What is ‘Bring Your Own Science’ & Why is it Important?

In the rapidly evolving landscape of Software as a Service (SaaS) products and native-cloud pricing software sitting as a subset of that wider group, the concept of “Bring Your Own Science” (BYOS) has emerged as a pivotal strategy for businesses seeking to harness the power of advanced algorithms and machine learning to optimize their strategies. In its purest essence in the pricing sphere, BYOS refers to the ability for businesses to leverage their data and as a result customize and further tailor the smart algorithms within their chosen pricing system to align in bringing their unique business and industry goals to fruition.

At Pricefx, over the last decade and more, we have assisted hundreds of customers to migrate their pricing needs over to a true cloud native pricing software solution from their Excel spreadsheet pricing set-up or from outdated first-generation legacy on-premises pricing systems. As part of that process, we facilitate businesses to ‘bring their own science’ and working closely with them we assist to configure the pricing solution to achieve exactly what they need from the technology.

In this article, we start by unraveling the essence of BYOS, clarifying its meaning, exploring its relevance in the context of investing in pricing software, and highlighting its transformative impact on businesses.

What is the Essence of ‘Bring Your Own Science’?

BYOS encapsulates the fundamental principle of empowering businesses to infuse their proprietary data, methodologies, and domain-specific expertise into software solutions. It signifies the flexibility and adaptability of software systems to accommodate and leverage an organization’s unique scientific approaches, data analytics, and specialized algorithms. This approach empowers businesses to integrate their domain-specific knowledge, customer insights, and segment characteristics into the pricing algorithms, enabling them to create highly personalized and revenue-optimized pricing strategies.

In its purest essence, BYOS heralds a departure from the one-size-fits-all approach, inviting businesses to reconfigure, augment, or refine software functionalities to align seamlessly with their specific pricing methodologies and strategic business or organizational objectives.

The Evolution Beyond Generic Solutions: Tailoring Software to Business Expertise

Historically, businesses grappling with pricing strategies often encountered generic software solutions that lacked the depth and nuance necessary to harmonize with their unique pricing approaches. BYOS enables businesses to integrate their proprietary scientific models, data analytics, and domain expertise into their pricing software and craft their own independent pricing outcomes.

The evolution in pricing software allows organizations to move beyond the limitations of standard software packages. By integrating their refined pricing methodologies, customer insights, and market-specific data into the software ecosystem, businesses can adopt a tailored approach. This customization enables the creation of highly personalized pricing offers that resonate better with customers, potentially leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty.

What’s more, the BYOS concept allows for businesses to swiftly adapt to market dynamics and changing customer behaviors. Through customizing the algorithms within pricing software, companies can integrate real-time market insights and customer segment characteristics. This integration facilitates data-driven pricing decisions that align with current market conditions and customer preferences without being restricted by pre-set models or generic strategies.

To learn more about the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) that makes BYOS the intuitive and personalized business technology it has become, please check out this handy article below from my colleague, Sylvain Rougemaille:

Consequently, the software becomes a reflection of the organization’s distinct scientific prowess, aligning closely with their strategic pricing imperatives in addition to considering (more elegantly than ever possible before) what their customers want. This agility and responsiveness is beginning to become crucial for businesses seeking to stay ahead of the competition and maximize their revenue potential in a dynamic and fast-paced market environment.

Why Invest in Pricing Software with BYOS Capabilities?

Investing in pricing software equipped with BYOS capabilities empowers businesses to navigate the nuances of their chosen pricing strategies with precision and agility. The ability to incorporate proprietary algorithms, statistical models, or machine learning frameworks amplifies the software’s efficacy in analyzing vast datasets, deciphering intricate market dynamics, and generating actionable insights, all based on your business own data and unique required business objectives. Let’s look at how BYOS might work in a manufacturing price optimization use case example.

