Increase Revenue with Extended Reality for Quote to Cash
As a new digital revenue channel and dynamic customer support tools, extended reality (XR) solutions for Q2C processes offer businesses unique and immense value in increasing revenue and improving customer satisfaction.
Augmented reality, or AR, refers to an enhancement or change to the existing reality around a user; using technology to overlay digital information on an image of something being viewed by the user’s device.
Virtual reality (VR) creates an artificial environment that is experienced through multiple senses (such as sight and sound), and where a user’s actions will influence the environment and the events within it.
With new wearable technologies hitting the market, and increased computing power because of developments in other areas like AI and 5G, we will see a major rise in the use and availability of mixed reality experiences.
Maturing mixed reality technology, as well as the business outcomes that can be achieved, are dependent on the development of additional disruptive technologies like 5G and artificial intelligence.
For example, technology for extended reality (augmented and virtual reality, mixed reality) has historically been clunky because it relies on the use of wearables for a fully rendered 3D, mobile experience, and 4G did not have the network connectivity capabilities. Users would experience lag and with XR headsets this can even lead to problems like nausea and dizziness, which is an extremely poor user experience and a serious deterrent to the adoption of these devices. 5G finally offers the high speeds and low latency (delay) necessary to address bandwidth needs for these technologies as well as the capacity to support a rapidly increasing number of online devices worldwide.
As extended reality technologies have matured in the last few years and are increasingly utilized and sold by businesses, you may be thinking about what they can offer your business.
The first consideration is - will your business incorporate augmented or virtual reality technology into the products or services they sell? Or will you leverage AR or VR technology in your Q2C process to solve a problem? Both?
Monetizing Augmented & Virtual Reality
To sell an AR or VR product or service, a company will typically employ multiple monetization strategies. Some examples would be:
A customer makes a one-time payment on a wearable device
A customer pays a monthly subscription fee for access to a virtual world
A customer completes individual transactions for triggers/events in a virtual or augmented reality setting
A customer makes payments at the end of established time periods, based on their usage and interactions with the virtual or augmented reality environment.
Leveraging Extended Reality in Quote to Cash Solutions
Extended reality tools have a lot to offer organizations today. Solutions have matured to support use cases in manufacturing, warehousing, and even in medicine. Within a single organization, several specific functions within the Monetization Ecosystem could improve with positive impacts on revenue and expenses.
Supporting Customers
Streamlining Day-to-Day Activities
Selling CPQ & Ecommerce
Virtual selling environments and interactive product visualizations immerse buyers and helps quickly move them to final product decisions with confidence. Real-time rendering of product configuration improves efficiency by eliminating the need for sales to go back and forth with a CAD team for new requests and updates. Clearly defined expectations because of these visual configurators reduce risks and expenses related to errors in the product manufacturing and delivery processes.
Key People & Processes of AR / VR
People
AR / VR potentially touches most of an enterprise's organizations.
SALES
Finance - Billing
Operations
CUSTOMER SERVICE
FINANCE
CUSTOMER SUCCESS
LEGAL
MARKETING
Process
Up to 41 of ATG's 100 Key Monetization Processes could likely be affected by implementing AR / VR into a company's Quote to Cash systems. Below is a list of those processes, grouped by the org primarily responsible for the stated process:
Cross-Sell Processing - Initial Order
Selling a customer an additional product or service from what they had originally requested at the time of ordering. This process is separate from Cross-Sell Processing - Ongoing.
Quote - Product Configuration
Configuration of features and attributes of products and services prior to a sale. Typical in a custom solution environment.
Up-Sell Processing - Initial Order
Selling customers a better product or service than they originally expressed interest in, at the time of order.
Sales Reporting
Collecting and analyzing data to inform on key sales and company performance metrics, including revenue and cost analyses, individual and team performance, employee churn, and sales to business model alignment.
