This regional IT solutions business had hit a point where they feared the impact of growth on their complicated billing system. They were looking for a reliable billing partner to support their complex business offerings and take the pressure off the accounts team.
Six months after partnering with Active Billing, 3C is astounded by the positive impact on their business. They’re enjoying impressive growth with complete confidence that Active’s Managed Billing Service solution is up to the challenge.
The story of 3C
3C provides IT support and solutions to small businesses, students, and home users from their retail store in Griffith, NSW. They’ve been providing quality services and products in the tech space since 1994. With a comprehensive range of products, including NBN, mobile, phones, software subscriptions, and service packages, their aim is to change how people do business.
Over the past two years, 3C has focused on expansion in the small business market and doubled its revenue. Half of their income now comes from this market, which saw them grow to an annual revenue of $2.75m (ex GST) in FY 22/23.
Before Active Billing, Director Anthony Salmon invested large chunks of time into their billing process and still wasn’t confident that they were capturing all available income.
“The way we do business has totally flipped since the first bill run with Active Billing,” he said. “I have more time for my customers, more time to work on the business, and real data available to base decisions on.”
Challenges: Wasted time & poor reporting
Recurring billing is central to 3C’s success. While their previous billing solution is a familiar name in the Australian telco billing space, it wasn’t fulfilling its promises.
Anthony spent a week out of every month working with the accounts team to manage and execute bill runs. The process was complicated, and simple tasks such as creating a new contact or service package were frustratingly time-consuming. Data checking was manual, onerous, and stressful.
“It was such a complicated process, a total nightmare,” Anthony recalls. “Small tasks took longer than necessary, reconciling back to accounts was terrible, and the technicality of the system meant that I unwillingly became the go-to person”.
Six months on, Anthony is relieved to have dramatically reduced his involvement in the billing process. End-of-month processes are straightforward, maintenance of the service catalogue is simple, and correcting data errors is simple.
“Anything from simple tariff changes right through to technical support is actioned correctly and done right the first time. It’s like having someone sitting in our own office,“ he said. “All we need to do now is add customers and services, then take the payments!”.
Anthony’s time for other business functions has increased by 60% as he has reduced his time spent on billing to only two days per month. This has reduced the pressure on his accounts team, and their productivity has increased. They now have more time to service new business.
Another drain on Anthony’s time was the difficulty accessing the required data.
“Reporting capabilities were limited to the point where we had to export multiple sets of data and then merge them to get the answers required,” he recalls. “It was a frustrating process that meant I didn’t trust the data’s accuracy and couldn’t rely on it for future planning.”
In one instance, based on reports from their previous billing system, Anthony felt that NBN sales had stagnated and consequently reduced marketing spend in that area. However, the accurate data they extracted from Active Billing revealed a different trend. They went on to push NBN services harder than in the past, and since joining Active Billing, it has again become a top seller for them.
Up & running in no time
“Moving supplier was big for us,” Anthony recalls. “I had reservations due to the complexity of our business, moving critical data, and learning a new system. Turns out I had nothing to worry about!”.
Although their previous supplier withheld data for over two months, Active Billing made the onboarding process straightforward. A clear project timeline and responsive support team instilled confidence from the start. 3C’s dedicated billing specialist, Katie, demonstrated her expertise at every step, reassuring Anthony that everything was on track. He was also impressed by regular check-ins from CEO Greg and COO Kerry, who clearly shared his business values.
Having conducted many data migrations in accounting and POS environments over the years, Anthony had reservations about the data migration. He wasn’t convinced that the data from the old system would transfer accurately and feared that it would undermine their future success.
Active’s attention to detail and respect for his data impressed Anthony, who was pleased to share, “I never should have worried. Active Billing got it right the first time. I have full confidence that the data is clean and spot on.”
From the first bill run, Anthony noticed that the Active Billing Ops team was doing the heavy lifting for his team. Hectic, stressful bill run days are a thing of the past.
Fully integrated with business systems
3C uses three core systems to run its business: a billing engine for recurring subscriptions, a service system for managing service jobs and customer purchases, and Xero for accounting and payroll. Xero is the source of truth, with all activities from the billing and service systems automatically feeding into it. While Active Billing offers full integration with Xero, the approach is different.
Anthony was concerned they would lose a central place to see all transactions. He was pleasantly surprised by the solution.
“Greg at Active Billing drove the discussion forward and was committed to working through possible solutions. Ultimately, his suggestion was spot on,” Anthony said. “It simplified and improved our processes as we didn’t need that level of detail in Xero.”
Recurring subscriptions now live in Active Billing. Any outstanding amounts from recurring customers don’t get mixed up in Xero with amounts they may owe us for other products and services. Active Billing can send financial data to Xero, such as invoice amounts and payments; from a reporting, P&L, and tax perspective, Xero has all the required data and is still the source of truth.
It’s all about the people
Anthony realised during the onboarding phase that Active Billing’s team is unique. That realisation has been reinforced many times over the past six months. He’s confident that the Active Billing team is genuinely invested in the success of his business.
“Sure, the system is simple to use and fast to operate, but that is only part of it,” he said. “It’s the support team who really shine and make it so valuable for us”.
When 3C introduced credit card surcharges, the Active Billing team were there every step of the way. “They went above and beyond for us,” Anthony explained. “From evaluating the pros and cons with us to the timing and implementation. They managed our customer communications to ensure accuracy and mitigate customer pushback.”
After six years of working with a frustrating billing system and poor support, the simplicity of dealing with Active Billing is a relief.
“It’s all the little things that make Active Billing stand out,” Anthony explained. “We’re enjoying excellent response times from support and feeling comfortable that no question is too silly to ask. Our teams fit together beautifully and the level of trust is invaluable.”
About 3C
3C has been serving the community in and around Griffith, NSW, since 1994. Building on the foundations of quality services and products, their number one priority is providing customers with solutions that work. Learn more at 3ctechshop.com.au.