Automating the full subscription lifecycle

In brief

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.

The challenge

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 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.

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 this shows

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. Treating access rights as a direct consequence of subscription status, rather than as a separate manual task. Making three systems and three providers work together requires coordination as rigorous as the business logic itself.