Customer profitability and value analysis system

• US 8,428,997 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2005
• Issued: 04/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Maga, Matteo, Canale, Paolo, Bohe, Astrid
• Primary Examiner(s): Sterrett, Jonathan G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Swartz, Stephen S
• Application Number:
  US11/293,025
• Publication Number:
  US 20070118419A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,699 Days
• Field of Search: 700/36
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for analyzing a business'"'"'s profitability. A system for analyzing customer profitability includes an interface for receiving customer, revenue and cost data from external business operating systems. Customer, revenue, and cost data are stored on a database. A data transformation module operates on the customer data, allocating revenue and costs to individual customers. A customer profitability engine calculates the profitability of customers based on the allocated revenue and cost data. A report module generates reports illustrating the profitability results and other key performance indicators. Optionally, an average customer lifetime value may be calculated based on the customer profitability results. A method for analyzing customer profitability includes identifying sources of revenue, identifying sources of costs, and establishing rules for allocating revenue and costs to individual customers. The method further includes receiving actual customer, revenue and cost data and allocating revenue and costs to individual customers according to the allocation rules. Customer profitability and KPI values are calculated for individual customers and reports are generated illustrating the profitability results and various KPIs for individual customers or groups of customers sharing a common characteristic.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a database;

a data interface controlled by the computer system configured to;

retrieve an interface specification for one or more business operating systems from a UDDI registry;

alter the interface according to the interface specification for each of the one or more business operating systems;

receive customer data, revenue data and cost data;

store the customer data, revenue data and cost data in the database;

define the customer data, revenue data and cost data to extract from the one or more external business operating systems;

force the one or more external business operating systems to supply the customer data, revenue data and cost data in one or more specified formats, where the formats include a format consistent with storage and indexing requirements of the database; and

identify revenue data by a revenue source including revenue from an interaction between at least two customers, the cost data by a cost source, an activity type and a cost driver, wherein the interaction between the at least two customers represents revenue from an interconnection fee, wherein the data interface is adapted based on the interaction between the at least two customers and interconnection traffic related to the interaction between the at least two customers; and

implement one or more specified formats the one or more business operating systems must use to supply the customer data, revenue data and cost data, where the formats include a format consistent with storage and indexing requirements of the database;

a data transformation module including instructions, executed by the computer system, that allocate specific costs and revenue to individual customers according to allocation rules, and store transformed data in the database and on the computer;

a customer profitability module including instructions, executed by the computer system, to calculate a customer profitability value for the individual customers, based on the costs and revenue allocated to the individual customers;

a report module including instructions, executed by the computer system, operable to generate a report analyzing customer profitability on a per customer basis and illustrating a key performance indicator for customer profitability based on the customer profitability value for the individual customers,

wherein the report analyzing customer profitability on a per customer basis includes the key performance indicator,

wherein the report comprises pairings of two or more key performance indicators to demonstrate a correlation or lack thereof between the selected key performance indicators, and

wherein the report incorporates, in the report, customer data that distinguishes between various segments of the customer population such that the report includes the key performance indicators for a plurality of different customer segments; and

a web services interface controlled by the computer system configured to;

retrieve an interface specification for one or more web service clients from a UDDI registry;

alter the web services interface according to the interface specification to enable each of the one or more web service clients to exchange information with the database;

retrieve profitability data from the database; and

distribute the profitability data to each of the one or more web service clients.

2. The computer system of claim 1 further comprising:

customer profitability information consumer computer systems, in communication through a network and the internet, including a customer relationship management system configured to;

define relationship management efforts by adjusting customer priority;

receive the customer profitability value; and

responsively modify the relationship management efforts based on the customer profitability value;

wherein the data interface is adapted to receive customer data from the customer relationship management system.

3. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the data interface is adapted to receive revenue data from a customer invoice/billing system.

4. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the transformation module employs activity based costing to allocate costs to individual customers.

5. The computer system of claim 1 further comprising a graphical user interface for interacting with the database.

6. The computer system of claim 5 wherein the graphical user interface is adapted to allow a user to create and modify key performance indicators for evaluating customer profitability, the key performance indicators generating values by which customer profitability may be measured and evaluated against other factors.

7. The computer system of claim 1 further comprising a customer lifetime value module for calculating an expected lifetime value of a customer over an expected relationship lifetime.

8. A method implemented in a business systems environment comprising:

interfacing a customer profitability data mart with business operating systems executed by a computer in communication with an internet through a data interface, wherein the data interface is implemented when the computer executes a data feeding module, including;

a customer billing system,

a customer relationship management system, and

accounting systems;

forcing the business operating systems to supply the customer, revenue and cost data in formats consistent with the storage and indexing requirements of the data mart;

receiving customer, revenue and cost data from the business operating systems, using the graphical user interface, in formats consistent with storage and indexing requirements of the data mart;

retrieving an interface specification for each of the business operating systems from a UDDI registry;

altering the interfacing of the customer profitability data mart to the business operating systems according to the interface specification for the respective business operating systems;

accessing data in the data mart using a graphical user interface in communication with the computer and the internet;

generating reports, using a report module comprising instructions executed by the computer, based on data stored in the data mart, wherein the reports include a report analyzing customer profitability on a per customer basis and illustrates a key performance indicator for the customer profitability based on a customer profitability value for individual customers;

including the key performance indicator in the report analyzing profitability on a per customer basis, wherein the report analyzing profitability on a per customer basis comprises pairings of two or more key performance indicators to demonstrate a correlation or lack thereof between the selected key performance indicators;

incorporating, in the report, customer data that distinguishes between various segments of the customer population such that the report includes the key performance indicators for a plurality of different customer segments;

analyzing, using the computer, a business'"'"'s profitability on a per customer basis;

