How Real-Time Billing Helps Monetize The Diverse Customer Base In Telematics Industry

Telematics is a complex field of business that involves the basics of telecommunication, computer science, electrical, and mechanical engineering. A telematics business involves IoT devices manufactured by different industries. These devices are installed in the vehicles, and to bring these devices into operation, one needs to get telematics services from a certain company. The telematics data that devices collect is processed in a cloud. Companies offering telematics services need to monetize their services for this data processing. Telematics services are required regularly, and the best way to monetize these services is subscription billing.

This was about the operational complexities in the telematics business that makes monetization a bottleneck. Some challenges arise because of the diverse customer base. Following are the commercial transportation domains where telematics has become the basic need:

• Fleets of ambulances
• Trailers & trucks
• Fire trucks & emergency vehicles
• Fleets carrying consignments
• Agricultural machinery
• Car rentals
• Airbuses
• Oil containers

The customer base of telematics is considered diverse because it includes all types of commercial vehicles that move locally and internationally. They all track and monitor vehicular traffic by getting telematics services. But it is a taxing task for telematics services providers to cater to the needs of clients having varying needs and bill them accordingly.

Also Read: Telematics and Telematics Billing-How the Future of Connected Recurring Revenue Opportunities is Evolving?

Mediation is another challenge which is the process of converting raw data into billable units that subscription billing software uses to generate invoices for telematics services. To deal with all these telematics billing complexities, real-time billing through a subscription management platform is the ultimate solution. How? Here are some convincing reasons to make the picture clearer:

Accurate Subscription Billing

Just like any other subscription business, in the telematics business, clients demand varying subscription plans. They also switch from one subscription plan to another. Manual handling of the migration from one billing model to the other can become the cause of various human errors. These errors contribute to revenue leakage. In small scale, commercial transportation businesses, revenue leakage is comparatively easy to manage, but when it is about huge consignments and shipments, it is not even possible to track the problem that causes this revenue leakage. You can have a smooth revenue stream if you manage your subscription billing through a reliable platform, SubscriptionFlow.

Mistakes in invoicing and billing for telematics services can lead to voluntary churn—customers cancel subscriptions intentionally. Whether voluntary or involuntary churn, it is a direct cause of revenue leakage. However, the chances of billing mistakes are least when you use automated recurring billing software.

Dunning is another problem for telematics services providers. However, subscription billing platforms are designed in a way that they can effectively manage dunning. You can send timely notifications and follow up emails to recover your subscription payments. So, subscription management software manages your telematics billing process as well as the payment—a complete billing solution.

Also Read: This Is How Subscription Billing Automation is a Game Changer for Subscription Businesses

Billing Multiple Recurring Services

Following are the telematics services for which subscriptions are offered:

• Fuel consumption monitoring
• Vehicle conditions monitoring
• Speed monitoring
• Emergency brakes monitoring
• Location tracking
• Monitoring safety of the vehicles
• Automated insurance
• Trip length and distance monitoring

These along with many other telematics services are required on a recurring basis. It is not compulsory that your complete customer base would need all these services. You would have to offer different subscription plans because customers demand some of these services depending on the scope of their business needs. For instance, a customer running a car rental business would need to monitor vehicle conditions, speed, and location. But he does not want telematics services to record trip length for he considers it is feasible to manage it manually. You can offer him a personalised subscription plan, and for the sake of billing rely on a subscription billing management platform.

You can manage all your subscription plans on recurring billing platforms and monetise these plans accurately. The software to manage subscriptions is flexible enough that it can fulfil the needs of local as well as internationally operating clients. Through this software, telematics businesses can manage the following billing-related tasks:

• Tax calculations
• Government regulations
• Multiple currencies

And a lot more. So, you can handle your telematics business complications and leave billing management to the recurring billing platform.

Also Read: IoT-led Subscription Monetization—Smart Recurring Billing Can Create Connected Smarter Future

Monetization of Improvised Subscription Plans

Just like many other subscription businesses, customers of telematics services providing companies also opt for proration. They change their subscription plans when they feel the existing one does not fulfil business needs anymore. How would you charge for the changing needs and varying subscription plans of your clients? You can probably manage small-scale businesses, but when it comes to telematics subscriptions for commercial transportation that moves beyond borders carrying the huge consignments, things are not easy to manage. Established Shipment companies need to not only track their consignments but also the commodities in the consignments. There are rules and regulations involved in tracking the location of these consignments that move internationally. They pass through the checks of customs and tax regimes. Shipment companies need telematics subscriptions for all these services.

Thereby, telematics is one of those industries where the demand for improvised subscription plans is highest. And to bill these plans nothing can be more robust than subscription billing management software like SubscriptionFlow.

Also Read: You Need A Recurring Revenue Stream to Draw Success in 2021 And Onwards

The process of billing becomes trickier in the telematics subscription business because telematics is itself a mix of different businesses. It brings IoT telematics devices manufacturers, computer scientists, electrical engineers, and experts of mechanics together to work in the same ecosystem. The subscription billing and different subscription plans increase the complexity to monetise recurring needs for the telematics services.

If you are part of the telematics business industry, then SubscriptionFlow offers you to leave all your billing-related worries for their efficient platform to manage. Here you cannot only manage your billing process but also the discounts, proration, dunning, and secure recurring payments processing and management.