Why introducing subscription management isn't open heart surgery

Introducing new systems is often risky and subject to delay. We’ve all heard horror stories about enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations going wrong and taking much longer than originally planned. These delays have a ripple effect on other parts of the business. Initiatives that are dependent on the completion of the delayed programme often have to be put on hold. The delays can lead to a shortage of resources, as the resources allocated to the delayed programme cannot be reallocated to other initiatives. The consequences of these delays extend beyond the initial implementation phase, affecting various business areas and making it challenging to implement changes. When a single technology supports many business areas, it becomes hard to make change

Modern business and technology architecture enables us to avoid this problem, as long as we’re prepared to re-evaluate how we’re using our existing legacy systems. Figure 1, below illustrates a modular architecture. Although deployment and implementation, particularly data migration, requires careful consideration, modularisation means that the impact is decoupled from other changes within your business.

Figure 1: Optimise your subscription management within your ERP 

By breaking down the programme into manageable parts and limiting its scope, your business can keep evolving even while the ERP upgrade is in progress. This approach also builds in future flexibility, ensuring that changes to one part of the system don’t cause delays or complications in another.

Key strategies for a seamless transition to a new subscription management solution

Don’t think of a new subscription management solution as open heart surgery on the business - it’s more like mending a broken limb. It’s an upgrade to your existing architecture, provided you follow some straightforward rules. Its technology impact on the existing architecture can be limited to changes to configure, price, quote (CPQ) and retirement of customisations to your ERP. 

We successfully migrated one of our global clients, operating in 143 countries, with 400mn USD revenue from a legacy architecture to a new subscription management architecture within nine months following these key principles:

Process optimisation

Review business processes: 

• Evaluate your business processes for best practices and simplification. Allow complexity where it is a differentiator for you.
• Ensure your organization is structured correctly to facilitate efficient processes. Review the handoffs between teams and the data that needs to pass between them.

Fulfilment and manual interventions:

• Design a single touchpoint for manual interventions in fulfilment, allowing the overall process to operate automatically.

Digital product management:

• Review how you are authorising and authenticating digital products and the method by which you trigger fulfilment.

Payment and invoicing:

• Evaluate your payment methods. Consider moving to a card-based payment request rather than accepting cheques to simplify reconciliation.
• Consider e-invoicing due to regulatory changes in Europe and beyond.

Technology integration

API-enabled architecture:

• Ensure the modules in your architecture are API-enabled and choose products with out-of-the-box connections between CRM, commerce, subscription management, tax calculation engine, and GL.

Subscription platform for invoicing:

• Allow your subscription platform to manage your invoices. This reduces complexity within ERP by handling products and price lists in the subscription platform, which can produce a sub-ledger for ERP consumption.

Product and price definitions:

• Minimize the number of products to ensure customer clarity on what they should buy and create the right set of price points.

Implementation strategy

Solution design and deployment:

• Design your solution and delivery plan with deployment in mind. Identify the lowest risk areas to deploy and test before scaling more widely.

Testing and scenarios:

• Use scenarios to walk through the end-to-end process and test the solution thoroughly.

Conclusion

Introducing new systems doesn't have to be a daunting, high-risk endeavour. Think of your subscription management solution as a strategic upgrade to your current setup and remember that the best systems require careful planning and execution, particularly when it comes to data migration.

By following straightforward rules, modularising the project, and limiting its scope, your business can continue to grow and adapt during the upgrade process. This method not only ensures a smoother transition but also builds flexibility for the future.

We can help you to migrate to a new subscription management solution successfully. Get in touch to find out more.