May 20, 2013
20 years after the first banner advertisement, most common digital ad delivery platforms are serving up highly targeted ads—knowing that you're a Gen-Y female Knicks fan sitting in a Starbucks in London. So why is the most common ad billing platform still Microsoft Excel?
Digital, social, and now mobile technologies have transformed the publishing and advertising industries. Media giants like The New York Times, Condé Nast, IPC Media, Hearst, and NBC Universal have achieved this transformation by embracing flexible cloud-based front office systems to support key sales, marketing, and e-commerce activities. Now, progressive media organizations are recognizing that their back office systems—supporting digital media billing and business processes—also need to be migrated to the cloud, in order to drive improved customer relationships and speed up time-to-billing cycles.
For ad operations professionals who support the billing process, inefficient and cumbersome digital media billing systems have become all too common. Forced to rely on manual processes, spreadsheets, and homegrown systems, the monthly reconciliation process for even a single client can turn into a taxing, tedious, ordeal. However, this issue extends far beyond the operations department.
Most online media companies have master customer information strewn redundantly across siloed systems, making it difficult for sales, operations, and finance leaders to have a consolidated view of customer data—and often, causing the dreaded ‘multiple versions of the truth’ problem. In addition, with no single or central repository to house customer relationship management (CRM) systems, billing, accounts receivable, and ad server data, an organization’s ability to respond to emerging customer needs can be significantly hindered. Your salespeople are likely missing out on opportunities to enhance customer engagement and increase your company’s bottom line.
Here are three competitive advantages of optimizing your media billing system:
- Better relationships
A single repository for customer data that is automatically updated to reflect print or digital activity means more productive and profitable relationships between your ad sales team and your clients. - Customer responsiveness
Having a complete view of account activity and better business intelligence allows Sales to be more responsive to customer needs and better identify cross-sell opportunities. - Better visibility
A single system of record allows business decision-makers to quickly and easily see what is going on within certain accounts and regions. This also allows for real-time financial reporting and accurate forecasting.
It’s time to do things differently.
To stay ahead in the competitive media industry, companies need to recast their processes and technologies across both the front and back offices. A handful of spreadsheets and the commitment of your operations and finance teams to work overtime at month-end won’t cut it anymore. Your ad operations team needs to spend less time on frustrating busywork. Finance needs a quicker way to reconcile bookings and billings, so your organization can get paid faster. In addition, your sales team needs a 360° view of all customer interactions to address changing market demands. For more information about how Bluewolf helps progressive media companies streamline the way they sell and realize revenues, contact us.
