PPL PRS

As a joint venture between PPL and PRS, two leading music licensing societies, PPL PRS aim to provide the best music licensing experience in the world and ensure creators and performers are fairly rewarded for their work. Based in Leicester, PPL PRS deliver all UK public performance licensing, creating a single point of contact for customers and more efficient licensing support to support their growing number of members.

Prior to contacting SmarterPay, PPL PRS had been using a different vendor, Payonomy, to manage their Direct Debit collection processes. Having been served notice by their provider and their licence expiring imminently, they decided to take the opportunity to review their systems and streamline their operations as Amy Mclaren, Financial Controller at PPL PRS explained:

“Whilst our old system did integrate with Salesforce to an extent, there was a lot of manual processing involved which was both error prone and expensive. There was also no integration with the bank which meant we had to save and load files to the Bureau and then send them manually to and from the bank. Batches would often fall over due to errors in the records and subsquently, files were increasingly difficult to track. This often meant that entire extracts would fail and we’d then have to reset them completely – it was far from ideal.”

Having learnt that Asperato, the company that acquired Payonomy, only dealt with Go Cardless and had instigated a significant price hike as a result, PPL PRS began looking for an alternative. Quickly finding SmarterPay and speaking to one of our payment specialists, PPL PRS outlined their key requirements. The most important of these requirements was to have the ability to automate bank file transfers and take Direct Debits and card payments.

A Salesforce Payment Solution

PPL PRS were immediately drawn to the proposed SmarterPay Salesforce Direct Debit Management Solution (DDMS) which fulfilled their exact requirements. Allowing the complete automation of Direct Debit processes, the DDMS would enable PPL PRS to dispense with manual payments completely and fully automate their Bacs file submissions. Recalling the comparison between their previous Payonomy solution and the SmarterPay DDMS, Amy recalled:

“Various things were not possible with our old system, but the SmarterPay DDMS is very adaptable and customisable. Similarly, other competitor solutions we looked at were linked via a URL to the software, which meant if the link goes down, we’d run into difficulties. The outof-the-box set of objects for Salesforce in the SmarterPay DDMS work a lot better.”

PPL PRS were also attracted to the wider breadth of functionality that the SmarterPay DDMS could offer including automatic validation of sort codes and bank account details by Modulus Checker and a higher level of customer-level transaction visibility.

The SmarterPay DDMS solution was originally to be deployed over a six-week period from the point of selection, but the Covid-19 outbreak meant there were some slight delays. Subsequently, although the search for a new payment solution began in late November and a decision to use the SmarterPay DDMS was reached at the end of January, it wasn’t until the end of June that the solution was fully deployed, due to Covid-19.

Despite these unforeseen obstacles however, PPL PRS were especially impressed with the solution deployment and how the SmarterPay team adapted to the challenges they faced as Amy remembered:

“SmarterPay managed the solution implementation really well, it’s actually one of the main reasons we chose them as our new provider. From procurement to the initial scoping day, which we found very helpful, the level of detail, knowledge and professionalism shown was exceptional.”

Automated, reliable & user-friendly

The SmarterPay DDMS solution solved the challenges faced by PPL PRS and ensured automated collection of Direct Debit and card payments. PPL PRS saw several immediate benefits following the implementation of the solution. These included the seamless integration of bank files to and from the bank and a more user-friendly and reliable piece of software, that drastically reduced the need for manual intervention from staff.

The benefits are also set to increase towards the end of the year when SmarterPay will assist PPL PRS further as Amy enthused:

“We will see more benefits when we role out Phase 2 in September and are expecting the introduction of payment links in particular, to offer huge improvements in terms of reduced calls into our Customer Service centre and an increase in the volume of payments in general. By adding payment links on to our documents, we will essentially be adding the ability to do recurring card payments and weekly Direct Debits which in the current climate, is a unique feature. We hope that by diversifying our recurring payment options, we will help capture people who are struggling to afford a music licence and make it easier for them
to manage their finances, as well as help them save money in the meantime.”

Commenting on her experience with SmarterPay, Amy said, “The speed of work and configuration of the product before go-live was really impressive. Equally, the helpfulness of the Support team when we ran into any issues was and continues to be, first rate. I would definitely recommend SmarterPay to other businesses because the pricing is extremely competitive and for that price, you get a slick piece of easily customisable software.”

About our Salesforce Solutions

We can integrate your web order processing and payment collection processes directly into your CRM, ensuring valuable customer account and payment details are automatically recorded.

• Regular or one-off card payments
• Direct Debit sign-up and management
• Checkout by Amazon, Paypal or Apple Pay
• Custom-built website checkout/order pages

For more information about SmarterPay’s DDMS solution, please get in touch.