Business process architectures in quote-to-cash - m3ter

Business Process Architectures

A key aspect of the reference architecture is its ability to support flexible deployments and configurations to meet the needs of all mid-size and larger B2B SaaS companies. As we (m3ter) engage customers, while we observe repeating patterns, there are nearly always subtle differences which need to be catered for. A key motivation for creating the reference architecture is to help with standardisation while remaining flexible enough to meet each customer’s specific needs. This section of the document contains some example business process architectures supporting sales-led and product-led go-to-market motions.

Sales-led Process

The following is an example of a typical end-to-end business process architecture for a sales-led organisation that might be implemented using the reference architecture.

The process sequence is as follows:

  1. Create opportunity (in CRM)
  2. Customer requests quote (in CRM)
  3. Customer quote delivered (from CRM)
  4. Customer accepts quote
  5. Customer order created (in CRM)
  6. Customer contract delivered
  7. Customer signs contract
  8. Customer contract complete
  9. Customer order activated (in CRM)
  10. Customer provisioned (in B2B platform)
  11. Account created (in metering platform)
  12. Account plan created (in metering)
  13. Balance created (if required)
  14. Customer set up in ERP
  15. Customer uses service
  16. Usage generated
  17. Usage metered and rated
  18. Balance depleted (if appropriate)
  19. Hourly exports (from metering platform)
  20. Account usage updated (in CRM)
  21. BI Stack updated
  22. Check limits (in metering platform)
  23. Alert reps (in CRM)
  24. Calc bills
  25. Update invoice
  26. Apply taxes
  27. Issue invoice
  28. Customer pays invoice
  29. Take payment

Product-led Process

The following is an example of a typical end-to-end business process architecture for a product-led organisation that might be implemented using the reference architecture.

The process sequence is as follows:

  1. Customer self-serves
  2. Service provisioned
  3. Customer uses service
  4. Usage generated
  5. Account auto-created (in metering platform)
  6. Usage metered
  7. Account setup in CRM
  8. Opportunity created
  9. Account mapped and updated (in metering)
  10. Account plan created
  11. Hourly exports (from metering platform)
  12. Account usage updated (in CRM)
  13. BI Stack updated
  14. Check limits (in metering platform)
  15. Alert reps (in CRM)
  16. Calc bills
  17. Update invoice
  18. Apply taxes
  19. Issue invoice
  20. Customer pays invoice
  21. Take payment

Marketplaces

When using marketplaces, the flow often looks like the product-led flow. The key difference is that the marketplace handles the invoicing and so the metering service should update the marketplace hourly (using the hourly exports) and then all steps after this are handled by the marketplace.