Usage Billing Use Cases | Omni Copy June 2024

Usage Billing

Maximize profits using Customer perception of Value

Companies can use pricing to reflect the value of a service to a market. But when you connect pricing to situational demand, companies can create increased value and competitive differentiation. Data from IoT sensors or operational systems can provide insights into usage, capacity, availability of assets or customer behavior, which can then be used to guide a customer’s behavior through pricing incentives.

Challenge

Pricing services for broad markets is very general and causes money to be left on the table. Not all customers, in all segments, in all locations, in all situations will value your services at a similar price. Connecting pricing to customer situations will enable you to maximize revenue and provide optimal value to customers.

Example: An automotive service repair company provides services to commercial fleet vehicles. Fleet vehicles that need urgent repair are often turned away because service bays are full. Fleet owners have to seek alternate repair providers as having vehicles unavailable impacts deliveries, sales and their customers satisfaction.

Omniware Approach

Using Dynamics Billing, a service provider, such as an automotive repair business, can increase the value of its services by offering maintenance services at standard rates and urgent services at premium rates. Moreover, the premium pricing can be set according to customers' contracts. Customers that require standard services are provided standard prices until the forecast utilization of services bays hits 75%; this incents customers with planned maintenance services to select dates that have less utilization (and later dates). Customers that have urgent needs can select sooner dates with availability but with premium pricing.

Dynamics Billing has a powerful data mediation hub, which assesses data from IoT sensors or operational systems for the purposes of rating specific customer types. Moreover situational rules can be applied to offer customers pricing unique to their segment and situation. So that each category of service is priced according to the situational value of the customer.

Benefits

Maximize revenue
Improve customer satisfaction
Improve the value of services for customers by recognizing their unique situations.
Improve market share by insights of situational awareness

Value Perception

Usage based charging

Companies and industries are discovering that profitability and customer value can be enhanced by gaining insights from customer behavior and product and service utilization and offering pricing / rating that reflects this usage. Usage based charging can greatly enable data driven businesses. These mechanisms can enable competitive advantage against less capable competitors. For example in automotive markets manufacturers are creating repositories of vehicle operational data from IoT sensors. In Utilities, companies capture hourly consumption from meters. In Telecom, providers capture bandwidth usage from carriers' operational support systems.

Challenge

Many companies do not have the capability to offer pricing or charging at granular levels that reflect a customer's situation, location or segment. Not all customers, in all segments, in all locations, in all situations will value your services at a similar price. Connecting pricing / rating / charging to customer situations will enable you to maximize revenue and provide optimal value to customers.

Usage based charging allows you to overcome these challenges and creates competitive opportunities.

Omniware Approach

Dynamics Billing has a powerful data mediation hub, which assesses data from IoT sensors or operational systems for the purposes of rating specific customer situations. Moreover situational rules, such as revenue thresholds, service utilization or customer contract terms can be applied to offer customers pricing unique to their segment and situation.

For example, in the energy industry, hourly electricity use is captured from utility meters and offset by power generated from community solar panels. Customers can be charged net amounts of power from the utility vs locally generated solar power at each specific time of day.

Benefits

Maximize revenue
Improve customer satisfaction
Incent customer loyalty
Improve the value of services for customers by recognizing their unique situations.
Improve market share by creating loyalty through situational awareness

Usage Based Charging

Increase market share with Optimized Pricing

Companies who offer commodity products or services and are looking to increase market share have challenges doing so. There are many examples of highly competitive industries, such as Telecom providers offering bandwidth or mobile plans to consumers, Industrial parts suppliers that have many competitors when selling to manufacturers or distributors or vehicle repair shops vying for fleet business. Optimized pricing can allow these companies to guarantee their end-customers that they will provide the best value pricing for their products and services.

Challenge

These businesses have the challenge of creating pricing bundles in industries that are highly competitive and commoditized. This leads to challenges in creating pricing plans to gain market share without impacting profit margins. For example a telecom provider that resells business customers bulk SIM pricing plans offers its customers a high-quality product and service. It wants to bridge carrier plans with flexible bulk pricing to capture a greater market share amidst similar offerings from its competitors.

Omniware Approach

Dynamics Billing uses an innovative Optimized Pricing algorithm coupled with assessing usage data to calculate charges for end-customers by comparing customers’ monthly usage against competitors’ plans, selecting and issuing the lowest invoice price. With the Telecom Price Guarantee, telecom resellers can offer the best price in a jurisdiction for all services, such as Mobile and Roaming.

Benefits

Gain market share by offering customers a best price guarantee
Create competitive advantage by doing what competitors cannot
Reward customer loyalty through guarantees
Increase customer satisfaction by guaranteeing customers are getting the best deal

Optimized Pricing

Optimized Costing

Companies who acquire commodity products or services from suppliers typically have multiple suppliers to reduce risk and desire to acquire at the lowest price. Optimized costing allows companies to acquire products and services at the most optimized price and terms. For example manufacturers and distributors are looking for the lowest price and best terms from amongst their common parts suppliers.

Challenge

Suppliers pricing, terms and deliveries are frequently changing, moreover supply chain shocks and inflation can cause havoc to costs and deliveries. Pricing and terms changes make it difficult to track lowest pricing. For example Manufacturing or distributors who acquire commoditized parts from multiple suppliers at terms and at the lowest price to ensure consistent profitability.

