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As the subscription model for many companies become a standard way of doing business, customer experience is a key aspect to keep in mind. In many ways, customer experience is about control for your customer to define the way how they consume your products and services. As a customer, you want to be able to extract the value of a subscription you pay for, on your terms. When you order your whiskey or wine as part of your box subscription, or when you are a patient needing recurring medication or therapy, customers want to be in control. Since the late 90’s, eCommerce has risen steadily to fulfil customer needs. I can login to my provider of services and indicate what I want to buy and when I want to buy it. In today’s subscription economy, eCommerce or B2B customer portals add to that customer experience. If you want to pause your subscription for a while due to an upcoming vacation, this is our expectation as a customer. As customer experience and control is key, how can subscription providers use technology to drive it for their own operational management? The solution lies in implementing a layer of business logic that has a single purpose: providing a great customer experience and ensuring loyalty and appreciation of your products and services provided through a subscription model. In this subscription insight Bluefort will illustrate what subscription providers can achieve by building a real-world roadmap to get the customer onboard and reduce churn. Customer obsession and the world of business application and technology. As a subscription provider, the journey start with mapping out how you want to engage with your customers and then build an operation and data analytics model around it. A roadmap starts with a strong definition of your subscriptions. Subscription providers need to clearly state what their offering will provide to customers. It is all about the customer value. Place yourself in your customer’s shoes: Define your subscription products, licenses sand services that are easy to understand; Build your understanding of their expectations and offer it to them. It might seem like two simple steps, but do you really understand your customers, and can you align their needs to a back-end operational business process to serve them? It doesn’t matter if you are a B2B or B2C subscription outfit, or if you sell software, products, or services. Your business is about delivering a recurring offer for the long term, ensuring your customer loves your offering: Managing your subscription master data Being able to define your subscription offering into clear and understandable master data is crucial. As a subscription provider you must be able to define the following data elements: Definition of a subscription product - to define a product means to setup a clear identification of the subscription product. It requires a name, description, variants, and a definition how the subscription is consumed or bundled. See an example below: Clear pricing model reflecting the value of the subscription product - customers need to understand your subscription pricing and the value they will receive in return. Being transparent is key. Customers must be able to calculate and understand pricing easily, unless your model is more intricate. Try tiered models, like Gold, Silver and Bronze plans with attached pricing and entitlements. Provide choice to your customers. When your sales team offers a price or when customer review pricing online, simplicity is key. Terms and conditions of the subscription product - subscription are about defining the value the customer will receive, often called entitlements and when they can consume these entitlements. Definition terms and conditions is important. Can your customer with an annual subscription cancel on month 6? What if they upgrade to a new plan or offering? What happens to the payment and the changes to the subscription model? All possible real-life situation should be captured as terms and conditions and made crystal-clear during the signup process. Financial and compliance aspects - once the above are all defined, the financial ramifications and compliance aspects must be assessed. Can we deal with the right financial postings? Are we compliant with IFRS 15 or ASC 606? Once subscriptions are rolling with financials postings, VAT and Sales Tax, revenue recognition must also be defined and automated. Operational and supply terms and conditions - once finance and sales are set, we need to deliver our performance obligations. This operational aspect is critical for the customer experience. Your ability as a subscription provider to slam-dunk services delivery, ship your product or provide licenses must connect to the customer experience at the moment of signup. Failure to do so leads to increased churn and decreases customer satisfaction. How can you as a subscription provider create a great customer experience? The roadmap to delight your customer is not as difficult as it seems. Start with a fully automated subscription-based business application. As Bluefort we ship a fully fledged Microsoft Dynamics 365 based solution called LISA (License and Subscription Application). It brings together your financial processes and your subscription automation. The LISA business application combines all the business administration aspects for a subscription provider together. It is a modern system of records application for subscription management. Capture your subscription agreement with ease. We connect to modern sales application, like Salesforce CPQ or Dynamics 365 Sales for B2B subscription sales. If you have partners selling your subscriptions, build great portals for them using Microsoft Power Portals. When you give full control to your customer, use eCommerce applications such as Magento or Sana Commerce. You can also utilise the full potential of Dynamics 365 and deploy its Commerce platform and use Site Builder to provide next generation customer engagement. Connect your B2C eCommerce site, your partner portal, app, or CRM application with LISA and let subscriptions flow into your back-end automatically. Using the power of customer experiences with these applications and technologies, will set you apart from your competitors. At Bluefort, we can integrate your subscription automation with your front-end experience with pre-built integration protocols and using Microsoft Power Automate to inform your customer about any new or changed updates to their subscriptions. Capture any updates and notify your customer automatically via email or other communication manners: Reduce manual actions and reimagine the customer interaction! Ready to scale up your subscription business? Contact us and take the next step here to gain the competitive edge with a modern subscription management solution. 