Fresh Research Spotlights Finance Automation (ARM and FP&A)

Finance Essential: Automated Revenue Management Buyer’s Guide

Since the publication of the last ARM Buyer’s Guide in 2022, the market for automated revenue management solutions has blossomed – with a select group of standalone, billing-attached, and integrated financials suite vendors all bringing out new capabilities. Key trends include:

• • Increased attention on usage and consumption pricing models is one of several requirements pushing buyers to evaluate a new solution or upgrade from a legacy tool.

• • Market-leading solutions are characterized by the ability to manage a diverse range of business models – supporting one-time and basic subscription models is table stakes.

• • Buyers are bringing more experience and more exacting requirements to the evaluation process.

• • Savvy finance leaders are seeing the benefits of doing more than automating accounting at period-end – and they are taking advantage of the more innovative tools that provide the ability to proactively influence operational decisions inside the quarter, giving sales, finance, and product teams more room to maneuver and higher confidence in revenue accounting and reporting.

To help software buyers make sense of the ARM market and make better investments in these solutions, MGI Research published the ARM Top 27 Buyer’s Guide. Included are commentary on the state of the rev rec market, as well as 14 new MGI 360 Ratings™ that score suppliers in five equally weighted pillars: Product, Management, Channels, Strategy, and Finance.

Watch our most recent webinar here to get a digestible summary of the ARM Top 27 Buyer’s Guide.

Key takeaways from the Buyers Guide include:

• • How to build the investment case for ARM

• • Top evaluation criteria to inform vendor selections

• • Expected costs, timeframes, and implementation recommendations: the office of the CFO can use the buyer’s guide to help budget, plan, and manage a successful ARM tool selection and implementation.

• • MGI 360 Ratings™ and analysis of the top 14 suppliers:Workday is the top-rated supplier in ARM due to the rev rec product’s tight integration with core financials, planning, and analytics solutions; the company’s expansion into new verticals; and its track record of high customer satisfaction.JustOn and Maxio have the most agile ARM solutions on the market. These suppliers can quickly and flexibly adapt to new revenue scenarios and deploy new offerings without relying on IT or external resources.

Four MarketLens™ charts that plot suppliers and their capabilities by different pairs of variables are included in the Buyer’s Guide.  MarketLens charts are intended to compare like with like to help buyers pinpoint the suppliers that can meet their specific ARM requirements. MGI MarketLenses are also available as standalone reports:

• • Product vs. Go-to-Market Strength: This MarketLens compares each ARM solution’s product score against a composite score of the supplier’s management strength, channel breadth, strategic outlook, and financial health.

• • Agility vs. Complexity: This chart plots a solution’s ability to handle complex use cases against the solution’s agility.

• • Agility vs. Volume: This MarketLens compares ARM solution agility against the typical number of revenue input transactions each product can process per month.

• • Complexity vs. Volume: This chart plots ARM solutions by their ability to handle complex use cases vs. the monthly transaction volume they can support.

Download the ARM Top 27 Buyer’s Guide to find out more about the crucial but ill-understood automated revenue management market – and the software suppliers who are at the forefront of innovation in revenue recognition. Non-subscribers can also access an executive summary of the report at this link.

Discover Key FP&A Insights With the New MGI MarketView™

The MGI MarketView™ is a comprehensive market summary presented in infographic format. It provides granular TAM data to help buyers and sellers quickly understand the current and future state of a given market. The new MGI MarketView in FP&A includes:

• • The projected total addressable market and compound annual growth rate

• • An overview of top-spending regions and industries

• • A summary of growth drivers and inhibitors

• • A list of leading software vendors

• • A definition of financial planning & analysis

• • And more

MGI MarketView infographics summarize the key takeaways from MGI Market Forecasts, MGI ICP Notes™, and MGI 360 Ratings™ – all in one quick, digestible, and shareable graphic.

MGI will publish a new MarketView examining the Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) market tomorrow. Stay tuned!

The Margin’s Catalogue Is Now Online

Catch up with past issues of The Margin. The entire catalogue is now available on Medium, Substack, LinkedIn, and here on the MGI website.

Popular past editions of The Margin include:

• • Zuora Acquires Togai

• • Lessons From a Software Iconoclast

• • Between the Lines of the OpenAI Drama

• • Quote-to-Cash Is Dead; Long Live Prospect-to-Disclosure

• • Peace, Love, and Profitable Ohana?

Join us next week | MGI Research’s next webinar is on Thursday, September 26 at 8am PT / 11am ET. This webinar will be a rapid-fire roundtable of analyst insights from the major industry conferences MGI is attending in September, including:

• • SuiteWorld

• • Workday Rising

• • Dreamforce

Register here to hear unvarnished perspectives and MGI’s take on what these major events mean for customers, partners, investors, and potential buyers.