A ‘BYOS’ PRICE OPTIMIZATION EXAMPLE

Imagine you own a tire company, and you sell three types of tires: high performance tires for sports cars, tires for tractors, and winter tires for most standard cars.

Having determined your pricing strategy for each of your three products, you have decided that you want to:

 

• Increase Sales volume on your high performance sportscar tires to lower production costs
• Have a standard 20% profit margin on your tractor tires on online orders, and a 30% profit margin on in-store orders.
• Have a standard 15% profit margin on your winter tires and:
• You want to apply all these rules in every market you sell in except for Norway, where a standard 25% profit margin applies across all your tires.

 

With pricing software, these five business outcomes can be built into a single rule for your pricing software system to calculate your global prices automatically. And it is all based on your company’s unique science that you infused with your pricing software.

So, we can see from the example above that BYOS facilitates a symbiotic relationship between business expertise and technological capabilities, allowing businesses to make data-driven pricing decisions swiftly, adapt strategies promptly, and respond adeptly to market fluctuations.

This level of customization allows for optimized pricing strategies based on their company-specific knowledge and customer insights, ensuring that the pricing offers are highly relevant and compelling to their customers. Moreover, BYOS enables businesses to integrate cutting-edge science and strategy into their pricing software, whilst delivering highly personalized offers fit for both B2C and B2B businesses.

Leveraging these levels of personalization and customization is instrumental in driving customer engagement and loyalty, as businesses can create pricing strategies that align with the individual needs and preferences of their customers. Ultimately, the ability to bring your own science into pricing software empowers businesses to create tailored and revenue-optimized pricing strategies that drive business growth and competitiveness.

How We Do BYOS at Pricefx

Looking at how BYOS works in the Pricefx environment, an integral feature of our pricing software solution lies in its capability not only to integrate internally developed models but also to provide an interface that fosters seamless communication between a company’s Data Science team and its business operations.

This differs significantly from the conventional process where the business inputs data, the model is adjusted outside the pricing platform, and then reintegrated for further testing.

 

On the flip side, Pricefx streamlines this workflow by facilitating ongoing collaboration between the Data Science team and the business within a singular platform.

 

This interconnected interface permits continuous fine-tuning of models based on evolving business needs and real-time data insights.

By enabling direct interaction between the technical aspects handled by the Data Science team and the practical application within the business, Pricefx promotes a more agile and iterative approach to refining pricing models.

This iterative process within a unified platform minimizes the need for multiple transfers of data and models between different systems, resulting in more efficient and effective model adjustments and testing cycles.

The Strategic & Competitive Imperative: Embracing BYOS in Pricing Software Investment

The decision to invest in pricing software should invariably encompass an evaluation of BYOS’ capabilities. Businesses seeking a competitive edge in pricing strategies must prioritize solutions that embrace BYOS principles.

By integrating proprietary scientific methodologies and data analytics into pricing software, organizations gain an unparalleled advantage—harnessing the synergy between domain expertise and innovative technology.

This integration fosters a dynamic pricing environment, enabling businesses to refine strategies, optimize revenue, and deliver enhanced value propositions to customers.

The Future of Pricing is Now: BYOS as a Pricing Cornerstone

BYOS has already emerged from trend to a pricing strategy cornerstone for a number of organizations. This innovative approach cements their position as industry leaders, fostering resilience, and sustaining competitive advantage in an ever-evolving marketplace.

Big companies will invest in developing their own teams to support these initiatives, but smaller organizations will not be standing idle either. These services will provide a diverse offering that companies will be able to work with depending on their level of maturity with analytics and data science. For larger companies, the more in-house data scientists will be involved in pricing segmentation optimization, thus increasing the need for “bring your own science” models.

As businesses contemplate investments in pricing software, the incorporation of BYOS principles becomes a strategic imperative, unlocking a realm of precision, agility, and innovation in successful pricing strategies.

To learn more about preparing your data and how to use it to augment your company’s pricing strategy, check out the handy article below:

Meanwhile, Happy Pricing!