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Moving your business towards a recurring revenue model can be challenging when you consider your existing customer base as well as new customers you will entering into agreements with. If you’ve traditionally sold your products or services outright, it can be difficult to navigate the pitfalls of trading ownership for experience. Managing various subscription types can be daunting: How do we transition our existing customers to a new subscription type? How do we manage various subscription types from a financial perspective without overburdening our finance team? How can we ensure accuracy? To navigate these complexities, we explore 3 key financial areas that can streamline the process between outright ownership and subscription success. There are so many subscription types to consider and you might have several that you need to manage: it could be based on per-unit or consumption. It could be software subscriptions or linked to a physical asset or product. It could include the provision of a service linked to mileage or hours used from equipment or facilities, provided by project resources or locations. It’s imperative that the underlying billing technology can support your subscription types. It also needs to provide the flexibility to handle a change in approach should you decide to adapt your subscription offerings over time as your business evolves. This is where many businesses get stuck. Typical recurring technologies can’t take “legacy” customers into account where the provision of goods or services on your existing customers aren’t aligned with your new offerings. For this reason, it’s important in your selection that existing customers’ perpetual agreements can be translated to a subscription type. A good example includes the historic purchase of software licenses. Many companies traditionally offered software as a once-off upfront purchase with a recurring annual fee. To streamline this process of transition, you need to align this annual fee with an end-date in order to transition your customer to your new offering (with the ability to pro-rate if you’re working with a fixed start date on the new agreement). The subscription technology should be able to support this alignment of your existing customer base to prevent errors and manual intervention which can hamper your revenue efforts. Billing periods is often a topic which causes many headaches. Depending on our offerings there could be a combination of calendar periods and rolling periods. Whilst calendar periods are generally easy to manage some per-unit subscription or consumption-based subscription types could require rolling periods. As the core concept of subscription models are rooted in the notion of “it never ends”, it can be really hard for businesses to transition their existing customers easily from an existing billing period (pro-rated) to a new billing period or billing period type based on the new agreement. In order to ramp-up your subscription business, adequately planning your subscription road map provides you with the blueprint you need to define key factors that will play a large role in your success as a subscription-based business. When you consider a technology road map for your subscription model, you need to focus on customer billing, the complexities of your subscription and the related financials with your business strategy in mind. Contact us here for a meaningful discussion about supportive technologies that drive subscription success. JTNDc3R5bGUlMjB0eXBlJTNEJTIydGV4dCUyRmNzcyUyMiUzRSUwQSUwOS5vdXRsb29rLTM2NS1pZnJhbWUlMjAlN0IlMEElMDklMDloZWlnaHQlM0ElMjAyMDAwcHglM0IlMEElMDklN0QlMEElMEElMDklNDBtZWRpYSUyMHNjcmVlbiUyMGFuZCUyMCUyOG1pbi13aWR0aCUzQTE1OTFweCUyOSUyMCU3QiUwQSUwOSUwOS5vdXRsb29rLTM2NS1pZnJhbWUlMjAlN0IlMEElMDklMDklMDloZWlnaHQlM0ElMjAxNTAwcHglM0IlMEElMDklMDklN0QlMEElMDklN0QlMEElM0MlMkZzdHlsZSUzRQ==[tabbed_section style="minimal_alt" alignment="center" spacing="default" tab_color="Accent-Color" cta_button_style="accent-color" icon_size="24"][tab icon_family="fontawesome" title="Contact Us" id="1618584569280-4" icon_fontawesome="fa fa-envelope-open-o" tab_id="1618584569286-10"][/tab][tab icon_family="fontawesome" title="Set Meeting" id="1618584569390-9" icon_fontawesome="fa fa-calendar" tab_id="1618584569392-5"]JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwY2xhc3MlM0QlMjJvdXRsb29rLTM2NS1pZnJhbWUlMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRm91dGxvb2sub2ZmaWNlMzY1LmNvbSUyRm93YSUyRmNhbGVuZGFyJTJGYmx1ZWZvcnQxJTQwYmx1ZWZvcnQuZXUlMkZib29raW5ncyUyRiUyMiUyMHdpZHRoJTNEJTIyMTAwJTI1JTIyJTIwc2Nyb2xsaW5nJTNEJTIyeWVzJTIyJTIwc3R5bGUlM0QlMjJib3JkZXIlM0EwJTIyJTNFJTNDJTJGaWZyYW1lJTNFClick the button below to open up my calendar and find the right date and time for us to have a chat.[/tab][/tabbed_section]

Many businesses that operate on a subscription model (like SaaS providers or companies providing business services on subscription or box subscription retailers), choose to allow partners to resell their offering. With many brands this is the normal operating mode, like in the Microsoft channel where most sales and customer services are partner-network driven. In a partner channel, resellers of a subscription from the provider get commissions and incentives to resell or bundle up the subscription with their own services to customers. If your business is using sales channels, such as resellers, brokers, partners, VARs, dealers, agents or consultancy firms, tracking of all sales of licenses and subscriptions against the channel becomes a critical business requirement, including the calculation of commission or royalties. If you’re needing to automate the process of selling trough a partner channel and capturing commission in a highly automated and efficient fashion, then read more about how Bluefort’s Licensing and Subscription App for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Commerce and Supply Chain management deals with this requirement. You