The ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ provides a comprehensive view of the technology components that are relevant to managing customers and revenue in the rapidly evolving service provider industries. For a given company, the areas of focus will be different and will likely include focus on different components of the ecosystem. For example, a company that provides products and services to the consumer market through the e-commerce channel will require a different set of technologies than a business-to-business company that sells to customers via a negotiated selling model with quotes and rigorous contracts.

We've created the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ in several formats. The first is a simplified format that describes the categories of technology that are likely familiar to most organizations in a service provider environment.

Click or tap on one of the domain boxes in the graphic below to see an in-depth look at the people, processes, technologies, and vendors that are a part of that domain.

Today, most executives are familiar with the concept of CRM-SFA, eCommerce, Partner Relationship Management, Credit Card Processing, etc. This format is useful for identifying high-level categories of functionality that are necessary for a particular customer. The diagram can be used for a variety of purposes, for example to highlight areas where investment is necessary to meet corporate objectives.

Many of these components are familiar to our clients and are mature functions with many proven technology choices. Credit Card Processing is an example of a mature segment, with a variety of proven, low risk options. Areas such as Configure | Price | Quote, and Billing & Collections Engines are a bit more amorphous in their composition and maturity. Companies need to be very careful with their technology choices in these areas.

Some domains, such as Marketing automation, were mere blips on the radar a few years back while others – such as Usage Processing – have been around forever, but have been repositioned based on the emergence of industry trends such as Internet of Things and expansion of recurring revenue models.

The diagram below depicts an architecture view of the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™. In this diagram the 18 components are decomposed to more than 140 sub domains that represent functionality typically resident within the domain. This is a crucial level of detail to ‘double click’ on a particular capability to ensure the right level of detail is being evaluated. For example, if you are a company operating in a recurring revenue model, with pre-paid usage plan for select markets, you would need to further evaluate the ‘Billing & Collections’ area function to ensure you know the high-level capabilities needed to support your business requirements. Upon scrutiny with this level of detail, gaps in capability to support desired business process often become evident.

Which came first – the chicken or the egg?

Which is more important in football – Offense, Defense, or Special Teams?

Which is more important on a car – engine, steering, or brakes?

Where should organizations focus to optimize their customers and revenue – People, Process, or Technology?

You get the point. Obviously, all three need to be clicking to maximize the relationship with the customer. However, as a consulting company, every day we see that companies are not achieving the necessary balance across these three domains. Typical examples of ‘out of sync’ people, process, and technology that we encounter regularly are as follows:

Effective management of the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ means a targeted focus in three areas - People, Process, and Technology.

For a service provider, there is no meaningful business process that does not require efficient balancing of People, Process, and Technology. This has always been the case, and savvy CIOs have found ways to balance technology investments with supporting people and process initiatives in conjunction with their business counterparts.

As the pace of technology quickens, the need for finding appropriate balance has never been more important. We live in an era where anything as a service has replaced fixed, capital investments in products, which means customers have never had more flexibility to move to an alternate, competing service provider.

In addition, social media has created the opportunity to win, or lose, customers at an unprecedented pace. One embarrassing interaction with a customer can lead to significantly more than just one lost customer.

The organizations within an enterprise ecosystem that touch the different Monetization systems.

There are 75 processes in the Monetization Ecosystem that support enterprise customers and revenues. While most of these processes span multiple domains of a company’s ecosystem, the monetization processes are shown with the organization that owns the process.

Below are the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ domains in which most company's Sales organizations primarily carry out the below key processes.

• Opportunity Management
• Cross-Sell Processing – Initial Order
• Opportunity Management
• Partner Management
• Partner Transaction Management
• Quote – Product Configuration
• Quote – Product/Service Discount
• Quote – Product/Service Pricing
• Up-Sell Processing – Initial Order Order Entry
• Renewal Processing
• Daily, Periodic, or Ad Hoc Reporting (extract, load, report dashboard)

Below are the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ domains in which most company's Customer Service organizations primarily carry out the below key processes.

• Opportunity Management
• Cross-Sell Processing – Initial Order
• Opportunity Management
• Partner Management
• Partner Transaction Management
• Quote – Product Configuration
• Quote – Product/Service Discount
• Quote – Product/Service Pricing
• Up-Sell Processing – Initial Order Order Entry
• Renewal Processing
• Daily, Periodic, or Ad Hoc Reporting (extract, load, report dashboard)

Below are the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ domains in which most company's Customer Service organizations primarily carry out the below key processes.