Omniware Approach

Supplier pricing plans, terms and forecast deliveries can be automatically updated in Dynamics Billing. Forecast usage of products are compared against all suppliers plans and terms and the lowest invoice cost from the Supplier is awarded for the next order.

Benefits

Lowest cost Suppliers at the best terms are always selected
Supply cost spikes and terms are minimized
Supply based costs are controlled

Optimized Costing

Real Time Pricing incentivising customer loyalty

Real Time Pricing can greatly enable data driven businesses. A company can use data and pricing to attract and retain customers or provide value added services. These mechanisms can enable a long term competitive advantage against less capable competitors.

Challenge

Example: Condominium businesses are looking to create a revenue model that will ensure long-term customers in a highly competitive market. Condo corps provide various services to residents and nearby customers, while also competing with the similar services offered by local competition. They need a way to calculate loyalty incentive pricing to attract and retain customers.

Omniware Approach

Using Dynamics Billing, a service provider can incent loyalty with its customers by directing them to available service options through incentive pricing. Dynamics Billing has a powerful data mediation hub, which assesses data from IoT sensors or operational systems for the purposes of rating specific customer situations. Moreover situational rules, such as revenue thresholds, can be applied to offer customers pricing unique to their segment and situation.

For example, by looking at the various monthly costs that current condominium customers pay for condo services, such as rent, parking, using the party room, etc…, condo corps can incent loyalty by rewarding purchase of additional services (such as laundry, sports equipment, EV charging) above a revenue threshold. These additional purchases can be offered at a discount.

Benefits

Maximize revenue
Improve customer satisfaction
Incent customer loyalty
Improve the value of services for customers by recognizing their unique situations.
Improve market share by creating loyalty through situational awareness

Customer Loyalty

Real Time Pricing via customer behaviour insights

Companies can use pricing to reflect the value of a service to a market. But when you connect pricing to situational changes in supply or demand, companies can create increased value and competitive differentiation. Data from IoT sensors or operational systems can provide insights into usage, capacity, availability of assets or customer behavior, which can then be used to guide a customer’s behavior through pricing incentives.

Challenge

Example: A laundromat business finds that some locations can become over utilized, while other locations are being underutilized. It wants to better balance its machines capacity and location availability to avoid customer frustration waiting in line for machines and direct them to available machines in other locations at potentially lower prices.

Omniware Approach

Using Dynamics Billing, a service provider, such as a laundromat business, can provide greater convenience to its customers by directing them to available service options by offering incentive pricing. Dynamics Billing has a powerful data mediation hub, which assesses data from IoT sensors or operational systems for the purposes of rating specific customer types. Moreover situational rules can be applied to offer customers pricing unique to their segment and situation.

For example, the laundromat provides a web app to direct customers to the closest laundromat. Service utilization is tracked by IoT sensors on each machine. When a location becomes >80% utilized, the Dynamics Billing real time pricing algorithm offers customers incentive pricing at neighboring locations.

Benefits

Maximize revenue
Improve customer satisfaction
Improve the value of services for customers by recognizing their unique situations.
Improve market share by insights of situational awareness
Reduce maintenance costs by spreading utilization of machines / equipment facilities

Customer Insights

Maximize value of perishable goods

Companies in agriculture, food service, pharmaceutical, medical, chemical or in other industries that make, or distribute products with defined lifespan realize that the value of their products diminish as expiry dates approach. These companies require highly efficient supply chains and manufacturing processes in order to optimize the lifespan of their products. Any disruption to logistics, distribution, or shortage of input products will reduce lifespan of these products.

Challenge

Products with a defined lifespan will be typically priced based on date. Products that are close to expiry will be discounted based on the length of time remaining for distribution to final markets. However, the value of these goods will degrade even further if there are disruptions to refrigeration, cold chain logistics delays or reduced availability of input products that comprise the final product. Value can be offset by increased demand for goods.

Example: A medical supply business makes immunotherapy products for cancer and tuberculosis treatments. Once created their products must be refrigerated and protected from light. Normal lifespan of the products are 12 months. However, If the products are removed from refrigeration or exposed to light they must be used within 8 hours before expiry.

Omniware Approach

By connecting pricing to product life, demand and to the points in the supply chain that degrade product life we can maximize product value. Using Dynamics Billing, a manufacturer or distributor, such as a medical supply business, can increase the value of its products by connecting IoT sensors in refrigeration, storage monitoring systems in the cold chain, GPS location sensors to determine distance to final markets and to sales and sales forecasts from ERP systems. These operational and sensor data are fed into Dynamics Billing which uses these inputs in pricing formula for specific customers and price plans to determine a real-time situational price for the products. The real-time prices are provided to customers via a WebApp and invoice charges determined.

Dynamics Billing has a powerful data mediation hub, which assesses data from IoT sensors or operational systems for the purposes of rating specific customer types. Moreover situational rules can be applied to offer customers pricing unique to their segment and situation. So that each product is priced according to the situational value of the customer.

Benefits

Adjust pricing based on real-time condition monitoring of refrigeration, logistics, inventory and other factors in order to maximize revenue
Reduce product wastage
Improve product safety and reduce errors

Maximize Value