can also download our Partner Guide here. If you’ve got partners, building your channel is a core activity for you. The driver for a healthy relationship between your business and your partner channel is to generate successful end-customer relations and revenue. That revenue will create subscription-based commissions for partners and will give you more market reach to end customers. However, maintaining a solid flow of events in the business administration of your business does have a myriad of activities to deal with. Let’s have a look at the flow of information. You sign-up new partners with a partner plans providing commission; Your partner drives a sales cycle for your license or subscriptions to an end-customer; Your partner closes a new deal and re-sells your licenses or subscription; Your partner upsells additional licenses and subscriptions; You change your license and subscription plans on renewal (indexing or price changes) and need to inform your partners and end-customers; Your partner has an end-customer that stops using the licenses or subscriptions. At first glance these activities look straightforward and manageable, and they are if you have a handful of partners. But if you engage with a partner channel across the globe, with different currencies and plans or agreements, your finance and administration team might have a very different view on matters!   The automation starts with the mapping of the partner journey as well as the end-customer journey into your own finance team’s journey to manage the transactional interaction. Let’s follow the recruit-to-sell and quote-to-cash cycle to explain the different steps.   The process of onboarding partners starts with a joined view on opportunities and results into an agreement between the subscription provider and the partner reselling the subscriptions. To reflect the agreement most subscription providers, offer partner programs or plans. Each plan has tiers in terms of sales volume and revenue generated, resulting into commission pay-outs on a periodic basis. To automate the commission calculation, the basis of the calculation must be determined. Best practice is to keep things simple. With our applications in conjunctions with Dynamics 365 Finance, we offer the following practices for recording agreements: Create partners as suppliers and indirect customers in Dynamics 365 Finance Setup incentive schemes to capture a percentage of all revenue invoiced based on the partner plan or schema Setup tiers for commission, like over 100K revenue high percentage of commission reflecting e.g. bronze, silver and gold partnership tiers Connect all sales agreements to the partner (see below) In this manner, all sales will be driven towards automatic calculation of the partner commission plan which each invoice produced for the subscription sales. The calculated commission can be made payable to the partner by generating a proposed commission claim using the broker management standard functionality that links up with Bluefort’s License and Subscription Application. Now your partner commission calculations and payments are automated! At this point we have the partner program and commission payment process optimised. Let’s focus on managing partner pipeline in Microsoft Dynamics 365. First, we can use Bluefort’s add-in for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales to capture subscription sales opportunities and quotations. Alternatively, we can use the opportunity and quotation features in Microsoft Dynamics 356 Supply Chain Management. The required fields to enter a subscription are added to the sales quotation. Each quotation and opportunity are linked to the partner selling it, making it easy to track partner pipelines with a team of partner managers that support the channel. When the sales pursuit comes to a close, you can enter the subscription plan into the license and subscription cockpit, including all required data and information, such as: The term of the agreement; The renewal conditions; The revenue and cost recognition tied to this agreement; Any pre-payments or deposits; Subscription products (linked to the product information management module in Supply Chain management) Commercial price and discounts as per agreement; When the details are entered in the License and Subscription App, the subscription can be made effective so that automatic billing and other actions can be automated. It is also possible to get the subscription from Microsoft Dynamics 365 eCommerce, from Sana or from Magento eCommerce sites, so that your B2B or B2C customer can actually create their own subscription orders that are pushed into the Licence and Subscription App in Microsoft Dynamics 365. This enables you to establish a modern subscription self-service capability for your customer and provide them with ways to self-manage their subscriptions. Kindly note that this does require some custom configuration to reflect your eCommerce sites using one of the above options. Once the subscription is activated and invoiced using the automated action framework, the following automation can be triggered: Create and send customer invoice via PDF and email; Create partner commission transaction and send email to partner; Create all required revenue transactions in accordance to compliance; One of the aspects that makes licence and subscription administration complex is continued changes. Partners can receive add-on orders or increases in subscription volumes and quantities. Changes on subscription plans or agreements require updates to the agreement and adding new products from a specific date. The updates to licenses or subscriptions can be triggered ideally from a partner portal or end user portal or eCommerce site, promoting self-service. The result is an up to date subscription, reflecting changed and new licenses, entitlements, and deliveries that the end customer is entitled to based on the updated subscription. The change management mechanism to reflect partner driven changes is based on re-opening the subscription and create all required changes (add new subscription lines or change volume or quantities) and activating the subscription for automation processing. In turn, this adds on to the partners commission based on the partner commission model. Based on policy changes in line with terms and conditions partner will need to be informed about any new index changes for impacting their end customers. At the same time, it is key to provide partners with details about upcoming renewals of current licenses and subscriptions. Bluefort’s License and Subscription App relates to Microsoft Power Automate so that any license or subscription changes are immediately triggering email notification to partners. This automation drives strong automated notification management to your partners and relays upcoming changes instantly. In turn, partners can inform their end-customers. Ready to scale up your subscription business? Contact us and take the next step here to gain the competitive edge with a modern subscription management solution. 