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Data for subscriptions podcast - Episode #20

Harmonizing Systems for Success: Navigating Complexity in SaaS, Pricing, and Data Management at Atrius

Guest

Hannah Hanrahan

Hannah Hanrahan
Director, Revenue Operations, Atrius Enterprise Solutions

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Episode description

Harmonizing Systems for Success: Navigating Complexity in SaaS, Pricing, and Data Management at Atrius

Join us as we explore the challenges and successes of operating a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model at Atrius Enterprise Solutions. From discussing the company’s mission and core products to unveiling the complexities of pricing structures and usage-based models, we dive into the intricacies of Atrius’ operations. Discover the systems used, such as Salesforce, CPQ, Avalara, and Maxio, and unravel the importance of integrating different systems for unified and consistent data. We also touch on go-to-market strategies, sales challenges, and industry trends like sustainability and smart buildings. Don’t miss out on this insightful episode into Atrius’ unified system for success. 

Highlights

Tell us about how it is to build a Softwareasa-Service (offering) within a technology leader that has been around for over 100 years.

The way our business is segmented, it enables Atrius to operate independently, and I think that setup has enabled us to foster and build a team that’s really focused on subscriptions and software, and driving best practices in the tools and technology that we use within this business line. But while this independence gives us flexibility, there is also a challenge there, because we are one business and we do try to work closely together. And so sometimes, an independence creates silos in terms of the tools and the systems and being able to sell together. So that’s where, back to my role, I think there is the role of growing Atrius Energy and Sustainability, and then there’s the role of helping break down the silos there and identifying opportunities for us to work better together from that operational backend perspective, and a lot of times that comes to educating teams on product versus subscription, and looking for ways and opportunities that we can translate some of what we’re doing on our side into other business practices across the organization. 

What was the triggering point for you to start to deploy and use usage on top of a basic subscription? 

We do collect data on our side, right? It’s these devices that we’re connecting into in buildings (that) have data points, and so the data (on usage) and the reporting is a huge part of the value that we’re offering to customers. And so that’s where we’ve landed on and exploring it as a way of pricing the whole system itself. 

You exist within a large organization that has obviously its own quote-to-cash structure. Is it a challenge on its own to kind of dock in?

Yeah, and the challenge is we work more closely together, and having different systems and integrating them together. And then having unified data and consistent data, all of those pieces come up. Some systems are set up in one way, and we’re set up really to manage the SaaS piece of the business, while others are more of that transactional, not-tracking-start-dates (setup). Some of those pieces are critical for our core business. So as we talk about selling through different channels or different parts of the business, this is where we run into what’s the easiest path to transact? 

And how do you manage for that today? I guess you have to put in a lot of manual labor to do that?

I think we’re just kind of scratching the surface here, right? The work around that we have in place is somewhat manual. It’s kind of a handoff. It comes into our system when we drop this element of it. So each business is really continuing to manage in the way that they have always managed. For the customer, it’s not always ideal, right? Because if you’re selling a suite and you’re purchasing through different entities, that’s not ideal. So that’s one that I’m kind of continuing to push – on how do we handle that in a different way without breaking systems because many of these companies are established. We’re not going to rip and replace. And so just really identifying what are those ways that we can connect these systems, that’s like the path of least resistance, really.