Are you procrastinating the decision to automate your provisioning and billing process? Not quite sure if this is the right time to start yet? Let us tell you what you are depriving yourself of if you wait until the last moment.
The promising cloud has arrived
In our industry it has been buzzing around for years: “This year the cloud will make its breakthrough!” And we will be the first to admit: we also expected it years sooner. However, this year we have seen evidence of the cloud becoming commonplace.
Microsoft announced a huge growth in 2017 and notices legacy users are starting to adopt cloud services now as well. We see our customers growing rapidly in cloud licences and solutions. We have recognized it at Microsoft Inspire 2018 in Las Vegas: Microsoft partners who were holding back last year were most eager to talk about automation this year. Another indication is the growth of Azure, which we handle via our Automation Platform for our partners.
There is no denying that cloud services are the future. If you want to benefit from this market development, you will need to be prepared. Automating your provisioning and billing process is key.
Consequences of delay
To be a Tier-1 partner, Microsoft sets automated provisioning and billing as a condition. They know that without, you will not be able to process your licences accurate and fast enough, as a minimum sales volume and growth ambition are other set conditions for this status.
Even if you are not aiming to be Tier-1, you will deprive yourself if you keep on delaying automation. Read the following 5 consequences of delaying and ask yourself: What am I waiting for?
1. Not scalable
If your customers grow and ask for more licences or if more customers come to knock on your door, you must be able to quickly scale your sales. When you are still processing your invoices manually, this is impossible. Especially as Azure’s pricing is extremely complicated.
2. Complicated migration
The longer you wait with automating your processes, the more complicated it becomes to migrate to another automation or billing system. The complexity will increase even further, the more your customer and solutions bases expand.
3. No acceleration
Once you have your business process automated, you will be able to focus better on your customers, as manual tasks take less time from you and your staff. You will be able to serve their needs and accelerate your sales.
4. Falling behind on your competitors
More businesses are adopting cloud services, as we saw before. They expect you to deliver fast. If you cannot or not fast enough, your customers will turn to competitors who can.
5. No portfolio expansion
There are plenty of different cloud services and your customer will have increasing demands in the future. If your back-office is well configured, it will be easier to expand your product offer to other services as well.
Hop on the cloud now
If costs are the reasons why you are hesitating to automate your business, you can set up a business case. In our whitepaper, we provide you with the tools to estimate your future benefits versus your investment in automation.
Our advice is to start now. Even if you do not want to automate all your services at once, just start with your CSP or 365+ services and continue from there. Once you start, it will be easier to extend.
If you need any help setting up the business case or if you would like to discuss possibilities for your company, do not hesitate to contact us. We will be most happy to sit down together and talk about your opportunities.
Thijs van Hofwegen – Chief Commercial Officer