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Moving your business towards a recurring revenue model can be challenging and it’s a two-part process: implementing the subscription offering itself and ensuring that you can support the model from a technology perspective. If you’ve traditionally sold your products or services outright, it can be difficult to navigate the pitfalls of trading ownership for experience. How do you safeguard your revenue with slow moving products or services? How do you manage customers who have enjoyed specific pricing discounts for many years? How do you manage the appeal of custom offers when you're striving to standardise? To gain the traction you need, we explore 3 key areas that can close the gap faster between outright ownership and subscription success. You see this when you make Retail purchases daily: “buy-2-for-1”, “combo-special” or “buy-3-get-cheapest-free”. The concept of bundling has been hugely successful in the Retail space and there’s no reason for Subscription-based business not to take advantage of this as well. Bundling provides the perfect opportunity to boost slower performing products or services and to increase the overall subscription value. If you’re a niche player or a larger enterprise with many divisions, bundling also provides the opportunity to extend your offering to the benefit of the customer by including products or services from partners. As more companies standardise their offerings, personal tailoring weighs heavily on both your existing customer base as well as being a competitive play for new business. Tiered approaches provide a mechanism to achieve a standardised approach which can further be tailored with add-ons or restrictions, depending on the customer’s base subscription. The key benefit which makes this approach so attractive for subscription businesses is the lowered risk associated with human error and the potential up-sell and cross-sell gains. Whilst personalised pricing is not a headache for start-ups, it can be for companies moving toward subscription. Many established relationships have been nurtured with customers over the years, starting from an initial discounted engagement. When a company replaces their ERP, a common question usually includes: “Does your system offer Customer Trade Agreements or per-Customer Pricelists?”. Whether your price point is based on geographical location or customised toward long-standing customer relationships, it’s important that this element forms part of your strategic road map from outright ownership to subscription. In fact, many businesses today attribute a sizeable portion of their revenue to key accounts. Factor in your key accounts when planning your model. In order to ramp-up your subscription business, customer-centricity and team enablement is part of the foundation which will determine how successful it will be. The core concept of subscription is already attractive to your customer. Now you need to make it irresistible with a high-value offering which enforces the customer’s belief that you are the right partner to help them achieve their goals. Contact us here for a meaningful discussion about supportive technologies that drive subscription success. JTNDc3R5bGUlMjB0eXBlJTNEJTIydGV4dCUyRmNzcyUyMiUzRSUwQSUwOS5vdXRsb29rLTM2NS1pZnJhbWUlMjAlN0IlMEElMDklMDloZWlnaHQlM0ElMjAyMDAwcHglM0IlMEElMDklN0QlMEElMEElMDklNDBtZWRpYSUyMHNjcmVlbiUyMGFuZCUyMCUyOG1pbi13aWR0aCUzQTE1OTFweCUyOSUyMCU3QiUwQSUwOSUwOS5vdXRsb29rLTM2NS1pZnJhbWUlMjAlN0IlMEElMDklMDklMDloZWlnaHQlM0ElMjAxNTAwcHglM0IlMEElMDklMDklN0QlMEElMDklN0QlMEElM0MlMkZzdHlsZSUzRQ==[tabbed_section style="minimal_alt" alignment="center" spacing="default" tab_color="Accent-Color" cta_button_style="accent-color" icon_size="24"][tab icon_family="fontawesome" title="Contact Us" id="1618841820176-9" icon_fontawesome="fa fa-envelope-open-o" tab_id="1618841820177-1"][/tab][tab icon_family="fontawesome" title="Set Meeting" id="1618841820217-9" icon_fontawesome="fa fa-calendar" tab_id="1618841820218-3"]JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwY2xhc3MlM0QlMjJvdXRsb29rLTM2NS1pZnJhbWUlMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRm91dGxvb2sub2ZmaWNlMzY1LmNvbSUyRm93YSUyRmNhbGVuZGFyJTJGYmx1ZWZvcnQxJTQwYmx1ZWZvcnQuZXUlMkZib29raW5ncyUyRiUyMiUyMHdpZHRoJTNEJTIyMTAwJTI1JTIyJTIwc2Nyb2xsaW5nJTNEJTIyeWVzJTIyJTIwc3R5bGUlM0QlMjJib3JkZXIlM0EwJTIyJTNFJTNDJTJGaWZyYW1lJTNFClick the button below to open up my calendar and find the right date and time for us to have a chat.[/tab][/tabbed_section]

If you’ve never dealt with revenue recognition from a recurring billing perspective, moving your business towards subscription offerings can be challenging. If your subscription model is founded on the principle of upfront payments whilst you deliver good and services over a longer period of time, tracking the revenue correctly is an integral part of your business model. Let’s look at a simple example: We provide a monthly boxed subscription service to our customers at $10 a month, paid annually in advance. Customers pay $ 120 for the year and we have a small sign-up fee of $ 5. We receive payment of $ 125. We can’t recognise the entire $125 as revenue because we’re still to deliver the 12 boxes from their annual subscription. According to IFRS standards, at signup we can only recognise the $5 sign-up fee, even though we’ve received the full year’s subscription payment upfront ($125). From an Accounting perspective our ledger entries look like this: Account Debit Credit Accounts Receivable 125.00   Earned Revenue   5.00 Deferred Revenue   120.00 Following the AR entries, a credit is then written to the cash or bank account. Once we’ve delivered our box for the first time, we can say that we’ve fulfilled month one of this contract and we can recognise the value of month one which is $10: Account Debit Credit Deferred Revenue 110.00   Earned Revenue   10.00 Every month that we continue to fulfil the contract, $10 moves from the deferred revenue to the earned revenue, decreasing our liability and increasing our earned revenue. Keep in mind that different businesses could have different recognition schedules and you might need to accrue revenue on a daily or monthly basis depending on the accuracy you require. If your model is based on month-to-month payments with immediate cancellation, you’ll likely be managing accruals daily in order to facilitate more efficient and accurate cancellations. You also need to factor in VAT calculations at the time of invoicing and this could differ depending on your country and your customer’s country. