Pricing & Revenue Management

OP Deal Management (DM) enables enterprises to quickly reach the “Disciplined” stage of the pricing maturity model. It is usually the first and easiest pricing module to implement and the one producing the highest benefits:

• Pricing process rationalization through configurable workflow
• Faster, easier, more precise and fully traceable quotes
• Instant visibility of pricing decisions by management and pricing analysts
• Eradication of pricing errors
• Systematic deal monitoring and rerating

DM configuration varies by sales channel, type of deal, integration scenario and implemented pricing models. Follows a short description of its key features in a typical configuration.

CRM connector

Web services enable to seamlessly link an OP quote to a CRM opportunity. Customer and deal attributes already entered in the CRM are automatically imported in DM. The user may then navigate between CRM and DM with Single Sign On.

Offers selection

DM enables to select the products, options, services or product bundles matching customer requirements.

Transaction profile definition

The transaction profile defines future transactions by product, time period and other transaction/order attributes. It can be set using four different methods:

• Direct entry of transaction lines
• Import of profile from an XLS/CSV file
• Retrieval of historical transaction profile from database for existing business
• Transaction profiling: a modeling of new business with imprecise profile specification based on actual profile of similar deals

The future transactions are then modeled in a multi-dimensional profile (MDP) that will be used for revenue and cost simulation (see below).

Target price plan

DM pushes the target price plan as defined in the applicable price policy based on customer attributes and transaction profile.

Price customization

The user (having price override privilege) can modify the price plan (including rate measures and rate zones) and instantly update the quote either directly or using XLS export and import.

Margin simulation

The selected price plan is run against the multi-dimensional profile (MDP) to derive revenue simulation and the cost model is run against the MDP to derive cost simulation. These simulations may then be compared with the results of reference price plans (current price plan, target price plan, competitive price plan…).

Score and price corridor

The score is a performance indicator that reflects, at a given price, the value of the deal according to the applicable price policy. The score may be based on different criteria such as discount level or margin level. The score can be included in sales staff commission plan as an incentive to sell at higher prices.

Approval workflow

DM workflow can be easily configured to reflect enterprise specific price validation rules. These rules usually involve: sales staff initiating the quote, sales management, pricing analyst/manager and sales administration. At a given stage of the workflow the user may choose, depending on his role, an action within a set of possible actions. History of actions is then recorded permitting traceability of decisions. DM workflow may extend CRM workflow and be limited to price validation or, alternatively, may manage all steps of the quote including operational feasibility validation, cost adjustment, price validation, credit control rating, documents generation and account opening/update.

Documents generation

Once the deal is validated, the proposal is automatically generated including key selling points, price plan and transaction profile used as assumption for the quote. Once the deal is won, the contract is generated including price plan and customer commitments.

Billing system connector

The account attributes and price plan are automatically or semi-automatically exported to the billing system, thus eradicating errors and improving sales administration productivity.

Deal monitoring

At the end of each invoicing period (monthly or weekly), compliance alerts signal contracts showing deviance between actual and committed/expected transaction profile, i.e. margin, revenue, order volume or other transaction profile characteristics which have an impact on contract margin such as product mix, time period profile, geographical profile…

Price change management

DM enables to determine the target price plan that matches actual deal transaction profile and compare impact versus actual price plan. At contract anniversary, target price increases are defined by type of contract/account and exceptions are managed through a specific workflow.