Prepare To Replace Or Add SRM To Your Business Model
SAN FRANCISCO, April 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Subscriber Relationship Management is a solution system of quoting, order processing, subscription management, payment control and change management. The adoption of SRM requires the involvement of each business discipline to work correctly. Engaging all departments in a company is a task, but without their involvement, the investment is wasted.
So, why make the change at all? The SAAS economy is about creating a bi-directional commercial model. Companies are weighed by their abilities to be agile in pricing, bundling, service and responsiveness. A company that comes up wanting in any of these three categories will not retain subscribers well.
Agility is no simple task. A loose sales department using a new CPQ is making commitments service delivery and finance need to support. A service delivery group, who cannot communicate project/delivery processes and leaves the subscriber waiting, will leave a lasting negative impression. Finance sending out wrong invoices or mishandling payments lose subscriber confidence. In either instance, calls are coming into sales to cancel the deal.
Preparation for this new interconnected world of SRM means having internal resources, both technical and operational, who can envision business goals and test them during rollout. Almost all projects where project ownership is abdicated to contractors and temporary project managers end in gaps between business and IT.
A successful SRM solution depends on a company's identification, implementation and dedication to their challenges while getting universal buy-in on solving them.
Identification
- Where is money, time or both are being lost;
- Where are manual operations still in place and why; and
- Where are dependencies on one person's work or health affecting productivity or efficiency?
Identification is crucial because even though these subjects seem to deal with company-wide problems, they all lead back to subscriber retention problems.
Implementation
Know your sales, upgrades, downgrades, cancellations and trial period rules. In regards to pricing, expect to put new pricing model changes on hold for three months. Changing pricing models in the same uncontrolled fashion, while attempting to put some controls in place is a conflict to the project. Freeze pricing for a negotiated period of the project if you want a successful outcome. Test the catalog with ideas you may want to try later and use that as a requirement.
As always, be realistic about legacy data. You can't always keep what you want. Have expectations to reduce data migration and discuss a migration plan that works both for regulatory and business requirements. Focus on things the company can do with all the new data you will be collecting in addition to the existing data that needs retention.
Usage data, the gold of an SRM system, can deliver reports of over-usage, under-usage, high and low usage periods and sudden reductions. These are all triggers that should have the sales and customer satisfaction teams jumping.
Dedication
Implemented correctly, this will be the first time that finance, product management, sales and service delivery will be using a single solution for everything. Your company as a whole must be dedicated to learning your system so that it can be used to 100% of its capabilities. By simply putting the same wine in a new bottle you do a dis-service to your project. Embrace the new system by giving it the attention it deserves. Learn its features, functions and the goals it was built to serve, so that you can use it to its maximum potential. If users do not invest in their system and just try to repeat their old ways on a new screen, nothing has been solved.
As my first boss used to say: Patch your boat and stop bailing water because you will never get ahead being a fast bailer.
~ Adam Kleinberg, CEO of ChikPea, Inc.
ChikPea is the first SRM solution suite on the Salesforce platform. Adam had been a specialist in subscription service automation for 11 years when he and Bhaskar Roy founded ChikPea. Prior to ChikPea, Adam was a pre-sales engineer at Siebel systems, specializing in the finance vertical and a 10 year Sr. Project Manager for Bank of America.
Contact: Chris Nguyen
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.chikpea.com
SOURCE ChikPea, Inc.
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