Certis Case Study
Life science technology company scales revenue, gains efficiency without adding personnel
About Certis
Certis Oncology Solutions is a life science technology company committed to realizing the promise of precision oncology. Certis’ product is Oncology Intelligence™ — highly predictive therapeutic response data derived from advanced biological models of cancer and enhanced with AI-driven bioinformatics. This proprietary platform can help inform personalized cancer care and accelerates the development of new cancer therapies.
Impact highlights
3 fewer days closing the books each month
Eliminated the use of Excel spreadsheets
Greater forecast accuracy
Reduced manual effort for Sales
Increased C-suite confidence in forecasts
“Before revVana, we relied on manual entry of complicated revenue schedules which was a frustrating and time-consuming process for team members. With revVana, we automated this process, saving our team members considerable time and energy. We now have timely, accurate, and auditable revenue forecasts that enable real-time revenue dashboards all the way to the C-suite. Highly recommended for anyone who currently manages revenue in Salesforce.
Matthew Lee
Senior Director, Sales & Marketing Operations, Certis Oncology Solutions, Inc
Challenge
Before engaging with revVana, Certis had experienced exponential year-over-year growth within their service-based business. To continue on this growth trajectory, the majority of the company’s resources and investment had to be allocated to science execution, not business administration. Certis recognized a need to automate manual, error-prone activities around their revenue recognition process. Specifically, Certis needed to forecast revenue recognition based on Salesforce Opportunities, while conforming to a complicated set of ASC606 revenue recognition principals. The goal, in addition to saved time and error, was to allow for better capacity planning based on sales activity.
“We realized we needed a more consistent and automated solution,” said Rita Dana, Controller at Certis. “It was the next step in our business maturity.”
Solution
Matt started hunting for a solution. Certis was already using Salesforce Opportunity Products for revenue schedules, so he explored how to maximize the functionality that they already had within Salesforce.
“Salesforce has an out-of-the-box revenue scheduling solution, but it’s very limiting what you can do with it. You can split revenue evenly or repeat revenue. That’s about all you can do. Everything else you have to manually update, and it’s lots of clicking and lots of screens.
We stumbled upon revVana while looking for a way to slide open deals and revenue projections based on the close date of opportunities. It was a simple feature, and I thought I might find a script I could put into Salesforce that would enable revenue projections to slide out from the close date.
revVana, offered not only a better UI for some existing features we had, but also a rules-based approach. This would allow to stay ASC606 compliant and save the Sales team time and effort.”
Because revVana is 100% native to Salesforce (and Certis was already invested in Salesforce), product adoption was smooth, with little to no business interruption. revVana’s implementation team helped Certis configure revVana to meet their unique needs and set up custom dashboards that provide complete visibility into past, present, and forecasted revenue.
Results
In six short weeks, Certis was up and running on
revVana in Salesforce.
Before engaging with revVana, Certis had experienced exponential year-over-year growth within their service-based business. To continue on this growth trajectory, the majority of the company’s resources and investment had to be allocated to science execution, not business administration. Certis recognized a need to automate manual, error-prone activities around their revenue recognition process. Specifically, Certis needed to forecast revenue recognition based on Salesforce Opportunities, while conforming to a complicated set of ASC606 revenue recognition principals. The goal, in addition to saved time and error, was to allow for better capacity planning based on sales activity.
“This is a common problem when planning capacity” said Matt. “To have it in real-time like this … it’s an exponential reduction in effort.”
Now, the Sales team simply enters the initial deal details, but they aren’t responsible for revenue recognition. Less is required from project managers too as specific business rules are embedded into the revenue plans. And Accounting can more easily manage the spread of revenue monthly and quickly adjust when delays occur.
Company alignment on forecast data adds value for all departments, explained Rita, “revVana helps us tie the numbers all together into one picture. It’s a dollar and cents way to look at a particular project and clearly see any delays. It’s a documented, approach that offers a real-time forecast for capacity and demand planning.”
“It’s helping to close gaps and helps our C-suite and stakeholders to make the appropriate and timely business decisions.”
Rita Dana
Controller, Certis
By leveraging revVana in Salesforce, Certis can:
Generate rules-based revenue schedules with any criteria
Easily update schedules and recalculate plans
Capture snapshots of revenue plans when deals close
Accurately forecast capacity and demand planning
Create accurate, adjustable, auditable reports without spreadsheets
At a glance, Certis can see any differences between what was sold to the customer versus what they were able to execute. revVana cleanly and automatically captures details in the revenue schedule. And, by eliminating the need for Excel spreadsheets, revVana greatly reduces the risk of human error.
Before closing the books for the month, the Accounting team audits revVana plans. This process has allowed Accounting to cut three days off of closing the books every month.
“revVana has allowed us to scale our operations without needing to make enterprise-class investments in technology.” said Matt.
Thanks to the low cost of a recurring license, revVana has enabled Certis to keep their cost centers low and continue to focus their investment on science execution and revenue growth — while increasing accuracy, compliance, and reducing the burden of data entry for their team.
“revVana allows us to punch above our weight. It was a no-brainer when we did the cost vs benefit analysis.”
Matthew Lee,
Senior Director, Sales & Marketing Operations, Certis Oncology
