Revenue Heroes Episode #1: Rob Castaneda, Servicerocket

Tuesday, Mar 5th 2019
Revenue Heroes Episode #1: Rob Castaneda, Servicerocket

Welcome to the first of our Revenue Hero series, where we sit down with individuals who have taken Accounts Receivable (AR) automation and championed it within their company to modernize their finance back office. These are the change makers we have seen from our side of the AR automation story, bringing disruption not only to the way cash flow is managed, but also to the way a company operates internally to holistically approach the customer experience.

Our first interview is with Rob Castaneda, CEO of ServiceRocket.

NOTE: ServiceRocket has written a blog post on implementing YayPay with their NetSuite ERP. Learn more about software purchasing and implementation best practices!

JZ: Hi Rob! Can you tell me a little about ServiceRocket and why you automated your AR process?

RC: We’re 250 people and headquartered in Palo Alto, but located in many locations around the world. We deal with a global client base and have offices in Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Santiago, and London. Our AR department doesn’t run in every location and we had the option to employ more people. That would help us with coverage but wouldn’t help us with the customer experience side of things. We wanted both.

JZ: So here at YayPay we talk a lot about how AR automation benefits the AR staff, but I’d like to hear it from your point of view as the CEO. What is the value of AR automation to how you run your business?

RC: I think the thing for me is just the consistency of how the business is running, knowing that we are always reaching out to customers no matter what, and that nothing is falling through the cracks. I mean as a CEO, that stuff’s priceless, right? [Before automation] we were okay, but there was also a lot of stress on the team. Inevitably things get dropped or missed and the team has to catch up.

[With automation, AR collections’] gonna happen consistently and routinely. Now more and more of our finance team are working on things that are a net improvement to the business, not just operational processing.

JZ: That’s fantastic! We created YayPay to help credit and collections professionals to become more valuable to their company, and it’s wonderful to know that this is what’s happening for ServiceRocket.

RC: Yes, and now I know that we have a world-class workflow and a world-class receivables operation because we have YayPay. My AR team knows that when they put things [into the workflow], that they are gonna get done. And, because it syncs with NetSuite, they have confidence — it’s not a separate system for them, it’s really just a layer on top.

JZ: How much improvement have you seen?

RC: Our DSO has gotten 10-15% better, and over two-thirds of the reminders we send get opened now — which is really good. It means our messages are getting through to customers. On another level, people can now go on vacation or be sick and not worry that notifications are not gonna get sent out!

JZ: [Laughs] That’s definitely a relatable relief! How would you say YayPay compares to other softwares that you purchase in terms of value and usability?

RC: From that point of view, it’s been really, really good. I feel like there are some pieces of software we buy, and if people don’t actively use them, we pay for nothing. In this case, because we’ve been able to set up some workflows and set up our processes, YayPay is something that is helping us get the most out of our NetSuite investment, and helping us really bring assets and cash into the business.

JZ: You mentioned that the customer experience was a key reason why you looked into YayPay. Why was it important that ServiceRocket incorporated collections into the customer experience?

RC: Well, in an old-style company, you do the work, throw it over the fence, and then it’s Finance’s job to get the money in. We looked at YayPay to help us with the transparency and customer experience. Finance generally looks at receivables as “Where’s my money?” whereas [transparency in AR lets] someone in services or delivery look at it as a way to talk to the customer about their experience and potential future opportunities.

JZ: That’s really insightful, Rob. Finally, can you share with us some of the experiments that you’ve been running internally to develop best practices?

RC: We’re now looking at bigger improvements to the business. One of the hypotheses we’re working on is how to improve time-to-money as a whole now that we’ve improved our DSO. So if our billing processes aren’t optimized and it takes two weeks to send the bills out, even if the DSO is good, you’re not gonna see the [red flag]. We now have the bandwidth to look at problems from that perspective. So now we’re working on items like ‘Hey, how quickly can we get the bills out?’

JZ: We love seeing our customers grow, innovate, and succeed from using our solution. It’s individuals like you who understand the imperative of changing the way we handle B2B collections that transform companies into a vehicle with nimble operations with a robust cash flow. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us. We’re excited to see where you’ll take ServiceRocket next!

ServiceRocket is focused on helping customers get the most out of their software. ServiceRocket has a variety of solutions ranging from the award-winning Learndot LMS for customer education, through to global managed services, apps and consulting services. The company has partnerships with leading platforms such as Atlassian, Cloudera, Docker, MuleSoft & Workplace by Facebook and operates offices around the world with an authentic, people-first culture of learning and growth.

read the full case study