The new services economy is flourishing. It’s not just software, consultants, movies, and music being offered as a service — it’s bacon, pets, designer handbags, even sports cars.

Today, more and more companies are exploring service-based business models (e.g. subscriptions, professional services, and usage-based billing) to supplement traditional product sales and keep pace with the relentless change of business. This is not only creating a multitude of revenue streams and a sharpened focus on customer retention, it’s exposing weaknesses in static business models and the reliance on transactional, linear processes for operations.

According to a 2017 survey from CFO Research and FinancialForce, 71 percent of CFOs reported that more than half of their revenue already comes from services, and nearly a third stated that all their companies’ revenues are service-related.  But as of now, many companies have yet to make the necessary changes in their infrastructure with just one in five respondents (17 percent) saying their company’s “operational and technology infrastructure” could handle “any increase in service-related revenues.”

The conclusion: organizations are having to look closely at the ERP systems they use to run their business.

Company success is dependent on customer success

The growing importance of subscription renewals and multiple business models makes it critical that organizations become more engaged in supporting and driving customer satisfaction. The businesses to thrive will be those with internal systems and processes that help them serve customers with instant answers, immediate resolutions, and positive experiences at every turn. They should be able to quickly adopt unlimited business models, optimize for dynamic service delivery, and act on business signals

Achieving that will require a nimble, customer-centric ERP system—exactly the kind of system offered by FinancialForce, a San Francisco-based company and long-time partner of Salesforce. FinancialForce is a cloud ERP solution built on the Salesforce platform, one that seamlessly connects with the cloud giant’s world-leading CRM. The single-cloud ERP solution unifies data across the enterprise in real-time, enabling companies to rapidly evolve their business models with customers at the center.

As it is today, most companies narrowly confine customer experience to the front-office within sales, service and marketing domains — building customer-centric strategies that go only halfway. FinancialForce ERP connects back-office functions, namely billing, receivables, and product/service delivery to the front-office (CRM) in order to gain a comprehensive view of every customer and a master customer record. Every conversation, every transaction, every request—it’s all accessible to all customer-facing staff. So anytime a customer has a question or issue that needs resolving, the organization can swiftly respond.

Business Agility

Financial management will be simplified as well. Because organizations have fundamentally changed how they sell, implement, monetize, account for, and serve customers, the need for modern, services-centric systems has become elevated.

The FinancialForce ERP system allows organizations to view, manage, and centralize multiple revenue streams, easily add new business models, and transition to emerging regulations (e.g. ASC 606, IFRS 15) without disrupting core business processes.  All the revenue management and billing functions are automated, helping organizations execute profitably and efficiently recognize revenue sooner. With each of these components in place, organizations are also able to redefine their business and get real-time access core metrics around forecasting, profitability, and customer success.

With an extensive knowledge of customer needs, data, and the right systems in place, FinancialForce ERP is helping to steer businesses in a strategically informed and positive direction, to keep their customers happy, and capitalize on all that the new services economy has to offer.

#1 Cloud ERP for the new services economy

FinancialForce is the leading cloud ERP for the new services economy. The only Leader in the G2 Crowd Grid for Professional Services Automation and the #1 ERP on the Salesforce platform, FinancialForce unifies data across the enterprise in real-time, enabling companies to rapidly evolve their business models with customers at the center.

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