Streamlining revenue management: Key to success in 2024

With the economic outlook a little less bleak than it was 12 months ago, now is an opportune time to optimise your revenue management processes.

Feeling cautiously optimistic about what 2024 may have in store for your enterprise? For many Australian business leaders, the answer to that question is a cautious, 'yes, perhaps'. Because while it's fair to say economic conditions are far from favourable – interest rates have risen, and so have costs and wages – the manifold uncertainties of a year ago have diminished to a degree.

Wind the clock back to December 2022, and unknowns abounded. Even businesses with abundant cash at hand had moved into defence mode, freezing or reducing their headcounts and holding off on their investment in new infrastructure and systems in anticipation of the recession that was thought to be imminent.

All signs suggest there'll be a little less battening down of the hatches in 2024. While few businesses will be looking to drop mega-bucks on oversized transformation initiatives – those days are gone and they ain't coming back – considered investment in areas where a genuine return can be had is likely to be the order of the day, for mid-sized and large enterprises with an eye to the future.

Room to improve

While it's historically been regarded as a decidedly non-glamorous area of operations, revenue management is likely to be one of those areas. Recent times have seen growing recognition of its importance from senior leaders across the enterprise. 

Being able to bill customers promptly and accurately for the products and services they acquire or access is obviously a must for every business. So is having the capacity to weed out anomalies and collect payments, track debts and pursue debtors simply and quickly.

But the benefits of adopting AI-powered automation technology that enables all these things to happen at scale go much further than the mere achievement of improved operational efficiency, fewer disputed invoices and healthier cash flow.

The way businesses and consumers seek to purchase and consume products and services is evolving, and suppliers need to be able to evolve in tandem. That means anticipating the changes and modifying products and pricing strategies accordingly. 

With the right revenue management technology in place, it's easy to do so. Purchasing and payment patterns can be interrogated and the resultant findings augmented with market research to create a comprehensive, contemporaneous picture of the customer landscape.

Tools to make the task easy

So, what does the right revenue management technology look like? And how can businesses ensure they achieve optimum outcomes from their investment in it?

For a growing number of Australian organisations, a cloud-based platform that offers full quote-to-cash lifecycle support for whatever monetisation model or models they wish to pursue is the answer to the first question.

Should you be seeking to transition from unit to usage basing price, for example, or want to offer your customers their choice, having this technology in place makes doing so a straightforward business.

Choose a platform that connects seamlessly with your CRM system and incorporates a sophisticated data analytics function, and you'll be able to monitor and manage your customer base and extract actionable insights that allow you to evolve and optimise your offering.

As to how it's best implemented, a phased approach can reduce risk and provide your finance team with the opportunity to optimise processes and redesign roles before new technology goes live. Streamlining your activities by simplifying or eliminating superfluous manual processes, rather than simply automating existing workflows, typically leads to increased efficiencies and lower costs.

Establishing a solid foundation for success

Investing in software that enables you to improve productivity and service your customers more effectively will help your business survive, thrive and scale in 2024. 

Implemented smartly, a cloud-based revenue management platform can do all these things. If profitable, sustainable growth is your goal for the next 12 months, it's foundation technology you can't afford not to add to your ICT stack.