Order Entry - Call Center (Inbound or Outbound)
Creating a new service for a customer originated by internal users such as an inside sales organization. Or a customer support group wants to create new orders for an existing customer. Includes capturing the necessary information to provision and bill for the service effectively.
Order Entry - E-Commerce
Creating a new service for a customer, including capturing the necessary information to provision and bill for the service effectively.
Order Entry - Partners
Creating a new service for a customer that is originated via a Partner Channel, including capturing the necessary information to provision and bill for the service effectively.
Order Entry - SFA
Creating a new service for a customer originated by internal users such Customer Support or Partners, as a culmination of the opportunity, quote, contract, and order lifecycle.
Inventory Management - Logical
The process a company uses to manage the consumption of non-physical asset inventory levels including inventory creation and deletion.
Inventory Management - Physical
The process a company uses to manage the consumption and replenishment of tangible inventory levels.
Order Management - Orchestration
The business processes related to customer orders for products or services. Typically important when there are complex products and services that span multiple provisioning and fulfillment options. Bundling of disparate products, or bundling of products and services (PS, Training, etc.) can add to the need for Order Management.
Proactive Customer Notification - Operations Focus (CC Expiry, Payment Received Notification)
A proactive approach to notify customers of pertinent payment information, particularly keeping Credit Cards current to limit number and impact of reject processing.
Professional Services Automation
Tools and processes related to management and deployment of professional services.
Service Provisioning / Activation
The process of activating or de-activating a service or product for a particular customer.
Proactive Customer Notification - Marketing Focus (New Lead, Up-Sell/Cross-Sell Existing)
Similar to pro-active notification from a Customer Success perspective, this process is specifically targeted to generating additional revenue from information captured about a customer, account, or user that can be turned into a Lead.
Export Compliance Processing
Managing and adhering to the federal and international export compliance requirements.
PCI Compliance
Ability for customer to satisfy contractually obligated PCI requirements.
Cross-Training of Monetization Ecosystem Components
Process for training organizational resources
Bill Day Usage Processing
The process of invoicing usage that has been accumulating since the previous statement/invoice period. Bill day usage processing includes calculation of charges, potential overage, decrementing credit balances, and managing rollover and pooled usage constructs.
Billing Setup Process
Tasks and functions associated with setting up the billing processes for given products and services.
Credit Card Processing
Methods to receive credit card payments including authorization, payment gateway, processing, interchange, and credit card success/failures.
Daily Usage Processing
Methods used to track consumption of usage units associated with a given billing period. Usage Processing includes mediation, loading, rating, and guiding usage to the appropriate billing account. This information will be used to update the customer on current consumption, as well as to be processed during bill day invoicing processes.
Dunning Processing
The process a business goes through to initiate collection of a past due payment from a customer. Includes reporting on aged balances and monitoring revenue leakage associated with past due balances.
Invoice Finishing & Delivery
Typically, billing engines produce raw invoice or statement data. Often, external applications are used to package this data for presentation on a paper invoice, electronic distribution, or alternate media. Most billing engines have rudimentary invoice presentation capability.
Payment Processing
The steps taken to process different payment methods from customers.
SOX/Regulatory Compliance
The ability to provide proof of internal controls to prevent fraud and material misstatements.
System Auditability
Provides assurance that source system data is accurate, and a paper trail exists from a transaction to financial statements.
Financial Statement Preparation
Production of accurate, auditable, and presentable financial statements in the most efficient manner possible.
Revenue Recognition Processing - Contract Line Item Segmentation
Methods used to categorize contract items to ensure revenue is recognized properly.
Revenue Recognition Processing - Earned Trigger Processing
Method for appropriately triggering revenue recognition events.
Case Management Processing
A key aspect of Customer Service used for creating, managing, and completing requests from the customer. This process can include creation and management of cases by end customers, internal agents, and partners.
Cross-Sell Processing - Ongoing
A central method for increasing Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and is the process of selling additional product(s) or service(s) to a customer during the customers' entire lifetime with your company. This process is separate from Cross-sell Processing - Initial order.
