How Primo uses Hyperline to effectively manage a large product catalog

How Primo uses Hyperline to effectively manage a large product catalog

A conversation with Martin Pannier, Founder and CEO from Primo

Primo’s Story

When a new employee joins the company, someone from the HR or admin teams ensures they have everything necessary to begin their work. This typically includes ordering a new computer, updating a spreadsheet with a reference number, and notifying the outsourced IT personnel to grant access to internal tools.

"The complexity of IT has evolved significantly—it's now an operational challenge. Welcoming a new team member involves handling around 35 tasks," explained Martin Pannier, co-founder and CEO of Primo. This process is time-consuming, and the task list is often outdated.

Smaller companies usually don't have an in-house IT team. They typically hire their first IT manager when they reach 200 or 300 employees. Prior to that, it can be somewhat chaotic. Some team members may be "tech-savvy" and able to handle minor issues, but for more complex tasks, companies often turn to outsourced IT services.

Primo is the first all-in-one platform designed for modern companies, helping small and medium-sized businesses manage their applications, devices, people, and security within a scalable platform. Primo tracks your device inventory and assists in managing it, eliminating the need for a dedicated IT manager.

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Complex pricing that doesn't suit go-to solutions

“Because of the market we operate in, our value proposition and our focus on offering fair prices to our customers, we have complex billing needs,” says Martin. Customers can get started for free with Deploy, where they can easily buy devices (one-off purchases) and track them for their entire lifecycle, up to a resale (credits). They can then easily add Remote Management capabilities, a premium feature that is charged on a per device basis. And finally, they have access to marketplace add-ons that can be charged per device or per employee. Having a specific use case like this, Martin, Founder and CEO of Primo, knew a billing solution was needed from day one.

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Stripe Billing seemed like the obvious choice when Martin launched Primo in 2022. "Stripe Billing was the first thing that came to mind, and I didn't even think of challenging this choice initially," says Martin. However, Primo's team quickly encountered the limitations of Stripe billing.

"When our pricing was simple, the no-code version was fine. But when we decided to make our pricing model more complex by adding usage-based fees, that's when the problems started"

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Not as straightforward as expected

Primo chose Stripe Billing, thinking that setting up and using the tool would be easy. However, understanding Stripe Billing turned out to be more complicated, especially for their hybrid use case, which includes recurring payments, one-time payments, a free plan, and more. "It quickly became a complex system", as Martin explains.

Very time-consuming for your tech team

Primo also turned to Stripe Billing with the hope of configuring a large portion of their use cases without involving their developers. However, the reality was different when it came to integrating Stripe Billing elements into their app, such as the Checkout Portal to provide the best payment experience directly within the product. "Each integration took us 2 to 3 weeks, which was not sustainable".

A disappointing support experience

While using Stripe Billing, the Primo team experienced delayed responses from customer support, even in high-pressure situations that impacted both Primo and their customers. "We needed a billing solution with top-notch customer service. I can't wait for a response for 5 days or more to resolve critical issues", Martin shares.

Unexpected and hidden costs

Martin also points out the issue of Stripe's pricing opacity. Features like Stripe Tax (0.5%) sometimes weigh heavily on the final bill and are not clearly indicated from the start.

Too focused on card payments

Finally, Primo's team felt locked into the Stripe ecosystem by choosing to bill their customers through Stripe Billing. "Stripe Billing is too focused on card payments, and we wanted to prioritize other payment methods like SEPA direct debit", Martin adds.

Faced with all these limitations, the Primo team decided to find a billing solution better suited to their hybrid use case.

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How Primo uses Hyperline

Since April 2023, Primo has relied on Hyperline as their all-in-one billing platform to bill their customers every month. Thanks to Hyperline's user-friendly no-code interface, they effortlessly handle billing, manage subscriptions, send invoices, and adjust pricing.

Swift onboarding and integration

Martin describes the process of getting started with the Hyperline platform as very simple - and even enjoyable. The flexibility provided by Hyperline's no-code interfaces saved them a lot of time when integrating a new billing system to make their billing 100% automated. It was a smooth transition, with support from the Hyperline teams.

Exceptional customer support

One of the things Martin appreciates the most after six months of using Hyperline is the outstanding customer experience. "The customer support has been impeccable. Whenever we had questions, the responses from the Hyperline tech team were almost instant".

"When we joined the Hyperline beta testing program at the beginning of this journey, we expected a young and possibly unstable product; that's just part of the process. However, that was not the case at all. We've had very few issues since we started using Hyperline, which is remarkable and strengthens our trust in the product and the team behind it", Martin tells us.

Custom features tailored to their needs

The Primo team had the opportunity to work with responsive support team to address their specific use cases. "We were impressed by the tech teams' responsiveness. Sometimes, we needed a particular feature, and the next day, it was available on Hyperline".

Certain features, such as wallets, allowed Primo to implement credits for reselling end-of-life devices, which aligned perfectly with their use case.

The Customer Portal provided by Hyperline, along with the ability to extract its components for direct integration into Primo, was also a significant advantage.

To conclude

"Transitioning to Hyperline has provided us with a much simpler, more efficient, and tailored billing experience. It allowed us to embark on a billing journey with much greater peace of mind compared to other solutions in the market."