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) encourage companies to track revenue in this manner as it provides visibility to external parties that might need access to financials statement like your bank, investors, board of directors or shareholders. Corporate tax calculations can be impacted by the amount of deferred revenue carried into future periods. Deferred revenue is a liability because it’s dependent on your business to deliver the contracted services or goods. Refunds for cancellation, especially for annual subscriptions makes handling this much more efficient if you’re accurately tracking deferred revenue. Some businesses use manual spreadsheets or standalone revenue recognition software. Neither are ideal as manual calculations are error-prone and standalone systems aren’t centralised within your Financials solution. Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain has built-in revenue recognition and if combined with Bluefort’s License and Subscription App (LISA), you have a powerful solution that not only recognises revenue at the appropriate times, but also fully automates subscription billing and purchasing process across various plan types and models. In order to ramp-up your subscription business, tracking revenue accurately will play a big role in how successful you are in making the shift to recurring revenue. When you consider a technology road map for your subscription model, you need to focus on customer billing, the complexities of your subscription and the related financials with your business strategy in mind. Contact us here for a meaningful discussion about supportive technologies that drive subscription success.   JTNDc3R5bGUlMjB0eXBlJTNEJTIydGV4dCUyRmNzcyUyMiUzRSUwQSUwOS5vdXRsb29rLTM2NS1pZnJhbWUlMjAlN0IlMEElMDklMDloZWlnaHQlM0ElMjAyMDAwcHglM0IlMEElMDklN0QlMEElMEElMDklNDBtZWRpYSUyMHNjcmVlbiUyMGFuZCUyMCUyOG1pbi13aWR0aCUzQTE1OTFweCUyOSUyMCU3QiUwQSUwOSUwOS5vdXRsb29rLTM2NS1pZnJhbWUlMjAlN0IlMEElMDklMDklMDloZWlnaHQlM0ElMjAxNTAwcHglM0IlMEElMDklMDklN0QlMEElMDklN0QlMEElM0MlMkZzdHlsZSUzRQ==[tabbed_section style="minimal_alt" alignment="center" spacing="default" tab_color="Accent-Color" cta_button_style="accent-color" icon_size="24"][tab icon_family="fontawesome" title="Contact Us" id="1618842386765-1" icon_fontawesome="fa fa-envelope-open-o" tab_id="1618842386766-6"][/tab][tab icon_family="fontawesome" title="Set Meeting" id="1618842386831-4" icon_fontawesome="fa fa-calendar" tab_id="1618842386833-2"]JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwY2xhc3MlM0QlMjJvdXRsb29rLTM2NS1pZnJhbWUlMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRm91dGxvb2sub2ZmaWNlMzY1LmNvbSUyRm93YSUyRmNhbGVuZGFyJTJGYmx1ZWZvcnQxJTQwYmx1ZWZvcnQuZXUlMkZib29raW5ncyUyRiUyMiUyMHdpZHRoJTNEJTIyMTAwJTI1JTIyJTIwc2Nyb2xsaW5nJTNEJTIyeWVzJTIyJTIwc3R5bGUlM0QlMjJib3JkZXIlM0EwJTIyJTNFJTNDJTJGaWZyYW1lJTNFClick the button below to open up my calendar and find the right date and time for us to have a chat.[/tab][/tabbed_section]

No one joins a recurring services business because it’s easy.   In fact, it can feel like you’re walking a tightrope. You’ve got to deliver a top-notch service, keep those subscriptions ticking over, make sure billing runs accurately, keep your customers happy, and attract new customers too.   Here are some of the biggest challenges you’re up against:  Customer Retention, Support and Management: Keeping customers engaged and loyal in the most competitive era without a centralised system to help track them and their data   Subscription Management: Manually processing subscriptions costs you untold money and thousands of work hours a year.    Financial Management: Invoicing, payroll, and tax filing is complex and tedious, and errors cost money and compliance fines.  Project Management: Keeping track of projects and monitoring progress can be nearly impossible.    Team Communication: Silos, especially with the remote teams, are extremely costly and can drive up employee turnover.   Reliable Numbers and Data: Without accurate numbers and the analytics that customer data can give you, you’re operating in the dark It’s a lot. But there’s good news.   It all gets a lot easier when you have the right tools to smash out the challenges that keep you awake at night. Here are the top 8 tools that can help you turn things around for good:   1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software    When you’ve got a good CRM system, you’ve got a virtual personal assistant that boosts customer relationships. It manages customer data, tracks all  interactions, and helps you improve your Customer Lifetime Value.   But not all CRM systems are the same. Avoid complexity where it isn’t needed. The easier your CRM is to use, the easier it will be to scale.   2. Accounting Software The better hold you’ve got on your financial picture, the more likely you are to be successful. The best accounting software will simplify and stabilise everything from invoicing, payroll, tax filing and compliance. Flexi found that it can cut your operating expenses by up to 50% too.    It cuts the risk of mistakes, and gives you numbers you can have confidence in. You can see your cash flow, profit and loss, and balance sheet at a glance. That’s how you make the best decisions possible 3. Project Management Software Project management software keeps all your projects on track with very little effort on your behalf. According to a PWC study, 77% of high performing projects use project management software.   