Deep Dive of Renewals Console in the Sugar Sell Platform

The subscription based business model charges customers a recurring fee typically monthly or yearly to access a product or service. Subscription revenue model helps organizations to capitalize on the compounding value of customer relationships, Meanings As long as they continually see the value of the product/service, they will continue to pay for it. So it means any user can use a product by subscribing to it. Let us take amazon prime membership where Users can pay for the service yearly or monthly and enjoy all the benefits for the subscription period. And year on year or month on month he can  renew  for the service  if he needs or likes. 

So the service  is renewed based on the user usage and perceived value. Many organisations have products / services  that are subscription based. The core aspect of Subscription Management is managing subscriptions, free trials, freemium accounts and renewals efficiently. Sales teams play a key role to retain existing subscriptions,  manage their renewals and increase the Company’s revenue.  SugarCRM’s Renewals Console helps Subscription based business models Manage their new sales and renewals.

SugarCRM is a subscription based product company

Let us take SugarCRM as an example. SugarCRM is a software company  that designs its own products and releases them into the Market. SugarCRM has products like Sugar Enterprise, Professional, Ultimate, Sugar Serve, Sugar Sell and Sugar Market.  Apart from these products, it has many add on services like Sugar Connect, Sugar Hint, Sugar Integrate etc. SugarCRM customers buy their product and services based on a yearly contract and renew their services annually. Sugar Sell’s Renewals Console can be very helpful to the sales team by automating many activities it can boost their productivity and enhance their efficiency. Sugar has introduced  Renewals Console in its cloud product Sugar Sell. Sales Admin can configure their products/services in the Product Catalog module.  Sugar added three new  fields in the product catalogue namely,  Service,  Renewable and Duration.  All the renewable products and services are mentioned as renewable services using these new fields. 

Sugar generates a new opportunity for each of the existing “Closed Won” Opportunities that have a “renewable” service or product. This reduces the amount of time  spent  on entering data in CRM during the renewal process. Sales teams can have a quick glance at Renewals Console Home Page dashboard and can easily identify the opportunities that are going to come for renewal in each month. In a single word we can say Recurring revenue models lead to higher revenues and stronger customer relationships.

Duration based Products/ Subscription-based services 

There are many companies that have duration based or subscription based products. Sugar added Several new service-related fields to the Accounts, Opportunities, Revenue Line Items, Quoted Line Items, and Product Catalog modules. These  include Service (checkbox), Service Start/End Date, Service Duration, Renewable (checkbox), and Date of Next Renewal. Duration based products extend the functionality of Renewals Management in Sugar massively and are a key element in the Renewals Automation process. New quote and Invoice templates containing service-related fields have been added to PDF Manager for the Quotes module.

Renewals Console 

Renewals Console is a feature released in Sugar Sell,  and is geared toward duration-based renewable services  and perfectly aligned with no-touch information philosophy to automate renewals management. It is a centralised place where users can have a quick glance at current quarter’s renewals pipeline dashboard and follow up with customers very easily. Sales team no need of searching or digging the data deeply and spending more time on it.

Renewals Console is a Home page Dashboard.

With the availability of this feature we can add service-based renewal products or subscription-based services in Sugar and make automatic renewals without manual intervention. This dashboard provides a powerful work environment for the organisation’s Sales agents and Customer Success Managers to automate and streamline renewal management. It also gains a new level of Visibility into Business. Every Sales representative will become a top performer as their Productivity increases because of ease of work.

With using Renewals Console Home page dashboard, users can easily 

1. Manage their accounts.
2. They can quickly see the status of their current quarter’s renewal pipeline, past Interactions and Activities/Tasks to be completed.
3. And manage individual renewal opportunities 
4. Users can spend very little time on digging or searching for actionable tasks to be done on priority.

Main Advantages of Renewals Console are as follows 

1. Users can quickly add duration based products and services to a quote.
2. By using this astonishing and affordable feature, Users can easily manage and automate renewable opportunities and products and save tonnes of valuable time without entering manual tasks and searching for information.
3. Users can manage their Subscription-Based Business.
4. It can increase their revenue for recurring revenue models.

Renewals Console Overview 

It is the Home page Dashboard designed for the Sugar Sell License based Admin users. It is a central place where CRM users can track and monitor their activities, to-do’s, and metrics which is divided into three main tabs by default called Overview tab, Accounts tab, and Opportunities tab.

Overview Tab

This tab provides a clear overview of all renewable contracts and opportunities. It displays all vital information in one place, in turn making it easier than ever to manage and sell renewable-based products and services. It provides a quick look at the user’s current sales pipeline, top revenue line items, and their activities and tasks.  There are a number of powerful features within the console that empower staff in easily managing and closing opportunities in the renewals pipeline.  As it gives quick information about the planned activities and tasks users can plan their work accordingly in a perfect manner.  This tab contains four dashlets that give an overview of Planned Activities, Active Tasks, Pipeline dashlet, and Top 10 Sales Revenue Line Items Dashlet. 

This tab displays all the user’s accounts with those having a pending renewal at the top of the list, sorted by the date of the next renewal. As it displays the date of next renewal, annual revenue, service level, and account type fields data on list view users can quickly and easily analyze their customer account details.  By clicking on any account record in the list it displays an account detail drawer with additional information about its active subscriptions, related records, and past interactions. Interactions include the Calls, Meetings, and Tasks the user has planned. This Account tab is categorized into four different quadrants like Account Record Dashlet, Comment Log Dashlet, Active Subscriptions Dashlet and Account Interaction Dashlet.

This dashlet is a concise alternative to the account’s full record view which typically displays the overall information of the account you are currently viewing and also it contains additional tabs that display account’s most important subpanel module content like Opportunities, Contacts, and Quotes. Users can easily switch between the tabs and see the related module information of an account. This tab feature makes the user easier to navigate through important renewal opportunity information.

Comment Log Dashlet

This is the most powerful section in this Console. It is the place where the users can collaborate with the internal team very effectively. Using this dashlet users can add new comments and make new entries by adding the new text in the text box. This dashlet typically displays the entries of the account’s Comment Log Field in chronological order with the most recent entry on the top of the Dashlet.

Active Subscriptions Dashlet

This Dashlet displays a simple bar chart visualization for time elapsed and time remaining on subscription services related to your Accounts ‘closed won’ service opportunities.

Accounts Interactions Dashlet

This Dashlet typically displays the overview of interactions of a customer like their calls, meetings, and tasks that have been held or to be scheduled with the most interactions on the top. Users can easily add calls, schedule meetings, and send Emails with attachments very easily from this dashlet without navigating to the Calls or Emails module. It makes the user work more efficient and easy.

Opportunities Tab

This tab displays the open opportunities that are assigned to users and sorted by the expected close date with overdue opportunities shown in the topmost positions. Users can easily click the Opportunity in the list to see the Opportunity detail drawer with additional information about its related records and activities. 

Conclusion

Automated Renewals Management and Renewals Console features really adds great value and benefits for organizations running renewable or duration based products/services. By using this feature organizations can save tonnes of their valuable resources time entering manual tasks and digging for information by automating and better managing the renewal process.