Guest opinion by Nathan Shinn
Monetisation and financial management processes have evolved significantly in recent years to meet the needs of the changing business and customer landscape.
In today’s economic climate, cloud-based billing and monetisation systems are becoming increasingly important for businesses across the globe. It is these systems which provide firms with the power to automate billing and payments, track and manage revenue and govern subscriptions and usage whilst keeping customers satisfied.
However, despite producing a long list of benefits and being predominantly effective, implementing such systems can require substantial investment. This means that businesses must carefully plan and budget for these large expenses if they want to keep up with customer needs and the economy to ensure long term success. In order to stay ahead of competition and ensure that customer needs are met, a number of measures must be taken.
Careful planning
One crucial step for staying on top of cloud-based processes is creating a comprehensive and efficient budget plan that serves to improve financial processes, drive customer value and increase revenue.
To create a budget plan that meets these requirements, it is vital that firms take into account the bigger picture and create a monetisation initiative that not only supports the businesses’ goals and strategic objectives, but produces a good end result that leaves everybody satisfied.
Failure to produce a robust and cohesive plan can result in a number of dangerous consequences for the firm, including financial and operational challenges.
A lack of project management when creating a comprehensive budget plan for cloud-based billing and monetisation systems can lead to a variety of consequences, such as security risks
For example, if businesses do not accurately calculate the costs associated when implementing a cloud-based billing and monetisation system, it is extremely likely that they can experience cost overruns which negatively impact the firm’s finances, and thus produce strain on cash flow. This hinders the company’s ability to expand and invest in other vital departments of the business.
If businesses are going to create plans for process transformation, taking into account both short and long-term objectives, strategic implementation goals and overall strategies are imperative. This is to ensure that the system in question remains effective, efficient and scalable for long-term success and growth for the business.
Depending on the diversity of a businesses’ revenue streams, industry sector and growth aspirations, firms will need to budget for different expenses for either expanding or upgrading cloud-based billing systems.
Assessing key areas
Another key area to consider when developing and producing a budget is resource and personnel planning. Cloud-based systems typically require internal resources to configure and customise the system, monitor and optimise usage and manage accounts, data and users. Effective resource planning ensures that the essential resources are available when needed which in turn minimises waste and significantly reduces overall costs.
If companies want to continue to stay ahead and expand their customer base, they must adhere to a robust budget plan, which factors in the firm’s goals and needs and has thorough project management
Personnel management is also critical in ensuring that the project is created on time and fits reasonably within the firm’s budget. This is to minimise the risk of delays due to personnel unavailability and further guarantees that the right people are assigned to the correct tasks.
The planning of both resources and personnel must be factored when optimising the project budget as in some cases, labour costs can rapidly add up and derail projects, thus hindering chances of success.
Eliminating errors
There are four mistakes which can be taken into account and avoided when it comes to creating a budget plan: a lack of project management, not prioritising the project for every department, not understanding linking technology and failure to consider the implications of building vs buying a solution.
A lack of project management when creating a comprehensive budget plan for cloud-based billing and monetisation systems can lead to a variety of consequences, such as security risks. A plan which has been created without assessment of potential threats and no security measures in place can not only lead to security breaches and data loss, but increased chance of project failure due to inadequate planning. As a result, this can harm the firm’s reputation and erode customer trust.
Failure to prioritise the project for every department may lead to a lack of consensus and inefficient resource allocation. Some departments may not receive the necessary resources they need to complete their respective tasks, which then leads to delays and increased costs. Costs may heighten should firms also neglect the implications of building vs buying a solution, as building a solution requires more resources. Overall, this can result in conflicts and disagreements over project goals, scope and budget which can disrupt the progress of creating the budget plan and its overall success.
In short, assessing and factoring all key areas and planning through careful project management is critical in ensuring that a cloud-based billing and monetisation systems plan is created within budget and is of quality.
If companies want to continue to stay ahead of competition and expand their customer base, they must adhere to a robust budget plan, which factors in the firm’s goals and needs and has thorough project management. Should firms do this, it is definite that they will stay on track with business objectives and provide the service that customers expect.
Nathan Shinn, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, BillingPlatform
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