# 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:

01. Create opportunity (in CRM)  
02. Customer requests quote (in CRM)  
03. Customer quote delivered (from CRM)  
04. Customer accepts quote  
05. Customer order created (in CRM)  
06. Customer contract delivered  
07. Customer signs contract  
08. Customer contract complete  
09. 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:

01. Customer self-serves  
02. Service provisioned  
03. Customer uses service  
04. Usage generated  
05. Account auto-created (in metering platform)  
06. Usage metered  
07. Account setup in CRM  
08. Opportunity created  
09. 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.