Why Integrated Financial Automation is the Next Level in Service Management?

Service Businesses Deserve Financial Automation

Companies recognize the importance of service quality and the significance of the processes behind it. These are key elements from both the customer’s and from the internal point of view.

Also, it's essential to analyze costs, budget and set prices properly. Actually, a good pricing strategy complemented with ability to close deals using also customized pricing elements is an essential source of customer satisfaction.  

Service Management systems are here today to support the service processes. The Next level of Service Management is Integrated Financial Automation.

Today’s Service Management Systems Lack Key Financial Features

Service management tools are becoming service process “ERPs of today”. Proper management of service chains and service production are essential for any company providing services internally or externally.

However, service management tools still miss important financial aspects. There may be basic pricing and cost allocation functionality available, but modern service companies need more: integrated financial automation. 

Let us see what the benefits for integrated financial automation would be:

Limited Pricing or Rule-Based Pricing and Billing Automation?

How about being able to flexibly offer whatever price strategy needed to stay competitive? And customize offers to win contracts? – Provide service variability without generating revenue leakage, billing errors and back-office inefficiency?

How about ability to price services dynamically:

• Product management being able to create pre-configured packaged (pay-per-suited-content)
• Sales being able to configure packages dynamically (pay-per-desired-content)
• Capability to offer pricing based on metered usage and usage rating (pay-per-use)
• Capability to offer pricing based on the perceived or received value customer receives (value-based-pricing or pay-per-outcome)

Always sell with the right price – not forgetting part of production costs – and taking the customer value into account? And carry out the right price in services billing?

The answer is intelligent and flexible rule-based pricing and billing automation integrated with service management and ERP systems.  

Reporting Costs Afterwards or Ability to Manage Costs Real-time?

How about ability to allocate costs and transfer prices automatically:

• Tracking the cost of a service to an individual service element level without extra work?
• Being able to budget, based on history and future expectations?
• Ability to automatically allocate both internal and external costs to a service based on allocation rules.
• Calculating and posting service cost allocations and chargeback bookings in real time automatically instead of reporting costs ex-post?

The answer is intelligent and flexible rule-based cost allocation, transfer pricing and charging automation – integrated with service management and ERP systems. 

Benefits of Integrating Finance to Service Management Are Clear

The benefits of integrating finance to service management are clear:

• Stops revenue leakage
• Assures using the right agreed price to each service and service volume to each customer
• Eliminates manual work in collecting and consolidating billing data
• Removes manual cost allocations
• Replaces manual transfer cost postings with automated real-time postings
• Enables automated transactions and clearings also with partners

Systems shall not form islands. For companies seeking efficiency and quality the only way is to have an integrated process – from service requests and continuous services – to billing.

In fact,

plain service management is like a production system or a warehouse management system without a link to financials!

Enter the World of Flexible Rule-Based Financial Automation. Say Hello to Financial Transparency.

At Good Sign we enable modern services and recurring revenue monetization. This means flexible pricing, automated rating, charging and billing.

At Good Sign we streamline our customers financial processes. This means removing manual work and using integrated rule-based automation instead. Say goodbye to excel-spreadsheets and post-it-notes. Say hello to financial transparency.

See our case stories – for example how Fujitsu reached a new level of billing and accounting: