How Automated Billing Platforms can Simplify Managing Pricing and Product Changes

Microsoft CSPs Need Customer Self-Service Portals

The technology industry is often perceived as one of the most dynamic sectors for pricing behavior. As the customer base and usage scenarios change over time, so does the pricing DNA from major providers to accommodate newer innovations at scale on demand. Microsoft is no stranger in this regard. Be it Dynamics Sales Professional apps or Microsoft 365 for Business, price changes are quite often witnessed by the world’s largest software maker.

While their intentions for changing the price constantly can be understood based on market conditions, the implications of frequent changes are often painful for partners and resellers who may be caught off-guard with the change. The vast range of scenarios from a partner or reseller’s side that need to be aligned with the dynamics of pricing can make it a very challenging affair.

Here are some of the top problems that Microsoft partners and resellers have to endure because of price changes made by Microsoft for their offerings:

MSPs and CSPs must constantly validate pricing changes, end of SKUs, or new products from Microsoft to meet SLAs already agreed with their customers.
They need to manage renewals and update subscription pricing for customers.
The impact of price changes may be spread across a wide inventory of products. For minimizing adverse effects, Partners have to monitor the impact of price change and maintain the product catalog for individual products. Also monitor factors such as type of services offered, contractual period, usage terms, and so on.
Partners/ resellers need to handle revenue reconciliation in highly fluctuating pricing scenarios without risking the loss of customers over price hike in billing.

The next question that needs immediate attention in this context is about how partners can mitigate the challenges posed by such changes. The answer lies in bringing onboard an efficient billing automation solution in your business.

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Here are ways in which an automated billing application can enable Microsoft partners and resellers to handle pricing and product changes seamlessly without risking customer attrition:

Price Change Knowledge

A modern billing automation solution like Work 365 enables MSPs to be notified automatically about changes in pricing made by Microsoft without any manual intervention. The MSPs can thus stay proactively updated on any new pricing changes for subscriptions they offer to end customers.

This allows them to plan on time for making relevant configuration and contractual changes to channel the price change seamlessly to their billing and invoicing process. It also supports the development of new revenue and product opportunities through streamlining quotes for billing processes and at the same time without disrupting customer businesses.

Highly Granular Pricing Controls

With automated billing platforms, MSPs can facilitate price changes by taking stock of the inventory that each of their end customers is subscribed to. They can easily deduce the changes that are reflected in pricing for each granular offering within the subscription, make changes to the end pricing model, and ensure fairness in pricing.

MSPs can easily identify new margins for revenue streams and create pricing models that support these margins – without impacting the customers’ budgets because of the changed prices.

Eliminates Manual Effort

By leveraging an automated billing platform like Work 365 for your pricing and billing, it is possible to say goodbye to long hours of toiling with multiple spreadsheets and documents to develop invoices for customers. Everything can be automated with necessary controls on profit margins.

It also ensures that all stakeholders, including sales, finance, and IT teams can manage billing and invoices without glitches and delays. As billing is taken care of autonomously, sales and their associated teams can focus more on their core activities rather than spending time on creating viable financial models that accommodate changes in pricing made constantly by Microsoft.

Encourages Self-Service

Automated billing platforms eliminate the need for end customers to frequently reach out to MSPs for queries on their price quotes or to get information such as pricing reports. They can avail of all these services as well as raise queries, support requests, and demand any further reports, comfortably through self-service portals that are part of the billing solution. This allows for significant savings in terms of both manual effort and time to market.

Pricing fluctuations are an inevitable part of today’s highly competitive technology space. With vendors like Microsoft constantly thriving to set industry standards in pricing, partners and resellers can have a tough time aligning their revenue and billing processes to adapt to the dynamic nature of Microsoft’s pricing. Having a powerful automated billing solution is the key to eliminating complexity in pricing and ensuring that all end customers have a transparent and fair pricing model made available for them to consume.

If you’ve read this far, so you must be experiencing at least one of these challenges.
The good news is Work 365 has you covered.