Monetization for IoT Solutions|IoT Monetization Solutions: Unlock the Revenue Potential with EarnBill

IoT monetization solutions entail tracking and billing all the IoT devices that are part of the IoT solution. The IoT platforms require that they get a clear picture of all their active devices and which customer accounts are using them. It should be easy to track the inventory of the devices with their statuses. Also possible to sync the status to actual provisioning status on the telecom network.

EarnBill’s comprehensive inventory management, product catalogue, pricing models, subscription management and recurring billing solution with customised billing aspects make it easy to implement IoT billing solutions for the IoT platforms.

 The diagram shows a case study of how IoT based OBD port devices are used in cars and trucks. The new generation cars and trucks are fitted with OBD (On-board Diagnostics) devices that help in self diagnostics for the vehicle as well as help with the internet connectivity to the car through the SIM card which is fitted into the OBD device.

The diagram helps understand the use case of how the vehicle moves from the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) to the dealers and from the dealers to the consumers.

The EarnBill IoT monetization platform helps the IoT solution provider to track the movement of devices from OEM to the card dealer and then to the consumer. The IoT provider should bill either the OEM, the dealer or the consumer depending on who is in charge of the vehicle (car or the truck).

The OEM block buys the OBD devices from the IoT solution provider and gets a one time fee (lump sum) for 2 years. After 2 years of no accrual of any charges, the IoT provider will need to ensure and track the movement of OBD devices (the vehicles) from OEM to car/truck dealers and finally to consumers. This involves some complex workflow tracking, which also involves integration with other systems.

The agreement between the dealers with the IoT solution provider can be different for each dealer. This makes the billing of blocks of OBD devices that much more complex. EarnBill excels in tracking such complex billing use cases and manages each dealer’s pricing and rating differently.

As explained in the above business use case, EarnBill helps with billing and charging of complex billing workflows involved in IoT monetization solutions. EarnBill supports both subscription billing and usage-based billing for IoT platforms. Each IoT solution will require some customization, however the core aspects of an IoT billing software are well covered by EarnBill.

Let us look at the features of EarnBill that make the IoT monetization that much more easy:

Subscription Management – EarnBill allows to track IoT platform’s subscription fees to charge the customers on a recurring basis for the platform subscription. The subscription fees or the plan fees could be charged on any recurring period like monthly, quarterly, six-monthly and annually. EarnBill’s IoT monetization solution can support multiple subscription charging periods in one instance. It could also support complex use cases where the same customer could have multiple different subscriptions getting charged at different frequencies. 

Recurring Billing – EarnBill supports monthly anniversary billing as well as once in a month billing. It can meet business requirements with respect to billing cycles easily. Some IoT platforms prefer daily billing cycles with monthly anniversary invoice produced for each customer, while some others produce quarterly invoices and some even annual invoices. An IoT platform could go for a combination of these strategies and EarnBill’s IoT monetization solution can meet all of these requirements from out-of-the-box recurring billing feature with ease.

IoT Inventory Management – For IoT platforms, tracking the inventory of IoT devices end-to-end for their statuses is very crucial part of the business requirement. EarnBill’s IoT monetization solution makes it convenient to track inventory with simple inventory upload options, then allowing customized statuses for devices that make sense for the business. The flow of devices through various statuses if termed as life cycle of an IoT device, then the entire life cycle is covered by EarnBill, ensuring dashboard of information about the inventory of the devices at fingertips.

Network Provisioning – The IoT devices need to be activated or deactivated with the supporting carrier networks. EarnBill IoT monetization provides easy interfaces to configure the integration with carrier networks. With its event based plugins, EarnBill allows provisioning (activation/deactivation) of the IoT devices to be linked to the various trigger points. For example, buying a subscription online could trigger an activation event for the SIM placed inside the IoT device so that the service can be started. On the other hand, a non payment before the due date could trigger a service suspension event causing the SIM to be deactivated on the carrier network, effectively halting the service.

Usage Billing – Some IoT platforms offer usage based pricing plans. EarnBill IoT monetization excels in usage based billing and implementing rating and charging which is based on the level of usage consumption for the service. A certain amount of consumption could be kept as an allowance covered by the subscription fee of the IoT platform. If the usage consumption levels cross this allowance, then the additional usage can be charged as an overage based on the usage pricing defined on the pricing plans.

Automated Payment Collection – EarnBill integrates with more than a dozen different payment gateways out of the box. It allows payment instruments of different kinds to be configured in the system, such as the credit cards, the bank accounts, the mobile wallets, and more. With EarnBill’s IoT monetization solutions fully confirming to the PCI DSS compliance standards, relying on EarnBill to set up automated invoicing, payment collection and reconciliation sets up the business in the auto-pilot mode.

Financial Reporting – EarnBill’s IoT monetization platform provides a financial reporting module which comes with out of the box reports for finance and accounting teams. This can make revenue tracking and taxation process that much easier. There is a comprehensive list of reports available to track the revenue at various levels, such as the company level, the product offering level, the service level, at account level and the general ledger level. 

Reports such as the Sales Tax ATO report makes taxation process smooth and convenient. The ageing balances report helps track unpaid balances and bad debts very closely. The revenue reports such as the Un-earned and Unbilled Revenue reports can help support the Mercantile method of accounting taking away the complexities of dealing with deferred revenue situations.