• Customer Usage Monitoring
• Loyalty Program Management
• New Customer Onboarding
• NPS/CSAT Monitoring
• Retention/Churn Monitoring
• Social Network Monitoring
• Daily, Periodic, or Ad Hoc Reporting (extract, load, report dashboard)

Below are the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ domains in which most company's Product organizations primarily carry out key processes.

• Bundled Product Introduction Process
• Entitlement Processing
• New Product Introduction Process
• New Product Introduction Process – Mobile
• New Product Monetization Process
• Promotion & Discount Introduction
• Trial Processing
• Daily, Periodic, or Ad Hoc Reporting (extract, load, report dashboard)

Below are the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ domains in which most company's Marketing organizations primarily carry out the below key processes.

• Lead Management
• Proactive Customer Notification – Marketing Focus (new lead, up-sell/cross-sell existing)
• Daily, Periodic, or Ad Hoc Reporting (extract, load, report dashboard)

Below are the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ domains in which most company's Operations organizations primarily carry out the below key processes.

• Inventory Management – Physical
• Inventory Management – Logical
• Order Management
• Proactive Customer Notification – Operations (cc expiry, notification of payment received)
• Professional Services Automation
• Quote – Product/Service Approval
• Service Provisioning/Activation
• Daily, Periodic, or Ad Hoc Reporting (extract, load, report dashboard)

Below are the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ domains in which most company's Finance - Billing organizations primarily carry out the below key processes.

• Balance Management – Prepaid, Deposit, Rollover
• Bill Day Usage Processing
• Bill Run Operations
• Billing Setup Process
• Billing/Invoice Processing – Recurring & Periodic
• Credit Card Optimization
• Credit Card Processing
• Daily Usage Processing
• Dunning Processing
• Dispute/Adjustment Processing
• Invoice Finishing & Delivery
• Payment Processing
• Subscription Management
• Daily, Periodic, or Ad Hoc Reporting (extract, load, report dashboard)

Below are the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ domains in which most company's Finance organizations primarily carry out the below key processes.

• Collections/Treatment Processing
• Commissions Processing
• Revenue Recognition Processing – Contract Line Item Segmentation
• Revenue Recognition Processing – Earned Trigger Processing
• Tax Processing
• Daily, Periodic, or Ad Hoc Reporting (extract, load, report dashboard)

Below are the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ domains in which most company's Legal organizations primarily carry out the below key processes.

• Contract Lifecycle Management
• Export Compliance Processing
• Daily, Periodic, or Ad Hoc Reporting (extract, load, report dashboard)

Below are the ATG Monetization Ecosystem™ domains in which most company's I.T. organizations primarily carry out the below key processes.

• All previously listed processes

Software category breakdown across the individual domains of the Monetization Ecosystem.

For IT leaders, the following diagram is provided to show the Monetization Ecosystem divided into typical classes of Software. This is a bit more fine-grained view that is loosely associated with the best of breed categories of software that are prevalent in the service provider technology space. For example, a CRM tool is no longer a clear term. In technology there are now specific providers that work in Customer Success, vs. Call Center Operations vs. E-Commerce vs. Trouble Ticketing/Case Management. All of these could be considered components of CRM, but the savvy technology buyer needs to understand options on how to acquire that capability in an integrated or best of breed manner.

The Technology Monetization Ecosystem is rapidly changing – if you are a vendor building solutions in the service provider space, we’d love to hear from you. The ATG Ecosystem is a growing, evolving model and feedback and debate are welcomed. Inquiries can be made at sales@atginfo.com.

Key vendors within the software categories of the Monetization Ecosystem.

Every presentation needs a NASCAR logo slide, right?

Here is ATG’s view of the key vendors in the Monetization Ecosystem. This is a blend of tried and true providers with up and coming start-ups. The pace of evolution within this ecosystem, even within individual categories, is dizzying. New start-ups are popping up all over the landscape, and we are beginning to see significant consolidation in the space. The past two decades have seen massive custom systems, early development of Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) solutions, to massive integrated suites, to best of breed, to the emergence of multi-tenancy, to where we are today – which is a mix of old and new. Today’s CIO is faced with myriad technology options and must have a solid overall technology plan, underpinned by strong vendor solutions that work well together.