Today Revstream, which already processes over $25 billion in annual revenues for Twitter, Facebook, Activision, and VMware, among other companies, announced that it is releasing a version of its software on Force.com. The new cloud-based app will allow startups and growing businesses to manage their revenue, stay standards-compliant, and forecast future earnings.
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Why?
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Revenue management and recognition is increasingly difficult, with simple sales being replaced by subscriptions, upgrades, downgrades, bundles, and delayed revenue recognition deals. At the same time, regulatory requirements from the SEC, GAAP rules, and Sarbanes Oxley have greatly increased the complexity around revenue recognition issues.
“We were formed to help solve the problem of revenue management and revenue recognition,” Revstream CEO Rajiv Chopra told me last week. “It’s a problem because the way companies are built and the way revenue is recorded are not in sync.
A decade ago the problem only affected a portion of your business, he said. But now, with the explosion of cloud services and the incredible profusion of ad-supported businesses … 100 percent of many companies’ revenue is under scrutiny.
Revstream, which integrates into a company’s billing systems with a very high degree of automation, essentially guarantees that your revenue recognition, income forecasts, and lifetime value of customer projections are standards and regulations-compliant. That’s important for companies who are planning to IPO, startups that might eventually be acquired, or even startups that are planning a follow-on round of financing.
“We decided that small companies and pre-IPO companies needed this,” Chopra said. “So we packaged it into a software-as-a-service solution on Force.com so we can deliver it in the cloud. In a nutshell, it brings the same compliance at a much lower price point.”
That high degree of automation which is important for enterprise customers is even more important for small customers, Chopra told me. The same is true for ease of integration, which can hinder acceptance or use of a new software capability. That’s why the company built the cloud version on Force.com … which bakes in both automation and integration right from the start.
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“Most customers we talk to already have a billing system … it’s called a website,” said Chopra with tongue somewhere in the vicinity of his cheek. “They don’t need an ERP system, they just need a revenue management system.”
Early customer My Life, which helps 60 million users manage their social networks, is a believer:
“Revstream Cloud provides the key capabilities and scale that subscription businesses need to efficiently automate and manage recurring revenues,” CFO Peter Oey said in a statement.
photo credit: peasap via photopin cc
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