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ASC 606 project with HMH: Part 3 – How We Solved the Compliance Puzzle

March 28, 2018
Posted by Sarah Werner

Part three:  HMH realizes the benefits of Aptitude RevStream.

At Aptitude RevStream’s annual user conference – RevConnect 2017 – Aptitude RevStream customer Andy Nickerson, Finance Manager at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), discussed his finance office and their adoption of automation.

In their revenue recognition implementation project, HMH defined their bottlenecks and challenges, generated a wish list for their revenue automation, and found the right vendor to help them find a solution. So, how did Aptitude RevStream help solve HMH’s compliance and contract management challenges under the new compliance regulations?

Solutions to business model key challenges:

Bottlenecks & challenges How Aptitude RevStream solved the challenge according to Nickerson.
Decentralized business units Aptitude RevStream “will give us the holistic view we need, of the whole business. We can run reports by business unit alone, by geography or at the company level. . We just have to put in the configuration we want and RevStream will give us the data.”
Independent governance “We configure our rules, but importantly if there is a change – a rule change, interpretation change – it is a quick fix.
Program centered data “Aptitude RevStream helps bring our components and materials into a contract environment.”
Product volume “It becomes a holistic system that brings these (systems data) together and processes the revenue correctly.” Pulling data from resellers, while still a waiting game, is simplified by the ability to automate the process and make corrections within Aptitude RevStream
Historical SSP analysis “Not a problem with (Aptitude) RevStream. It uses aggregated historical data, creates an average and then we get a Fair Value analysis as well.”
Upstream processing “When we receive data into the system it is accurate … regardless of whether we are importing it from billing, sales or ERP systems.”
Impact of a new Chart of Accounts “Aptitude RevStream will help us with this because we can just choose the report we want data on and run it. We pull this data straight into our reports.” ASC 605 and 606 can be viewed from a simple drop down menu.
High volumes of transactions “This wasn’t an issue for (Aptitude) RevStream. It can handle our current volume, but also any growth in revenue.”

 

Aptitude RevStream was able to deliver a solution that met the business needs of both HMH and the finance office. Process and system reorganization is often one of the least anticipated changes brought about by ASC 606 compliance. Nickerson understood the reorganization and account analysis required and solved the rev rec puzzle with an intelligent, automated solution. HMH can now focus on growing their revenue from a sparkling back-end that matches their front-end operations.


Aptitude Software offers two levels of revenue recognition solutions: Aptitude Revenue Recognition Engine – a powerful, high-volume revenue automation tool, and Aptitude RevStream – a robust, user-configured, cloud-based, revenue management solution.


With thanks to Andy Nickerson for his thoughtful insights, as seen at RevConnect 2017.

Hear more customer stories at RevConnect 2018, May 16-17 in San Francisco.

Catch up on the HMH story:

Part 1 – ASC 606 Project with HMH –

Part 2 – ASC 606 Project with HMH –

Explore more:

Aptitude RevStream 5x Suite – product details

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This blog post was written by:

Sarah Werner
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