New research finds businesses are under pressure to do more with less 

In the current economic climate of budget constraints, rising costs, and shifting market conditions, every dollar of revenue matters. And that’s not likely to change: the vast majority of business leaders expect revenue growth demands will increase in the short term.  

This tension headlines the new report from Conga, in partnership with Ascend2 Research: The Revenue Imperative: Overcoming Inefficiencies to Maximize Growth. According to this survey of more than 600 business decision-makers across the US and UK:

• 97% believe expectations to maximize revenue will grow in the next two years
• 100% agree that understanding the entire revenue lifecycle is critical
• Nearly half (46%) lack confidence in their organization’s ability to identify and capture all possible revenue opportunities
• Mismanaged revenue processes have significant consequences, including:
   
  • Higher operational costs (50%)
  • Missed revenue opportunities (43%)
  • Revenue leakage (35%)

The report reveals that companies stand to gain the most from initiatives related to AI and automation, as well as data integration for revenue optimization.

Integration leads to more confidence in capturing revenue

Organizations face a host of challenges when it comes to identifying and capturing revenue opportunities. When asked about the barriers to unlocking greater revenue, top responses include:

• Time-consuming manual tasks (45%)
• Difficulty integrating data across systems (34%)
• Compliance and security risks (32%)
• Errors in data and forecasting (28%)

According to survey responses, the majority of organizations lack integrated sales and finance data across teams—leading to widespread difficulty in accessing information. Those with fully integrated tools and systems are 2.5x more likely to express confidence in their ability to manage and capture revenue gains—and conversely, leaders with high confidence in capturing revenue are 4x more likely to have deeply integrated sales and finance data.

AI is highly valued, but underutilized 

A whopping 87% of survey respondents are confident that AI can reliably improve business performance. Yet just 25% are currently leveraging AI to enhance business processes like revenue management.  

That said, AI usage is likely to increase dramatically in the coming year. Among respondents who have not yet adopted AI, 66% report a high likelihood of doing so in the next 12 months. Best-in-class organizations are significantly more likely to prioritize AI tool adoption than others.  

Additionally, usage of AI varies significantly by region. Survey results indicate the UK is outpacing the US in AI adoption (33% vs 21%).

Revenue process efficiency has never been more important 

As this research highlights, inefficient revenue processes are slowing operations and hindering growth opportunities. To stay competitive in volatile economic conditions, organizations must take a proactive approach to identifying inefficiencies, automating workflows, and optimizing revenue operations.  

Business leaders in this survey identified time-consuming manual tasks as a top challenge—which aligns with findings from Conga’s Maturity Model survey, where ‘reducing manual tasks’ was given an importance ranking of 88%. These results further underscore the potential of AI to streamline routine tasks and increase efficiency across the revenue lifecycle.  

Get the report 

Download the full report, The Revenue Imperative: Overcoming Inefficiencies to Maximize Growth, for additional details and complete findings from this timely research.