Executive: Business Analytics and Pricing at Liquid Intelligent Technologies

Role Purpose

• The primary function of this role will be to provide financial and pricing guidance to the organization by leveraging insights from various sources of data.  This function will also lead the pricing and business case transformation process at LIT SA.  The role is responsible for both the EBU and CBU sales function pricing and advisory services.
• The main functions can be summarised as: Transform how we develop Business Cases, reporting on it, balance sheet treatment, accounting treatments, revenue recognition, off-balance sheet financing options, annual inflation increases, treatment, etc. Report on product performance and profitability, as well as a link to the solutions and engineering for looking into the cost to serve customers. Margin profiling on large deals for all divisions (Networks / C2 / DataPort).  Reporting on the P&L of large complex deals and large customers, such as WCG and others. Complex deal constructs, such as Google, Microsoft, ABSA, Managed services in various verticals (Mining 5G deals).
• Commercials of Large Public sector bids – such as the WCG renewals and new ones. Reporting on Products and Product profitability and mix. Lifecycle management of deals – from Business Case to cash – and the % hit rates – win/loss analysis. Reporting on Order intake targets. Analytics and AI views on the numbers and trends – profitability and growth trend. Competitive analysis – vs the market and the way they perform vs LIT – down to vertical functions. Spectrum revenue and profitability initiatives' accounting treatment of leases, etc.
• To provide quality assurance and advise to the Pricing & Business Case team that serves Sales (and ultimately our customers) by delivering an exceptional and timely Pricing, Business Case and Commercial Support & Advisory service in a relevant, clear and unambiguous manner. The role is equally responsible (in collaboration with Product Management) for setting the prices of products and services offered by Liquid Intelligent Technologies and developing strategies to ensure that these prices are competitive in the marketplace. A critical success factor is to demonstrate exemplary understanding and experience of product and solution pricing, as well as the financial systems at LIT SA to build a commercial/financial dashboard on the quality of deals throughout its lifecycle.

Pricing transformation 

• Assess and improve the underlying methods used to build pricing models and business cases at LITSA. Ensure the application of pricing and business case principles and methodology within LITSA.CPIX increases on MRR – competitive analysis, pricing review on some products and market scanning pricing review should also include items such as CPI related increases for products that have people costs as part of the operation and maintenance, i.e. IRU, dark fibre leases, etc. Develop and implement a CPI increase practice across all products and services. Develop analytical models by making use of analytics tools, data visualization tools, SFDC   as source for forecasting, Microsoft BI, extracts from the ERP and billing platforms to name a few.
• Lead how we develop BCs, reporting on it, balance sheet treatment, accounting treatments, revenue recognition, off-balance sheet financing options, CPI treatment, accountable to work with the required teams to design and implement new processes within the organisation to achieve contract obligations and mitigate customer contractual risk, by guiding the presales functions across the entire Gate 2 process. Develop conclusions and make recommendations to the relevant stakeholders with respect to tariffs, prices, offer duration, billing, economic and legislative changes.
• Formal reports created and presented to various levels of management. Build lifecycle models for products and solutions to provide guidance on the sustainability of such solutions. Approve and manage all price adjustments annually with billing teams for accurate invoicing. Design, Manage and Adapt contractual obligations with Sales/Presales teams to evolve in line with customer/business requirements. Provide and build a consolidated financial and commercial view on the impact of proposed variations or alterations to contractual and commercial terms – for the large contracts and customers get P&L visibility
• Develop scorecard for and work with cross-functional teams to implement optimizations and improvements identified through the review and assessment of the financial performance of large contracts and customers. Develop a system to monitor the process of successful sales after the BCs and pricing was provided as part of proposals to customers to get an idea of the % of proposals that convert to sales and revenue

Operations:  Quality assurance on BC and pricing models

• Always Customer First – provide most competitive commercial proposal based on the optimal technical solution – Develop functions within LIT SA aimed at contract revenue growth and margin protection through alignment to customer and Liquid sales strategy and delivery competencies. Use market analysis data, customer satisfaction data and internal service costing data to develop and manage value-based pricing and pricing strategies across the full range of products, working with product managers, segment managers, product development managers and finance managers.
• Deliver non-standard pricing within agreed TATs per scenario type - Ensure that RFP and other formal proposals are commercially and financially complete in terms of ensuring that all cost elements are included and priced.  This will also include any strategic growth initiatives such as spectrum programs, etc. Provide guidance and drive a Quality assurance process to improve how business cases are built, presented, and contracted after the sales is completed - C2 and ADC integration into pricing and BC

Operations:  Large complex deal constructs

• Work with bid management on major bids to support the commercial and financial responses - Support Sales with strategic planning and development of strategic input associated with business plans. Ensure standard product pricing is relevant, competitive and market related. Off-Net costs and model – This will analyse the off-net profitability; check the practices of off-net partners on the invoice we pay them, do they increase annually - understand the margin profile of the off-net links; consolidate and try to reduce input costs from them.
• Build meaningful reference models for the price books and business cases. Profitability and margin analysis of the OEM resell business and how to improve margins and build a “sell-through”’ model to convert costs base to revenue for own consumption procurement of OEM base. New metrics for Business cases – cash recovery timing – cash recovery to be faster (around 12 months to recover cash on the Capex). Create and maintain a competitive price book with a clear discount DOA where applicable

Operations:  Sales Analysis

• Design and implement best practices in sales alignment and resource planning in line with the anticipated order intake. Reporting on all sales and revenue related information as needed by the department. Analyse large enterprise account plans, create “white space” analysis tools to assist with upsell and cross-selling into accounts. Conduct benchmarks on prices on a regular basis including assessment of the latest trends on pricing.  Compile and analyse competitive product pricing data from internal and external sources for the creation of formal reports to management. Liaise with Product Management, Solutions and Sales teams, suggesting improvements on the pricing structures, for both existing and new products and customers. Refine and agree key business case parameters (IRR/ Payback, GM%/ EBITDA%) with Finance Report periodically on Win/Loss statistics of business case requests

Requirements

• Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.), Finance/Accounting major: Essential
• Post graduate qualification in Business: Desirable
• Extensive experience in developing Business Intelligence solutions (reports, dashboards, scorecards): Essential
• Experience in complex bid pricing scenarios: Essential
• Demonstrated experience in management of lifecycle of products and pricing models. Essential
• Experience in building and evaluating complex business cases, specifically capex intensive large projects and annuity-based models: Essential
• Relevant data management and analytical skills with the ability to overlay the business understanding and interpretation of the data: Essential
• Demonstrated experience of software systems in use by Liquid SA, preferably Business Intelligence platforms, sales forecasting tools, financial systems, and account planning across multiple entities: Essential
• At least five years working experience in pricing and/or financial environment: Essential