End-Customer Self-Help
The way a customer can resolve problems on their own.
End-Customer Self-Help Mobile
The way a customer can resolve problems on their own via a mobile platform.
End-Customer Account Maintenance
The methods by which a customer can manage their own account details via customer portal, website, within the product, etc.
Knowledge Management
The ability of a business to identify, create, and distribute information quickly across their customer base, organizations responsible for managing customers, and other key areas of the organization.
Proactive Customer Notification - Success Focus (Recommendations, Advice of Charge, Overage Notifications)
Exceeding customer expectations by using data and triggers to notify them of an opportunity or looming risk.
Up-Sell Processing - Ongoing
A central method for increasing Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and is the process of moving a customer to a better or higher version of a product or service throughout their lifetime with your company. This process is separate from Up-Sell Processing - Initial Order.
Loyalty Program Management
The way in which a business manages incentivized programs to retain its best customers. Different from NPS/CSAT initiatives, this is a specific program to capture customer history and provide offers/discounts based on loyalty and usage.
New Customer Onboarding
The process of creating a customer account, properly provisioning products and/or services, and communicating welcoming messages.
Daily, Periodic, or Ad Hoc Reporting (ETL, Report, Dashboard)
Movement of data between domains to create a single source of truth for reporting and dashboarding. Includes key metrics such as revenue analytics and other KPIs
Notably, designing these visual configurators with collaboration between the sales and engineering teams is critical to increasing the speed and quality of quotes, and eliminating errors from product configuration to manufacturing.
Additionally, implementing these technologies and/or monetizing them in your business will require addressing monetization operations holistically across your ecosystem. You’ll have to consider cross-training, data stewardship, monitoring vendor updates and releases, and security oversight.
A pillar of successful implementations and generally solution architecture is to never make decisions or changes in a vacuum. There will always be upstream and downstream considerations and impacts for any change to people, processes, or technology.
Achieving Business Outcomes
Businesses can experience a variety of improvements from AR and VR solutions, of course depending on the domain in which it is implemented. Across sales, field service, and other applications, look to make these improvements to your Q2C process.
Increase Revenue
- Improve Perfect Order Performance
- Increase Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), Bundle Penetration, Up-sell, Cross-sell, and Renewal Revenue, Win / Conversion Rates across sales channels, Deal Size, and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
- Decrease quoting and approval time, and overall time to Closed Won
Decrease Expense & Reduce Risk
- Increase Average Customer Lifespan
- Decrease Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), New Resource Training Time, Credit Adjustment Frequency
- Decrease Manufacturing Error Rate
- Decrease Travel Costs
Improve Employee & Customer Satisfaction
- Optimize Average Call Handle Time
- Increase First Call Resolutions
- Decrease Response Time and Return to Service Time
- Reduce Customer Churn
AR / VR Vendor Solutions
ESSENTIALS
Founded: 2005
HQ: Chicago, IL
Company Type: Private
Website: Â www.threekit.com
Delivery Method: Cloud
OVERVIEW
ThreeKit can increase quote activity and accuracy, save time, and land bigger deals with 3D and AR.Â
PRODUCT & SERVICES:
- 3D Configurator
- Virtual Photographer
- AR for Ecommerce & B2B Sales
TARGET MARKET
ThreeKit’s target market is companies of all sizes, typically in retail & B2B sales, or in manufacturing.
CUSTOMERS
- Crate&Barrel
- HP
- TaylorMade
- Lovesac
- Herman Miller
ESSENTIALS
Founded: 2002
HQ: Eden Prairie, MN
Company Type: PrivateÂ
Website: www.axonom.com
Delivery Method: Cloud and On-Premise
OVERVIEW
Axonom, part of Revalize Software, develops and designs cloud-based quoting, ordering, and product configuration solutions for the high-tech, manufacturing, and services industries. Axonom is a worldwide leader in marrying visual product configurator software with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences. Together, Powertrak 3D Product Configurator and Powertrak Virtual Reality enable sales, channel partners, and customers around the world to visually build products and design environments, then experience it in virtual reality.
