LaunchpadQ2C, solution provider for Salesforce & Zuora customers, recently delivered a custom product activation code management solution at a large, publicly-traded, enterprise software client that runs Salesforce and Zuora.

Why did this client call in the experts? Aaron Somer, LaunchpadQ2C Managing Partner, explains – “Simple growth in order volumes over time eventually created an operational challenge in delivering service to customers, especially during times of heavy order volume, such as end of quarter or year. What was traditionally managed with a fairly manual process simply didn’t scale with their success. They needed a better way to manage and assign product activation codes to ultimately deliver new service to customers in an accurate and scalable way.”

LaunchpadQ2C custom-built the solution natively on Salesforce so it works seamlessly with the client’s existing sales quoting and order management process.

With this solution, completed orders automatically retrieve activation codes from inventory, assign them to customer records, and deliver them to customers.

The activation code management solution:

> Simplifies the process to import codes into Salesforce

> Parses the codes on import into structured meta data for reporting

> Provides a visual dashboard of inventory levels

> Automates the assignment of codes based on sales quotation process

> Automates the customer notification email with all code information

> Provides notifications at low inventory levels

> Provides complete manual overrides of code assignment and unassignment

> Provides complete reportability using standard Salesforce reporting

“This is a good example of a light-weight, optimization solution that has transformational business impacts and generates real value. It extends this customer’s investment in Salesforce and Zuora without having long timelines or a big cost.” – Somer states.

This particular solution is designed for the sales ops team whose responsibilities include delivering service to customers. It’s a perfect example of what we do at LaunchpadQ2C – we design and deliver tailored solutions that perfectly fit the needs of a particular cross-functional business groups within a company.

Somer explains – “Building these applications on Salesforce is perfect because our customers have already invested in the Salesforce platform. They already have sales quotes on Salesforce, they have marketing on Salesforce, they have customer service on Salesforce, etc… so these light weight, transformation applications are right at home for our customers.”

We, at LaunchpadQ2C, are building a suite of optimization solutions that enable Zuora and Salesforce customers to maximize the value they get from their investments.

More than just Quote-to-cash gurus, we are also Salesforce and Zuora experts. This combination of skills and experience allows us to help companies optimize their technology platform to better align with their business objectives and goals.

Are you ready to optimize your technology to give your business a boost?

For a free consultation, contact us here.

We have just finished two Zuora data migrations for large, publicly traded companies, and are about to undertake a third!

Our experience and success with these two projects makes us realize that the need for Optimization extends beyond the software our customers use and into the data itself.

And although the business value achieved from a data migration can be very significant, companies are reluctant to undergo this painful process until it’s absolutely necessary.

Yup, kind of like a Root Canal!

Companies come to realize they need a data migration for various reasons.

Here are 3 common pain-points our customers are experiencing when they decide it’s time to “make an appointment” with us.

An Outdated Product Catalog. If you’ve been a Zuora customer for more than a couple of  years, chances are, your product catalog is larger than it needs to be. The structure of your services offering has also probably evolved leaving your product catalog outdated. In order to update your existing product catalog, you will need to migrate customers contracts from the old catalog to the new catalog. Recently, we helped a client migrate 30K customers and move from an old product catalog to a new, smaller one. Their new streamlined and updated product catalog has already improved efficiency and reduced maintenance in multiple areas of their business.

Duplicate or Incorrect Billing Account Data. For one reason or another, it’s possible that you have the same customer represented multiple times in your database. This means that instead of one billing account record for a single customer, you may have several that have the same “Bill To” contact, “Sold To” contact, and other ‘duplicate’ account profile data. In this case, data migration can help to transfer all customer subscriptions to a master billing account record, and then ‘tag’ or rename the old billing accounts so your organization will know which ones to use and not to use in the future. This type of migration can also help to delete billing account records in Salesforce, so they are out of the way for the folks generating quotes. Billing accounts in Zuora are retained for compliance and other reasons.

Renewal and Quoting Problems: Many Zuora customers run into data problems when they have singular accounts with multiple subscriptions that end and renew on different dates. This happens because many customers mistakenly create separate customer subscriptions for base products and add-on products sold after the initial sale.This mistake also complicates the quoting process down the line. Because your sales team creates quotes for add-on orders, these multiple subscriptions will likely confuse them, and they will probably … wait for it… create yet another subscription, only to proliferate the problem! While some tough decisions do need to be made on this one, services can be merged onto a master subscription, with a data migration, thereby solving the renewal and quoting problems.

Lets face it, root canals are not fun. And neither are production data migrations. In both cases, it’s best to engage a team of experts with experience and a track record of success to help you out. Our team of experts at LaunchpadQ2C has that experience and understands the risk you face because these systems represent how you capture revenue.

The relief and increase in productivity our customers experience after a successful data migration proves once again the importance of Optimization, this time extending past enterprise software and into the data itself.

Have any questions? Or want to schedule a free Quote-to-cash consultation with a LaunchpadQ2C expert? Fill out our inquiry form on our Contact Page

In our last blog post, we focused on the importance of optimizing the deal closer process in order to maximize revenue.

The next step after closing a deal is commonly referred to as “booking a deal”.

In this step, the finance team is responsible for receiving the “deal” from the sales team and reviewing it for completion before it is considered “bookable”. Often times, there is a checklist to ensure that the data is complete and accurate, before it is entered into the financial systems.

It is critical that the new customer contract flows accurately into these systems in order for revenue to be captured correctly in the form of accurate and complete billings, payments, and the compliant reporting of revenue.

Despite the importance of the bookings process, at LaunchpadQ2C, we often find this area fraught with inefficiencies and frustration.

Read more