Automating the full subscription lifecycle
Renewal, invoicing, reminders and access rights automated and kept in sync across three systems, starting from the inconsistencies seen in day-to-day operations.
- Role
- IT business analyst
- Period
- A few months, 2025
- Systems
- Umbraco, Dynamics, Odoo
- Providers
- 3
The challenge
Subscription management at a semi-public organisation in the construction sector relied on manual checks at every step: renewal, invoicing, access rights and payment reminders. This manual approach allowed inconsistencies to slip through, such as someone subscribing twice or gaining access before actually paying.
Without automation, access rights were not always aligned with the actual payment status. Some users could access documents not intended for their profile, or retain active access after their subscription had expired. These inconsistencies were only detected case by case, often too late.
The friction points at the start
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Friction 01
Duplicate subscriptions
The same person sometimes subscribed twice.
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Friction 02
Access without payment
Access opened before actual payment, or stayed active after expiry.
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Friction 03
The wrong documents
Users could reach documents not intended for their profile.
The approach
The subscriber's full journey was mapped, from initial sign-up through renewal, including invoicing and payment reminders. This made it possible to identify exactly where access rights needed to be checked and adjusted automatically: at sign-up, payment, expiry and profile change.
The journey ran across three separate systems: the website for sign-up, Dynamics for member status and access rights, and Odoo for invoicing and payment reminders. The three providers had to deliver their components in a coordinated way, with regular alignment points, so that a subscriber's status remained consistent across systems at every step.
These rules were translated into user stories for the external providers, with particular attention to the problem cases identified at the outset: duplicate sign-up, access without confirmed payment and access to documents reserved for other profiles. Each case was tested individually before validation.
What was delivered
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The subscriber journey mapped
From sign-up to renewal, with the points where access rights must be checked.
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Rules as user stories
For the three providers, covering the problem cases identified at the start.
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One test per case
Each problem case tested individually before validation.
The result
Renewal, invoicing, payment reminders and access rights now run automatically and in sync. Duplicate sign-ups have disappeared, access remains tied to actual payment, and each profile only has access to the documents intended for it.
What the project made possible
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An automated lifecycle
Renewal, invoicing, reminders and access rights in sync.
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No more duplicate sign-ups
Access remains tied to actual payment.
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The right access per profile
Each profile only reaches the documents intended for it.
Key takeaways
This project shows the importance of starting from real inconsistencies observed in day-to-day operations, rather than from a theoretical list of features to automate.
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Start from real inconsistencies
Not from a theoretical feature list.
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Rights follow the subscription
A direct consequence of its status, not a separate manual task.
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Coordination is design work too
Three systems and three providers need coordination as rigorous as the business logic.
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Access rights should follow the actual subscription status
If subscription management still requires manual checks across several systems, we can identify which rules to automate and which edge cases to secure.