These tools allow you to assign tasks, allocate resources, set deadlines, and monitor progress. With real-time information flow, you’ll know who’s working on what, deadlines coming up, and how much work is left to be done. Your teams will be happier because there’s no waiting around, no shortage of resources, no unhappy customers, and no delays. 4.  Social Media Management Tools  Having a strong social media presence is a requirement, not a preference these days. But running social media, especially on multiple platforms can be a very big job. You need something that will save as much time as possible.   The right tools let you or your team schedule posts, automatically engage with your audience, and analyze the performance of your content so that you boost impact and conversions.  5. Cybersecurity Software When you’ve got effective cybersecurity software, you’re protecting your business data and your customers. Which is important because the last thing you need is the financial and reputational damage caused by a data breach.  The right solution will not only keep everything locked down, but will make recommendations and warn you when necessary.   6. Communication Tools It’s key to knock down all the information silos you have between teams in your company. Platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams connect people in real-time an eliminate the time wasted chasing calls and emails. But more than that, the right tool will let information free-flow in real time - usage numbers, contract terms, payments and reconciliation - they all require the best communication possible.    According to McKinsey, organizations that communicate effectively are 4.5 times more likely to retain their best employees. That’s important because turnover is expensive - it can cost 1.5 x the salary of a tech sales rep just to replace them 7. Analytics Tools There’s no point in sitting on data because when it’s used properly, it’s like gold dust. The right analytics will give you insights into customer segmentation, selling opportunities, financial forecasts - everything you need to take your company forward.   According to Forbes, companies who adopt data-driven marketing are six times more likely to be profitable year-over-year. When you understand what your data’s saying to you, you can make the best long-term growth-driving decisions.  8. End-to-End Subscription Management Software An end-to-end subscription management software, will automate and secure all the important stuff for you, from sales opportunities to payments and reconciliation.   It’s a fact that automation leads to growth. It saves untold manual hours, creates the best sales opportunities, avoids the risk and loss that comes with manual billing and payment collection, and boosts customer satisfaction All for a lot less effort from you and your teams. In fact, 73% of IT leaders say that automation has saved their teams 10-50% of the time they previously spent on manual tasks.  You’ll also get accurate numbers, insights into customer behaviour and revenue forecasts, and complete revenue recognition.  But perhaps the biggest benefit of a subscription management software is its impact on the customer and employee experience. Both will have a seamless experience that gives them everything they need with none of the hassle.   And that literally is something you can take to the bank.   

No one joins a recurring services business because it’s easy.   In fact, it can feel like you’re walking a tightrope. You’ve got to deliver a top-notch service, keep those subscriptions ticking over, make sure billing runs accurately, keep your customers happy, and attract new customers too.   Here are some of the biggest challenges you’re up against:  Customer Retention, Support and Management: Keeping customers engaged and loyal in the most competitive era without a centralised system to help track them and their data   Subscription Management: Manually processing subscriptions costs you untold money and thousands of work hours a year.    Financial Management: Invoicing, payroll, and tax filing is complex and tedious, and errors cost money and compliance fines.  Project Management: Keeping track of projects and monitoring progress can be nearly impossible.    Team Communication: Silos, especially with the remote teams, are extremely costly and can drive up employee turnover.   Reliable Numbers and Data: Without accurate numbers and the analytics that customer data can give you, you’re operating in the dark It’s a lot. But there’s good news.   It all gets a lot easier when you have the right tools to smash out the challenges that keep you awake at night. Here are the top 8 tools that can help you turn things around for good:   1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software    When you’ve got a good CRM system, you’ve got a virtual personal assistant that boosts customer relationships. It manages customer data, tracks all  interactions, and helps you improve your Customer Lifetime Value.   But not all CRM systems are the same. Avoid complexity where it isn’t needed. The easier your CRM is to use, the easier it will be to scale.   2. Accounting Software The better hold you’ve got on your financial picture, the more likely you are to be successful. The best accounting software will simplify and stabilise everything from invoicing, payroll, tax filing and compliance. Flexi found that it can cut your operating expenses by up to 50% too.    It cuts the risk of mistakes, and gives you numbers you can have confidence in. You can see your cash flow, profit and loss, and balance sheet at a glance. That’s how you make the best decisions possible 3. Project Management Software Project management software keeps all your projects on track with very little effort on your behalf. According to a PWC study, 77% of high performing projects use project management software.   These tools allow you to assign tasks, allocate resources, set deadlines, and monitor progress. With real-time information flow, you’ll know who’s working on what, deadlines coming up, and how much work is left to be done. Your teams will be happier because there’s no waiting around, no shortage of resources, no unhappy customers, and no delays. 4.  Social Media Management Tools  Having a strong social media presence is a requirement, not a preference these days. But running social media, especially on multiple platforms can be a very big job. You need something that will save as much time as possible.   