Softrax Introduces Revenue Recognition Software For ERP

Business Wire, March 19, 2007

Softrax Revenue Manager[TM] Provides Entirely New Way to Manage Revenue Recognition in Concert with Existing Enterprise Systems

CANTON, Mass. -- Softrax Corporation, a leading provider of enterprise revenue management and billing solutions, today announced the upcoming release of Softrax Revenue Manager[TM], the only enterprise software application dedicated to managing revenue recognition processes within the corporate IT infrastructure.

Softrax Revenue Manager enables companies to fully implement, monitor, and manage their revenue recognition policy on an enterprise-wide basis. It mirrors a company's revenue policy in a single system, and controls all critical revenue processes, including: allocation, scheduling, recognition, compliance, reporting, and forecasting. The consolidation of revenue recognition activities into a single application allows companies using Softrax Revenue Manager to lower their compliance risk, achieve more accurate and consistent revenue recognition, bring revenue into the normal close process, get faster and more flexible revenue recognition reporting and improve revenue recognition forecasting with unprecedented insight into future revenue streams.

John Powers, VP of Finance at eHarmony.com, who is participating in the Softrax Revenue Manager early adopter program, said "Our revenue is generated by a high volume of subscription transactions, complicated by frequent adjustments. We chose Softrax Revenue Manager because we need an automated, consistent and repeatable revenue recognition process which is able to handle exceptions and provide very granular visibility into our revenue."

A Pervasive Problem

Revenue Management has slipped through the cracks of the financial infrastructure at nearly every company. According to research from RevenueRecognition.com and IDC, 92% of public companies still use spreadsheets for one or more critical revenue recognition tasks. The primary reason is that revenue accounting rules frequently don't match the operational needs of a business nor the related processes within ERP systems. As a result, companies implement disconnected, labor-intensive parallel processes for revenue recognition.

Companies in many different industries, public and private, are affected by a myriad of revenue recognition issues. "We conduct hundreds of internal audits and risk assessments every year and frequently observe complex spreadsheets and cumbersome manual processes involved in revenue accounting," said Erik Stone, managing director at Protiviti Inc., a leading provider of independent internal audit and business and technology risk consulting services. Stone assists companies in evaluating and improving their revenue processes and advises companies on the period end closing and other related financial processes. "Today's contract provisions and bundled solutions require revenue policies to be aligned and more clearly translated into actionable revenue processes that are systematically managed throughout the enterprise. With more stringent requirements brought on by Sarbanes-Oxley, the SEC, and accounting standards requirements, companies increasingly need to have more sophisticated revenue management capabilities in their financial infrastructures."

A New Way to Manage Revenue

Companies need a system flexible enough to support complex revenue management processes without being tied to the operational constraints of typical ERP processes, and without slowing down the existing order to cash process. However, building such systems internally or customizing any existing applications has proven to be extremely expensive and impossible to maintain, due to the scale of the issues and the prohibitive amount of revenue recognition domain and process expertise required.

With the introduction of Softrax Revenue Manager, companies can now address a critical gap in their financial infrastructure with a robust enterprise solution. "Revenue management is a formidable task in today's environment of fast changing business requirements and regulatory oversight," said Robert O'Connor, President and CEO of Softrax. "Our years of focus on revenue management issues and our experience with hundreds of companies and their revenue processes, have allowed us to develop a product that is completely new in the marketplace. Through its capability to mirror revenue policies in one comprehensive revenue management system, it will change the way companies manage, analyze, report and forecast revenue."

"With Softrax Revenue Manager we have a consistent and repeatable revenue recognition process throughout our worldwide operations," said Bryan Penny, Corporate Controller, Quark. "We needed to mirror our revenue policy for both our sell-through and sell-to business models in a single system. With two lines of business the complexity of managing channel relationships, product release schedules, promotions, and complex corporate orders is tremendous. Softrax Revenue Manager seamlessly integrates with our Oracle ERP system and provides a single workbench for our revenue management team. As a result, we'll have a new level of control and visibility across our whole revenue cycle."