Case Studies

RemoteLock Case Study

With native integrations to Zuora and NetSuite, preferred payment methods and dependable support, BlueSnap is helping RemoteLock increase the bottom line by reducing fees by as much as 50%.

“There is a direct bottom line impact, measured in a couple hundred thousand dollars. That pays for everything.”

Chris Sheehan, Vice President of Operations, RemoteLock

Who Is RemoteLock?

Since 2011, RemoteLock has been automating access control and improving on-site property operations efficiencies in vacation rental, multifamily, commercial property and related industries. RemoteLock’s cloud-based access control software empowers property owners to remotely manage access to any property from anywhere in the world.

The platform saves property managers time and money, streamlining operations and helping to scale businesses. The company currently has more than 10,000 customers in 75+ countries — and is still growing. “If you’ve ever had an Airbnb code, we’re probably behind it,” says Chris Sheehan, RemoteLock’s vice president of operations, putting the business in perspective.

The Challenge

While RemoteLock has established expertise across several property management verticals, the company’s expansion into multifamily, enterprise and global markets required them to evaluate their existing tech systems. “We’d had our platform for 10 years, and the system that [customers] logged into to manage devices also handled the billing, which was common in many systems until recently,” Sheehan explains. “It worked great for a long time, but it didn’t scale.”

After implementing Salesforce and CPQ for contracts, the team began working on implementing Zuora for subscription management. Zuora integrated well with the company’s existing NetSuite ERP, but one piece was missing: a scalable, flexible payment solution that could support the backend.

RemoteLock’s former payment integration lacked the flexibility they needed. “Our platform had an integration, and some things weren’t perfect with it,” Sheehan says. “There were a number of instances where we said, ‘We wouldn’t do it this way.’ So we did the analysis: do we want to rewrite our integration? But ultimately, we wanted to get it out of our billing system.”

They set out to identify a partner that could scale globally, integrate seamlessly and offer additional payment capabilities.

The Solution

As a Zuora preferred payments partner, BlueSnap was recommended to RemoteLock by the platform and proved to be a strong option that meets the primary needs, including:

  1. The payment processor needed to integrate seamlessly with Zuora, since they were using that platform to handle RemoteLock’s subscriptions and billing, and BlueSnap is a preferred payments partner for Zuora.
  2. BlueSnap matches the company in terms of the size of markets they both serve.
  3. BlueSnap’s global capabilities fit RemoteLock’s plans for international customers. “We have a small business in EMEA, and we want to bring all of their financial operations into our platform,” Sheehan says. “BlueSnap gave us a runway to do that.”

With hundreds of native integrations, BlueSnap is able to support RemoteLock for this project and more. Since BlueSnap has a NetSuite integration, RemoteLock is able to leverage it to accept payments on its hardware invoices with live payment links and more payment types to meet customers’ needs. In fact, leveraging a single payment solution that integrated across the tech stack allowed RemoteLock to consolidate vendors, gaining operational efficiencies as well.

Throughout implementation, the RemoteLock team was impressed with BlueSnap. When a minor hiccup arose, as is prone to happen when implementing new technology, the BlueSnap team quickly resolved it. “All of us have been doing this awhile, and it doesn’t always work like that,” explains Sheehan. “The impact was real to us. It was remarkable nimbleness from a fintech company.”

The Results

Since implementing BlueSnap, RemoteLock has seen measurable improvements across finances, operations and customer experience.

“There is a direct bottom line impact, measured in a couple hundred thousand dollars,” he says. “That pays for everything, and then not using wires has been great for customers and us. It’s really just been simple.” RemoteLock sees some of these savings in the cost of processing the payments for their hardware orders. They had been paying 7% on each payment with their legacy provider, and with BlueSnap, they are now under 3%.

And the benefits don’t stop there. Here are other gains RemoteLock has seen since working with BlueSnap:

Improved Contract Management: “Before BlueSnap, clients could add more devices to their accounts in our platform, but the contract wouldn’t update to reflect this,” explains Sheehan. “So then they weren’t paying for the upgrade, and it was confusing for the customer. Now, we’re better able to manage contract dates and terms, and it’s really simple.”

More Payment Types: “We’re now able to accept ACH payments,” says Sheehan. “Previously, we were taking wire transfers — not the most convenient payment method, especially if we needed to issue a refund. [ACH] has been great for customers and for us.”

Vendor Consolidation: With integrations to both NetSuite Zuora, BlueSnap has been able to replace two of the legacy platforms RemoteLock had been using, while also delivering incremental value.

Automated Processes: BlueSnap’s technology helps streamline previously manual tasks for both RemoteLock and its customers. “The payment link stays live on the invoice for 20 days, so we have fewer customers asking us to resend the link. After 20 days without payment, the account is automatically suspended, and then automatically kicks back on after payment.”

And the best part about BlueSnap for Sheehan? “I don’t have to think about it,” he says. “It’s set it and forget it.”

“You take the importance of payments — it’s money. There isn’t anything more important. That’s what matters to our customers and to us, and we don’t have to worry about BlueSnap. It just works.”