The right tools let you or your team schedule posts, automatically engage with your audience, and analyze the performance of your content so that you boost impact and conversions.  5. Cybersecurity Software When you’ve got effective cybersecurity software, you’re protecting your business data and your customers. Which is important because the last thing you need is the financial and reputational damage caused by a data breach.  The right solution will not only keep everything locked down, but will make recommendations and warn you when necessary.   6. Communication Tools It’s key to knock down all the information silos you have between teams in your company. Platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams connect people in real-time an eliminate the time wasted chasing calls and emails. But more than that, the right tool will let information free-flow in real time - usage numbers, contract terms, payments and reconciliation - they all require the best communication possible.    According to McKinsey, organizations that communicate effectively are 4.5 times more likely to retain their best employees. That’s important because turnover is expensive - it can cost 1.5 x the salary of a tech sales rep just to replace them 7. Analytics Tools There’s no point in sitting on data because when it’s used properly, it’s like gold dust. The right analytics will give you insights into customer segmentation, selling opportunities, financial forecasts - everything you need to take your company forward.   According to Forbes, companies who adopt data-driven marketing are six times more likely to be profitable year-over-year. When you understand what your data’s saying to you, you can make the best long-term growth-driving decisions.  8. End-to-End Subscription Management Software An end-to-end subscription management software, will automate and secure all the important stuff for you, from sales opportunities to payments and reconciliation.   It’s a fact that automation leads to growth. It saves untold manual hours, creates the best sales opportunities, avoids the risk and loss that comes with manual billing and payment collection, and boosts customer satisfaction All for a lot less effort from you and your teams. In fact, 73% of IT leaders say that automation has saved their teams 10-50% of the time they previously spent on manual tasks.  You’ll also get accurate numbers, insights into customer behaviour and revenue forecasts, and complete revenue recognition.  But perhaps the biggest benefit of a subscription management software is its impact on the customer and employee experience. Both will have a seamless experience that gives them everything they need with none of the hassle.   And that literally is something you can take to the bank.   

Bluefort is the best-key secret in the subscription management industry. And now we’re letting the secret out.  Whether an organization wants to bring in a subscription model, or sell subscription management licenses and solutions in the Microsoft Dynamics sphere to others, there’s a lot to think about.   Particularly at a time of so much financial instability.   Those subscriptions are an excellent way of bringing a reliable revenue stream, companies don’t want to think about getting into a situation that makes their world more complex. And they don’t want to bring their own customers that complexity.   The good news is that what appears to be a complex situation can be managed with ease, no matter who is using it. All that is needed is the right tools.   That’s why Bluefort was thrilled to host a fireside chat with our VP of Product, Bjorn Kuijt and U.S. Senior Business Development Manager, Edward J. Harof, and Jeffrey Goldstein, the CEO of our partners Queue Associates.  Are you in any of these situations?   In the Microsoft Dynamics 365 world in general. Involved with Microsoft Dynamics in the Cloud, including the business application side of the house. Communities around the globe use those applications. Microsoft Dynamics users and prospects who are thinking of adding these applications to their environment. Consultants who are engaged with Microsoft users. Thanks to the AI buzz, Microsoft Dynamics has been elevated in the marketplace to a new level which is fantastic and exciting.  Consultants out there can capitalize on this, which is why we’re providing you with info on SaaS applications and how they can impact the companies you’re working with to make their processes automated and efficient. Specifically, we mean subscription management which involves a billing model moving toward automation and away from legacy and manual systems that waste time and money.   Want more information on how you can thrill your clients by providing them with the most advanced technology solution for subscriptions?  bluefort partner Queue Associates   “I can't say enough about the relationship.”  There are long-term relationships, and then there are lifetime relationships.   Queue has been working with Microsoft products since the DOS days in the early 80s.   And they’ve been growing with Microsoft ever since.   One of the things Queue’s been encouraged to do is to focus on vertical industries, and that’s where Bluefort’s solutions and the partnership have helped them focus on vertical industries anywhere they have recurring revenue.   Queue Associates has always been dedicated to delivering products that help their customers go where they want to go with ease.   Queue has found that Bluefort’s solution helps them compete better by enabling the focus on vertical industries that prioritize subscription management, recurring revenue, and billing.   And because many clients don’t know this end-to-end subscription management solution is out there, Queue takes pleasure in guiding them through the Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Bluefort integration and how it handles lead-to-order, all the way through to payment processing and reconciliation. In other words, Queue Associates is thrilled they’re bringing something to the table that solves their clients’ problems. Why Bluefort likes to partner up with Microsoft Dynamics-loving Businesses   Having a lot of experience built up over the years in business applications on Microsoft Dynamics, we’ve learned how much the solution is capable of.   And businesses in that world understand that too.   Dynamics offers a lot, including ERP, being able to go into manufacturing, supply chain management, financial management, project services, and project capabilities.   