receiving customer, revenue and cost data from the business operating systems, using the graphical user interface, in formats consistent with storage and indexing requirements of the data mart;

identifying, using the computer and the graphical user interface, the revenue data by a revenue source including revenue from an interaction between at least two customers and the cost data by a cost source, an activity type and a cost driver, wherein the interaction between the at least two customers represents revenue from an interconnection fee, wherein altering the interfacing is based on the interaction between the at least two customers and interconnection traffic related to the interaction between the at least two customers;

storing, through the data interface, the received data in the data mart;

allocating, using the computer, revenue and cost data to individual customers according to allocation rules;

calculating, using the computer, customer profitability for individual customers from the revenue and cost data allocated to said individual customers;

interfacing the customer profitability data mart with one or more web service clients executed by the computer through a web services interface;

retrieving, using the web services interface, an interface specification for each of the one or more web service clients from a UDDI registry;

altering the interfacing of the profitability data mart with the one or more web service clients according to the interface specification to enable each of the one or more web service clients to exchange information with the profitability data mart;

retrieving, through the web services interface, profitability data from the profitability data mart;

distributing, through the web services interface, the profitability data to each of the one or more web service clients; and

modifying relationship management efforts, using the computer, based on the customer profitability by adjusting customer priority, wherein the customer relationship management system defines the relationship management efforts.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said allocation rules comprise activity based costing rules wherein a number of cost incurring activities are defined and specific costs are associated with each activity, and wherein the cost associated with an activity is allocated to a specific customer when the activity is performed by a customer or in response to a customer.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein revenue data are received from the customer billing system, and wherein an amount billed to a customer is allocated as revenue to the customer.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising

calculating, using the computer, a key performance indicator derived from the customer, revenue and cost data received from the business operating systems interfaced with the data mart.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the key performance indicator comprises one of:

average profitability;

costs from each identified cost source;

total costs;

average cost per user;

revenue from each identified revenue source;

total revenue;

average revenue per customer.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprises calculating, using the computer, additional key performance indicators configured by a user via the graphical user interface.

14. The method of claim 8 further comprising calculating, using the computer, the net present value of future profitability of a customer, future profitability being calculated based on present profitability multiplied by an expected duration of a relationship with the customers.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising altering a parameter of the customer lifetime value calculation, using the graphical user interface, in order to determine how a change in the expected relationship with customer or group of customers will alter the customer lifetime profitability.

16. A method comprising:

identifying, through a graphical user interface accessing a computer and internet, sources of revenue and sources of costs, an activity type and a cost driver;

establishing rules, using the computer, for allocating revenue and costs to individual customers;

receiving customer, revenue and cost data;

retrieving an interface specification for one or more business operating systems from a UDDI registry;

altering the interface according to the interface specification for each of the one or more business operating systems;

receiving, through a data interface, customer data, revenue data that identifies revenue from an interaction between at least two customers and cost data in a specified format forced by the data interface to be consistent with storage and indexing requirements of a database, wherein the data interface is implemented when the computer executes a data feeding module, wherein the interaction between the at least two customers represents revenue from an interconnection fee, wherein altering the data interface is adapted based on the interaction between the at least two customers and interconnection traffic related to the interaction between the at least two customers;

storing, through the data interface, the customer data, the revenue data and the cost data in the database;

allocating, using the computer, revenue and costs to individual customers according to said rules;

calculating, using the computer, a customer profitability value for each of the individual customers and a key performance indicator value derived from at least one of the cost data, the revenue data, and the customer profitability values; and

retrieving an interface specification for one or more web service clients from a UDDI registry;

altering a web services interface according to the interface specification for each of the one or more web service clients;

retrieving, through the web services interface, profitability data from the database;

distributing, through the web services interface, the profitability data to the web service clients;

generating, using the computer, a report displaying one of the customer profitability values and the key performance indicator value in the graphical user interface, wherein the report analyzes profitability on a per customer basis, wherein the report comprises pairings of two or more key performance indicators to demonstrate a correlation or lack thereof between the selected key performance indicators;

incorporating, in the report, customer data that distinguishes between various segments of the customer population such that the report includes the key performance indicators for a plurality of different customer segments; and

modifying relationship management efforts, using the computer, based on assigned customer priority according to the customer profitability values, wherein a customer relationship management system defines the relationship management efforts.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the key performance indicator is selected, through the graphical user interface, from the group comprising:

the cost associated with an identified cost source;

total costs;

average cost per customer;

the revenue associated with an identified revenue source;

total revenue;

average revenue per customer;

total profitability; and

average profitability.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising defining, through the graphical user interface, the various segments of the customer population including customer segments based on customer attributes and grouping customers sharing a common attribute in a common customer segment.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the customer segments comprise profitability tiers, each tier defining a profitability range, customers having a customer profitability value that falls within the profitability range of a given tier being grouped in the given tier.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the customer segments are defined by service use patterns, customers having similar use patterns being grouped in a common customer segment.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein customer segments are defined by various product types purchased by customers.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein customer segments are defined by various service types subscribed to by customers.

23. The method of claim 20 wherein the customer segments are defined by various customer types.

24. The method of claim 20 wherein generating one or more reports comprises displaying, in the graphical user interface, a first key performance indicator value for each of a plurality of customer segments of the two or more key performance indicators.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising displaying, in the graphical user interface, a second key performance indicator value for each of a plurality of customer segments of the two or more key performance indicators.

26. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

defining a group of customers based on a common attribute;

calculating, using the computer, an average customer lifetime value for members of the group based on the profitability of customers in the group and an average expected duration of a relationship with a customer in the group.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the customer lifetime value for an individual customer is the net present valued of the future profitability of the customer over an expected duration of a relationship with the customer.