn’t need to change – customizations don’t need to be created; it provides configurations and flexibility right where our clients need it: in their revenue operations.
If someone is looking to optimize their Lead-to-Revenue processes, where should they begin?
It has to begin with a clean upstream and clean data. Neocol performs a CPQ health check prior to a full implementation. Some clients understand their upstream technologies need to be revamped, while some don’t realize it. We help them look under the hood and rewire inefficient practices or things that will cause downstream pain.
Next: we take a look at where your billing happens. Is that still happening in spreadsheets? If so, you already know what I’m going to say: derisk the obvious. The amount of revenue leakage and poor customer experience due to manual or disjointed billing process is avoidable with the right tools.
Now that those crucial pieces are in a good spot, we examine what you need for revenue automation. It’s not a matter of if but what. The great thing about RightRev is that even if you don’t have big, tech-level complexities, the data you get out of RightRev can help influence business decisions and drive better business behavior because it’s tying all of your customer journey together – from your customer acquisition data down to the revenue recognized and reported. As things change along that customer’s journey with you, those metrics are available as well. So rather than burning all of your resources time just trying to GET to the numbers, you’re empowering them to use their time analyzing that systematized data and being a partner to the business to drive growth for the business and show value to the shareholders. It truly creates a shift to better collaboration across different functions and that’s a frictionless experience that the end customer can both feel and benefit from.
Watch our latest webinar with Neocol.
To learn more about Neocol, visit www.neocol.com
To see a demo of RightRev’s revenue recognition capabilities, schedule a demo today.
