CFOs: Here’s How You Can Capture Lost Revenue for Large Services Organizations

For a business, any loss of revenue is always scary but revenue leakage is particularly frightening. These small losses often go unnoticed, under the radar, but end up costing significant sums of money in the long run. Large organizations simply cannot afford to leave any money on the table—making revenue leakage a priority. However, uncovering it remains a major challenge for CFOs who also need to figure out how to start reclaiming the lost revenue.

How Revenue Leakage Kills Profitability

Often dubbed the silent killer of profitability, revenue leakage is notoriously difficult to calculate. However, it is a known fact that revenue leakage can be an indicator of operational inefficiency. Enterprises with higher levels of leakage typically report more budget overruns, poorer on-time deliveries, and lower utilization rates. Ultimately, they experience reduced profitability due to poor cash flow and ineffective revenue management processes. 

Revenue leakage typically comes about due to a lack of calibration between quoting and service delivery and is often exacerbated by the use of disparate systems. In any enterprise, the quote-to-cash lifecycle is typically composed of a complex interconnected ecosystem of point solutions catering to each step of the process. The cross-functional nature of the ecosystem means that there is no linear movement of data. If the data handoffs from one system to another are not calibrated, it becomes difficult to detect revenue leakage. A report from Workday notes that 49% of CFOs find it difficult to execute with data that is not only timely but also accurate for driving quick and informed decisions. 

Compounding this is incomplete visibility around operational data as a result of multiple time tracking systems. As the enterprise is unable to accurately track staffing requirements and billing data, lost revenue becomes a big risk to steady profitability levels. The lack of data can have severe repercussions across the enterprise’s finances. Workday reports that 28% of CFOs consider missing data to be responsible for delayed product launches while 24% of CFOs hold it responsible for missed financial forecasts.

Consider the following example.

An organization with 5,000 employees will have around 10 million project hours available each year, and those with 50,000 employees a massive 100 million project hours! Therefore, even small improvements in billable hours can significantly boost operating profit. Any lost revenue recaptured can add up to a sizable amount in the long run. 

Recapturing Revenue Opportunities with a Single Source of Truth

According to Oracle, disparate billing and pricing processes leading to revenue leakage can cost as much as 3% to 8% of the firm’s income. That can mean millions of dollars simply vanishing into thin air for a global enterprise.  

As indicated above, there is never a single reason for lost revenue opportunities. The causes of revenue leakage are many, some of which are mentioned below.

• Siloed databases and systems
• Insufficient pricing mechanisms
• Inconsistent business practices
• Inability to track projects and deliverables at scale
• Lack of accountability
• Lack of transparency into critical metrics

These among other reasons make it harder to locate and understand revenue leakage. 

In most firms, no single department owns the pricing strategy or possesses a comprehensive view across the entire product portfolio. To strategically recapture lost revenue opportunities, there is a need for a comprehensive strategy that covers several areas. 

To start, large services organizations need a complete picture of all essential metrics such as time data and project details in one single location. They need to quantify the lost revenue opportunities at an enterprise level and determine the impact on profitability. Then, a thorough analysis of those opportunities is necessary to determine where and why leaks are occurring. To achieve this, they require end-to-end visibility across the entire project lifecycle and billing lifecycle along with robust analytical capabilities to generate critical actionable insights. For this reason, time tracking is high on the list of technology enablers for best-in-class enterprises.

The use of manual approaches for time tracking and other critical functions is a major risk factor of revenue leakage due to its high propensity for inaccuracies and errors. With the complexities of modern-day time tracking, a manual approach is no longer a viable option. Large services organizations need to seek out systems with automation capabilities to replace these processes to minimize errors and reclaim the resultant revenue leaks. 

Driving Intelligent Enterprise Time Tracking for Higher Project Profitability

A common scenario across enterprises and large services firms is the presence of a patchwork of disparate solutions and systems along with manual processes for managing mission-critical functions such as billing, pricing, and employee time tracking. These legacy systems and outdated approaches are not only redundant but also expensive to maintain, a drain on resources. They are also highly prone to errors which makes revenue leakage all the more likely. 

They also lack the ability to deliver the agility and insights necessary to implement innovative enterprise revenue management strategies that can optimize revenue and balance profitability. With Aberdeen reporting that 35% of best-in-class services firms leverage time tracking to drive real-time visibility into project data, this is one area that cannot be ignored. 

Enterprises seeking to improve their revenue management strategies need a solution that replaces fragmented, siloed point solutions with a single unified platform for time tracking, billing, and pricing. 

This solution should be one that automates processes and streamlines operations, allowing for a simpler and better experience across functions. Such a solution should offer the following:

• An enterprise-level platform that operates globally across multiple geographical locations.
• A flexible and customizable solution that manages time tracking, billing, and costing exactly the way you need it to.
• The ability to implement advanced validations to ensure the accuracy of the data.
• A centralized view of projects and billing to monitor cash flows. 
• The ability to run analytics to generate actionable insights to enable real-time dynamic decision making.
• Support for configurable invoicing for globally distributed clients with multiple currencies.
• Integrations with other critical enterprise applications such as accounting, CRM, ERP, etc.

With the right platform in place, CFOs can help their organizations fuel their growth by quickly identifying revenue leakages and recapturing the lost revenue. 

Using Replicon to Eliminate Revenue Leakages

To help uncover those lost revenue opportunities, large services organizations can leverage Replicon’s global cloud-based platform. Replicon supports a wide range of billing use cases designed to help reduce and even eliminate revenue leakages. 

To start, Replicon offers a configurable time tracking platform that captures 100% of employee time against projects and tasks. This ensures that every minute of work is available for billing. The accuracy of this data is enhanced through the use of intelligent validation rules and approval workflows that can be customized to the organization’s unique business needs. To further ensure that no time is left unaccounted for, Replicon uses advanced AI capabilities to automatically harvest time against activities without manual user input, along with pre-population rules, all of which ultimately reduce employee burden and eliminate errors.

With instant alerts and the ability to involve all stakeholders, Replicon’s platform ensures zero billing errors. You also get support for project deliverables through the ability to set up projects and project hierarchies. This allows for tracking project status in real-time and gaining instant visibility for on-time project billing. Replicon also offers budget-to-actuals tracking in real-time, enabling you to account for all costs and compare them with the designated budgets to support proactive billing decisions. Additionally, there are flexible billing options for you to model your contact requirements as needed for easier and accurate billing management. 

It is important to start identifying sources of revenue leakage before it becomes too late. Organizations need to take an enterprise-wide approach to manage billables and time tracking to ensure that no stone is left unturned in an effort to reclaim lost revenue. Simultaneously, they must rethink their mission-critical processes and systems to ensure projects remain on time and on budget.