Inside This Research Note:
Quotes and data insights from interviews of best-in-class Automated Revenue Management (ARM)/Rev Rec vendors’ best references.
Do ARM software vendors’ “best references” equate to satisfied customers? Unfortunately for them, nearly 1 in 5 references aren’t as happy as the vendor believes.
In Off the Books, MGI Research gives a peek behind the curtain of what customers really feel. As part of developing the Automated Revenue Management (ARM) Top 30 Buyer’s Guide and MGI 360 Ratings™, the MGI team conducted confidential interviews with references from 20+ ARM and revenue recognition vendors. These are highly in-depth, structured interviews to understand finance leaders’ feedback for their vendor’s team, product, customer support, and more. This report aggregates those candid perspectives – offering a rare, unfiltered look into what buyers do and don’t like about their ARM vendor. These interviews cut through the marketing hype and provide honest, unedited customer stories.
To maintain anonymity and confidentiality, interview data is shared in aggregate form and quotes are anonymized and removed of any potentially identifying information.
What do Rev Rec customers complain about most?
- Increasing budget uncertainty due to dynamic pricing models and recurring fees
- Product’s inability to scale with revenue complexity and volumes
- Poor change management, onboarding protocols, and unexpected system complexity
What do ARM customers praise most about their vendors?
- Faster close times and increased business efficiency
- Ultra-premium customer support
- Vendor-customer partnership on product roadmap
What Can Buyers Take Away?
- Speak to customer references. Don’t solely rely on vendor-led demos and marketing hype to make a long-term business decision. Even happy customers have dealt with bumps in the road – be sure to know the pitfalls of each vendor before you buy.
- Learn which vendors deliver measurable ROI and where customers truly find the value of a product. Ultimately, prospects can use this to justify to their boss why to spend more on the right software.
How Should Vendors Use This Report?
- Customer enthusiasm doesn’t always equal product satisfaction. This report signals that vendors should engage more openly with customers, better manage references, and align product development with customer reality.
- Invest heavily in customer satisfaction, especially 24/7 onshore support. Every product has a learning curve and runs into issues, but a vendor who can’t fix it in a timely fashion is a much bigger problem. A revenue management system that is down for days because a customer can’t reach support will cost a customer their job.
- Competitive intelligence – with every company claiming they have best-in-class products with market leading innovation, the best way to discern what your competitors do and don’t have is through what their customers actually use.
- Less than a third of references use their vendor’s AI tools, but 57% of those not yet using them express interest in doing so. Closing this gap is a clear opportunity for vendors.
How Should Investors and Partners Use This?
- Get clarity on customer use cases and what matters most in implementations
- Understand the risks of working with certain vendors and discover new vendors to partner with
Download your copy of Off the Books and see what customers are really saying beyond the sales pitch.