PRODUCT & SERVICES:
- 2D & 3D Visual Configurators
- AR / VR Tools to Validate Product Configurations
TARGET MARKET
Axonom targets companies of all sizes, typically in the Manufacturing, High Tech, and Healthcare industries.
CUSTOMERS
- Skytron
- Dell
ESSENTIALS
Founded: 2013
HQ: Israel
Company Type: Private
Website: fieldbit.net
Delivery Method: Cloud
OVERVIEW
Fieldbit, a Help Lightning company, provides industrial asset manufacturers and asset owners with an enterprise-grade, multi-source field service knowledge software platform that uses augmented reality to meet the challenges facing field service technicians as they service expensive, complex equipment in hostile environments where any amount of downtime is hugely expensive.Â
PRODUCT & SERVICES:
- Augmented Reality for Field Service
TARGET MARKET
Fieldbit's target market is mid-to-large-sized companies in either manufacturing or field services
CUSTOMERS
- Honeywell
- Emerson
- BPX Energy
ESSENTIALS
Founded: 1984
HQ: Quarry Bay, Hong Kong
Company Type: Public
Website: www.lenovo.com/
Delivery Method: Cloud + Hardware
OVERVIEW
The Lenovo ThinkReality platform provides a proven, scalable, and streamlined path from proof of concept to productivity for enterprise AR/VR applications. It’s the only complete solution that lets you focus on problem-solving by working across diverse hardware and software. Build, deploy, and manage applications and content on a global scale, with global support.
PRODUCT & SERVICES:
- ThinkReality enterprise XR Platform
- ThinkReality A3 Industrial Edition Smart Glasses
- ThinkReality A6
TARGET MARKET
Lenovo's ThinkReality targets companies in warehousing, field services, and manufacturing
ESSENTIALS
Founded: 1997
HQ: West Henrietta, NY
Company Type: Public
Website: www.vuzix.com
Delivery Method: Cloud + Hardware
OVERVIEW
Vuzix is a leading supplier of Smart-Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and products for defense, industrial, and enterprise markets. The Company's products include personal display and wearable computing devices that offer users a portable high-quality viewing experience, provide solutions for mobility, wearable displays, and virtual and augmented reality.
PRODUCT & SERVICES:
- M4000 Smart Glasses for field service
TARGET MARKET
Vuzix primarily targets Healthcare, Manufacturing, Warehousing, and Field Services
ESSENTIALS
Founded: 2019
HQ: Austin, TX
Company Type: Privately Held
Website: www.renderdraw.us
Delivery Method: Cloud
OVERVIEW
Manufacturers use RenderDraw for visual configuration, guided selling, and self-service. Product catalogs become interactive using 3D drawings or 2D images and integrate directly with any Salesforce application. Touch a component to display related Salesforce records and actions. Engage users, reduce errors and improve the customer experience with RenderDraw.
PRODUCT & SERVICES:
- 3D modeling for multiple sales channels
TARGET MARKET
RederDraw targets manufacturing companies and businesses using Salesforce Service, Sales, Commerce, and Community Cloud.
ESSENTIALS
Founded: 2009
HQ: Austin, TX
Company Type: Private
Website: www.kbmax.com
Delivery Method: Cloud
OVERVIEW
Epicor CPQ, formerly KBMax, provides 2D and 3D product visualization that dynamically changes your product preview, options, and pricing in real-time – all based on options the user is selecting.Â
PRODUCT & SERVICES:
- 3D Visualization
- 2D Visualization
- Website Embedding
TARGET MARKET
Epicor CPQ targets Manufacturing, Bio-Tech, Heavy Equipment, High-Tech, and Retail companies.
CUSTOMERS
- Merck
- Ball
- Timberlane
- Thermo Fisher Scientific
