Case study: Hospitality software firm improves billing cycle
See how a software firm modernized its IT systems to improve contract subscription rates and streamline revenue recognition.
A leading provider of hospitality software and services with 2000-2500 employees, serving a diverse portfolio of clients across multiple business units and subsidiaries.
The situation
The company needed to modernize its IT systems to keep up with a growing and changing business built upon complex contractual requirements. Its goal was to improve contract subscription-based and usage-based billing while streamlining the revenue recognition process to support growth and compliance.
The company specifically targeted improvements around:
- Updating contract and change management processes that involved notes and external knowledge
- Streamlining and automating many disparate and manual NetSuite ERP/Financials processes
- Significantly reducing the time required to perform annual and monthly subscription billing to customers
Priorities included aligning Salesforce and Big Machines lead-to-quote and order processes with NetSuite ERP and 360 Subscription Billing and supporting ongoing compliance with Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 606 revenue recognition standards across license, services, and equipment revenue streams.
The company needed a phased systems conversion with minimal disruption to their high-volume operations. Given the current manual notes and knowledge dependencies, they needed to carefully manage the change and data cutover to ease user adoption and provide operational continuity.
The solution and results
Advisors collaborated with the company to create a structured process to align business goals and IT needs.
After an in-depth review of business strategy, organizational structure, existing IT systems, and operational challenges, they implemented solutions including:
- Subscription billing management and automation
- Salesforce, BigMachines, and NetSuite integration enhancements
- Revenue recognition automation and compliance
The company was able to streamline NetSuite workflows and integrations, providing a robust backbone for automated billing and revenue management. A centralized, real-time system enabled immediate actions on both future and past related transactions.
This helped the company:
- Streamline quote-to-cash, recurring billing, amendments, and renewals
- Reduce monthly billing processing time from three days to one day
- Shorten annual billing run from two weeks to three days
- Define scalable subscription billing processes
- Reduce operational silos by aligning Salesforce, Big Machines, and NetSuite
- Design a robust revenue recognition framework compliant with ASC Topic 606, improving financial accuracy, reporting and time to close each period
The improved billing cycle times and streamlined NetSuite processes helped ease the company’s biggest scalability pain points.