Over time Bluefort has attached surrounding solutions to the Enterprise EAP applications, adding on CRM over the years. It makes a wider footprint and a wider fit for purpose for different departments in different types of subscription companies.    This comes in handy because companies are waking up to the importance of tying customers to the business through subscriptions.   What’s better is to keep on providing value to customers, underpinned by the type of service and product companies provide to their end customers.   But really, it’s any subscription model. That’s where the growth has been on the Microsoft side - both moving to the cloud and making software more servitized.   Manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon too - developing a product or a piece of equipment anymore that can be sold as a one-off, but that is also ring-fenced all the way across with services with upgrades with Innovation, support and guidance in an ongoing fashion.   Those kinds of business capabilities ultimately drive a much better customer experience and a much better utilization of products and services over a longer period of time.  That’s where Bluefort’s solutions and partnerships come in.   Having a Dynamics 365 set of applications that span all the way down to the financial back end gives the potential to boost both a life cycle and a customer experience end-to-end.   In other words, it brings in certainty and stability during a time where it’s needed the most. And backing that is a rock-solid use of AI-driven data.   This is especially important given the rise of AI is only going to get bigger.  bluefort’s partnerships work best with businesses that recognise that the business model is changing.   There’s a huge opportunity not only to broaden the customer base, but to create/lengthen the CLV.   That’s an incredible chance to build long-term value and revenue streams.    How Does AI and Dynamics Boost Subscription Management?  It’s fun to be in the right place and right time.  And this is the right place and right time to capitalise on the growing AI boom.   Dynamics consultants are elevating Dynamics groups in the AI field to a much higher level. There’s a good reason for that- they’ve had the vision, the expertise and the industry knowledge to leverage that for growth for the companies they work with.   They also know that given how tough it has been for businesses in high-competition industries, it isn’t just about working harder. It’s about working smarter.   The need for cost-saving, waste reduction, and building revenue has never been stronger. Companies need to get tougher. They must be more efficient.   That’s where software solutions come in. AI is literally there to take care of all the work.   It’s a fact that Microsoft and bluefort’s software provide make companies more efficient.   They rely less on humans to do the day-to-day subscription operations. So they completely cut out the costly errors and resource-wasting work so that employees can concentrate on the high-value work of building customer relationships and developing the kind of products that keep them coming back for more.  Harnessing AI in the way it best works lets companies go where they want to go.    Partnerships   Our partners are collaborators using the solution and selling the solution to others. Both sides reap the benefits.   That’s why our partnership programme has been growing so rapidly.    Your level as a potential partner is based on how involved you want to be.  As a Dynamics partner if you spot this as a valuable opportunity for your customer, then you can go with a referral.   If you decide that's something you want to grow much further, you can be trained. And our teams will help you promote the products to your customers. That way everybody wins. You won’t be floating in space on your own.    Want an Example of a Good Benefit from the Solution?   A perfect example of looking at what your business has to gain by using and selling the Dynamics and bluefort integration through partnership is process automation.   As we look at the landscape of a typical enterprise company running a recurring or subscription based business, it’s important not just to boost revenue, but to cut costs wherever possible. Especially in the SaaS, IT Services, Professional Services, and similar industries where the focus is more and more on profitability.    Subscriptions touch multiple parts of your business. You’ve got to upsell and cross-sell in the sales department, you’ve got invoicing, billing, revenue recognition, and payment collection in the finance department, keeping that customer relationship onside in the customer service department, and continuing the development of products that keep customers coming back from more.   Most subscription businesses try to get all these processes sorted by Frankensteining multiple legacy systems which aren’t integrated and don’t allow for the most up-to-date data to drive opportunities and take care of the invoicing and payment processes.   Why, when all this could be handled automatically?   That’s where an excellent automation solution comes in.   You shouldn’t have to spend valuable time where you don’t need to.   Subscriptions are not always sold directly to the end customer without procurement. When you’re a reseller of products or licenses, you need to always be aware of what your customer has bought and what you need to buy to give them that.   This entire both-ways procurement can be automated so that you and your teams aren’t spending countless hours (and risking costly errors!) splitting how much you need to buy and supply for ongoing subscriptions.   Through our automated solutions, you’ll be able to calculate the needs and the savings no matter how often they need to adjust to meet your customers’ needs.   Certainty about what you have and what you provide can help you clearly bring value to the service, starting with a good, reliable customer relationship.   And when you’re selling these solutions on, your customers will experience the same benefits for their business and customers.   Everyone wins.   Curious to know more? Check out the video above.   Want an estimate guide? Click here.  Say goodbye to manual sales processes and boost your growth with Bluefort's cutting-edge automation solutions. Learn how our end-to-end system streamlines the end-to-end process.