50 Tasks that Rev Ops Pros Swear By When Configuring OMS Platforms!

 It must be common knowledge that putting a number in a headline increases reader engagement and clicks. Just today, I saw the following on CNN.com

• 20 Amazon products our readers loved buying in October
• 53 stocking stuffers that make small gifts feel extra special
• The 23 best food gifts for people who take eating seriously.
• 30 cozy gifts for the person who loves staying in.

So, I figured I would follow the experts in journalistic integrity in writing a headline that describes the challenge of creating a foundation for best practices in rev ops.

(At the end of this post, see a series of hilarious AI alternatives to this headline. Honestly, it’s worth skipping to the bottom:)

Here we go with….

50 Tasks that Rev Ops Pros Swear By When Configuring OMS platforms

AD PRODUCTS

• Define the ad product catalog, or taxonomy.
• Design the optimal structure that will support sales and planning, trafficking, reporting and billing
• Determine if these will be basic size/position ad products. Or if they will be further defined in the catalog with multiple key values for targeting.
• Document and configure any pre-determined ad packages and the rules for editing them. Including ad units and fixed costs such as production charges.
• If these are print products, define and configure the page position, issue, publishing date and close dates for the next 12 months.
• If these are video streaming products, define the positions as pre-, mid-, or post rolls.
• If these are video streaming products, determine what metadata will be attributed to them.
• Define commercial break patterns so they can be associated with the ad products.
• Define how revenue recognition will be calculated based on the delivery of individual components in an ad package.
• Define, as part of user roles and permissions, who can view product attributes and who can edit them.
• Configure the product catalog in the OMS. Perform UAT, then reconfigure again based on feedback.

RATE CARDS AND PRICING

• Determine if there will be 1 rate card, multiple rate cards, country specific rate cards, seasonal rate cards, specific rates for agency holding companies.
• Define the discount structure and configure the types of discounts in the OMS.
• Define any pricing floors that, if exceeded, will trigger workflow rules requiring approvals.
• Volume pricing – what part does volume pricing play in calculating discounts in real time OR as a year end rebate strategy.
• Which currencies will be used, by whom, and for which products?
• Define the process for calculating and updating currency exchange rates.

WORKFLOW

• What is the source of truth for accounts, contacts and credit status? Does if flow from the billing platform to the CRM (like Salesforce)? Or is the source of truth the CRM, which flows to the OMS (order management system)?
• Define the sales stages for both the CRM and OMS.
• Define when opportunities in the CRM push to the OMS. At what status will that happen?
• How will sales knowledge about the proposal be handed off to the media planner?
• Define how multiple proposals for the advertiser will be handled in the OMS. How will the primary, advertiser approved media plan be flagged for completion?
• Define any deal parameters that are triggers for approval by sales managers, inventory managers and/or finance.
• At what point in the workflow is an order considered “closed/won”? How is that reflected in both the CRM and OMS?
• What order information needs to flow back from the OMS to the CRM, so that revenue totals are in synch across both platforms?
• Define the order revision process and determine the conditions under which a revised order needs to cycle through the approval workflow.

TRAFFICKING AND AD SERVER INTEGRATION

• Define how key values from the ad server will be pulled into the OMS.
• Will “English Names” (aliases) be applied to key values that are numeric, so planners know what value to select?
• Validate that inventory avails are pulled into the OMS from the ad server during media planning and through the final contracted order.
• Perform mapping between ad server’s ad products and those in the OMS
• Define the process for pushing completed orders and line items from the OMS to the ad server.
• Define and document any error messages associated with pushing line items to the ad server, and their resolution.

BILLING AND INVOICING

• Define and map the fields that will be sent from the OMS to the billing platform.
• Determine the billing cycle. Will it be daily, weekly, monthly or ad hoc?
• Define how third party delivery data will be incorporated into the OMS.
• Define the process for actualizing the billable data which may include pulling third party data manually.
• Define the billing adjustment process.
• Define the credit process.
• Configure the invoice templates and determine which data from the OMS will be included and which will be “hidden”.

DATA MIGRATION (from legacy system to new OMS platform)

• Decide if this is a manual migration or automated migration leveraging the OMS API
• Define the acceptance criteria that internal auditing and compliance stakeholders will use to validate the data migration. Build it into the timeline
• Define the parameters of the migration – will it include active campaigns only, or will it include historical campaign data.
• Map the data between the legacy ad platform(s) and the new ad platform.
• Remove blockers from migration, which will generally include workflow rules, mis-configured products, etc., so that the data loads can be applied without interruption.
• Create the order Lines
• Synch the ad server lines
• Populate custom fields at the line item level
•  Update order status(s) before system use.
•  Conduct QA and create a report detailing any errors in migration data (missing products, pricing config, etc.) and submit IDs and records of any migration lines that were in error.
• Conduct supplemental data loads as required to complete the initial launch data set.

By the way, AI was NOT used in the composition of the above article.

However, Chat GPT WAS used to come up with some alternate takes on my headline. I think they are pretty hilarious, but also better than mine!

“50 Must-Do Tasks Every RevOps Pro Tackles When Setting Up an OMS”

“RevOps Leaders Reveal the 50 Tasks They Never Skip When Configuring an OMS”

“The 50 High-Impact OMS Setup Tasks That Maximize Revenue Efficiency”

“The Ultimate 50-Point RevOps Checklist for OMS Configuration”

“Avoid the Chaos: 50 Tasks That Keep Your OMS From Breaking Down”

“From Sync to Scale: 50 OMS Configuration Tasks That Power Seamless RevOps”

“50 Modern OMS Setup Moves That Today’s RevOps Pros Live By”

“How Top RevOps Teams Configure OMS Platforms: 50 Tasks That Define Operational Excellence”