How Revenue Technology Brings Significant Value for Manufacturing Businesses to Profit
The manufacturing industry is experiencing multiple challenges this year. Among the most significant hurdles it’s facing is a high turnover. Roughly 75% of the manufacturing professionals surveyed by L2L reported a lack of skilled workers in the sector over the past 12 months, fueled by poor communication and management skills. That triggers a domino effect that can impact a manufacturing company’s ability to run smoothly, meet changing consumer demands to attract and convert leads, scale operations—and, ultimately, bolster its bottom line. This makes increasing sales and revenue arguably the biggest problem the industry is tackling today.
But how do you solve it when profit is also the one thing that will help you invest in the necessary solutions? Insights from the L2L report believe the answer lies in digital transformation. With the right revenue-boosting tools, manufacturing businesses can take advantage of a few key benefits that can help increase their profit margins and face the above challenges head-on. Here’s more on the value revenue technology can bring to the manufacturing industry.
It streamlines revenue recognition
Tracking income streams can often be more challenging in manufacturing compared to other industries. Businesses in this sector usually offer a more diverse range of products and services to cater to unique client specifications. That means production cycles in manufacturing typically take longer than average. Due to these factors, juggling multiple client contracts and receiving payment at irregular intervals is typically the norm for the manufacturing business. That can complicate revenue recognition, which involves recording and reporting all income a company generates in line with industry regulations and accounting principles. Revenue technology can streamline the process, making it easier to track all sources of income, more accurately assess a business’ financial health, forecast future revenue, and budget accordingly.
That’s why you’ll see even major manufacturers like IBM using the revenue recognition software on SOFTRAX. This multi-tenant solution uses back-office automation to recognize revenue for you in compliance with ASC 606 and IFRS 15, even if you use complex billing models. That way, you can practice continuous accounting no matter how many clients you’re handling and what kind of product they’re asking for. Automated revenue recognition solutions also free up employee resources for more valuable tasks, which can help hit multiple birds with one stone—they’ll have time to strategize on how to increase revenue further, and that can challenge their skills, enhancing job satisfaction for reduced turnover.
It enhances debt recovery capabilities
Despite the value technology brings to revenue recognition, the same factors that complicate the task of tracking income can make collecting payments from clients more challenging. The lack of communication mentioned above can often extend to clients, making overdue payments one of the biggest sore points that add tension to customer-supplier relationships. That’s why business development experts from Krem Energy find that manufacturing has the second-highest rate of overdue payment rate out of any industry, with companies often waiting an average of 32.8 days for compensation. This issue can significantly impact cash flow, which is why you’ll want to have a plan in place to deal with it. That’s where revenue technology can help.
With the right platform, you can automate everything from communicating with clients about overdue payments to ultimately collecting them. Vergent’s loan management software, which is used by leading lending firms like TMX Finance, illustrates how those benefits can apply to manufacturing. Though not originally designed for this industry, it offers automated collection services to facilitate smooth debt data and money transfers for streamlined recovery processes. It also provides the ability to customize client communications, which can be especially useful for manufacturing businesses with a diverse customer base. Automated tools like this one can reduce operational costs usually spent on debt recovery for improved savings, while also helping the employees typically assigned to this task focus on more pressing responsibilities.
It improves cash flow
The above benefits mean manufacturing businesses can ultimately use revenue technology to boost cash flow. That’s important because increased profits allow companies to invest in solutions that can answer multiple industry challenges and keep operations sustainable in the long run. For example, funding employees who want to take online classes from sites like Coursera can help upskill existing workforces to make up for labor and skill shortages, while ERP management software can pay for itself by streamlining inventory and project management for improved operations. More income also means businesses can refer to consultants to determine exactly what’s causing financial inefficiencies and receive tailored help implementing changes, which is precisely what we offer here at USC Consulting Group.
One great example of this can be seen in our case study, which outlines how we helped one of our clients—whose services specialized in moving equipment—increase cash flow. Our consultants first pinpointed a disconnected floor plan as the main issue, as it caused a lot of unnecessary travel for workers retrieving materials. They then implemented ways to eliminate redundancies. A major part of the improvement project? Creating a new floor plan in line with input from experienced employees. The client benefited from a 91% to 115% jump in efficiency, all while cutting down on the necessary manpower and expenses needed to make that happen. Revenue technology helps pave the way for manufacturing businesses to gather the funds needed to avail of these customized solutions, which is arguably where they provide the most value.
*This article is written by Rose James. Rose is a freelance writer with almost a decade of experience. She writes about new developments in business and finance, as well as on new technologies like AI and automation.
