Event
On 25 September 2012, ServiceSource, a provider of recurring revenue management services and software, announced the general release of Renew OnDemand, a cloud application designed to analyze and manage companies' recurring revenue.
Analysis
According to ServiceSource, the Renew OnDemand software suite offers a unique approach to managing recurring revenue, in that it enables enterprises to use real-time analytics to examine their installed base of customers for revenue opportunities.
Recurring revenue management is a growing market, and not just for technology providers keeping track of their service and support renewals. Many companies with large installed bases of renewal customers struggle to maintain an accurate view of who buys their products and services month after month, and battle with complex spreadsheet-based systems. And they increasingly have to capitalize on every customer opportunity to meet and exceed their revenue targets. In such an environment, revenue from existing customer relationships represents a frequently undervalued asset.
Typically, organizations rely on basic reporting, pricing/billing tools or contract management to handle their recurring revenue. Depending on the complexity of the recurring or renewal business, or lack thereof, pricing, billing and contract management systems can work well, and have sufficed so far.
Among its features, Renew OnDemand can:
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Use data from existing systems (such as CRM and ERP) to provide qualitative benchmarking of key metrics.
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Systematically analyze company performance by contract size, customer segment, product group, service level, distributor or reseller, throughout the customer life cycle.
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Provide insight and best practices for recurring or renewal revenue management.
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Track nuances in the data.
ServiceSource tells Gartner that this is the only product of its kind in the market. But Gartner believes that new technologies from other vendors already offer similar functionality — or are likely to in future. In some respects, Renew OnDemand may look much like the CRM systems currently in place in many companies, and these organizations may question the need for yet another one.
These issues will lessen Renew OnDemand's potential uniqueness. But the net effect will be to improve the lot of most companies struggling to keep track of their recurring revenue. Gartner believes that, while there many competing products on the market that tackle recurring revenue issues, such as those from NetSuite and MaxQ, Renew OnDemand’s approach could help to steer the market in a new direction.
