Sandon Associates-Software Industry Business Systems

Sandon Associates

Software Industry Business Systems

The information systems and business processes required for managing a software business are unique to the software industry. It is possible to use off-the-shelf industry standard products to support some applications such as AR, AP and GL, but it is frequently necessary to develop custom systems and integrations to support other business requirements. We have worked with a variety of companies in the software industry over the last twelve years, and have defined the business process and system requirements to address these needs. A white paper that defines the software industry order processing requirements can be viewed at Order Processing System for Software Companies. The following systems were developed and implemented based upon my designs:

Quoting System - Sales reps could configure proposals for software systems on their laptops with consideration of discount rules, product pricing and configuration requirements. When the customer has accepted the proposal, the quote is transferred to an order in the order processing system.
Sales Forecasting - As sales opportunities move from prospects to orders, reports of the probability and revenue were created. The Onyx CRM system was customized to provide this information.
Order Processing - A significant amount of information is required to complete a software order, including customer purchase order, credit approval, maintenance payments, system environment, and license keys. The Order Processing System is a custom developed application integrated with Onyx CRM to address the requirements. In another companies order processing was a stand-alone system, not integrated with CRM.
Key cutting - License keys need to be cut based upon customer configuration, and the history maintained in the Order Processing system for reference by tech support. This system was an extension to the Onyx CRM system.
Invoicing and revenue recognition -When the order is completed, it is transferred to an industry standard accounting system. This has been done with both epicor Platinum and Great Plains. Revenue is booked to deferred until appropriate to be recognized.
Maintenance Renewals - When software products have been shipped, the line items are transferred to a custom developed system to manage maintenance contracts and generate renewal invoices.
Training Management System - Manages class schedules and rosters, web based enrollments, and emailing of class information. Integrated with Order Processing to allocate costs to approved purchase orders for training products. Transfers student information into the Onyx CRM system.
Commissions - The software industry tends to have complex commission structures with rules that change frequently, including stair-step rates, payments on sale/install, multiple persons paid on the same transactions, product bonuses, etc. A number of commission systems have been developed over the years.
Expenses - Employees can enter their expenses in web forms, approval by management, audited by accounting personnel and transferred to Accounts Payable for payment
Enterprise Application Integration - In order to transfer information between the systems, the business rules and events were implemented using Vitria BusinessWare.
Single User Sign for Customers - Identity Management - The customer facing web site should be integrated with the backend CRM, order processing, maintenance renewal and support systems to provide a seamless interface to customers, transfer of appropriate information while maintaining security for access and updating.

Technologies used in the above:

VB/SQL
XML for Key cutting
4th Dimension
Excel with VBA
Peoplesoft HR and Expenses
Peoplesoft Directory Interface
Expensable.com
Vitria BusinessWare
Onyx CRM
Epicor Platinum
Netigrity Site Minder - LDAP

Software companies supported:

Agile Software
ECAD (merged into Cadence)
Synopsys
Neuron Data
Kubota Electronics
GW Associates
Checkpoint
Business Objects
KLA-Tencor

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