Licensing
Connecting licensing operations with finance at the centre
Global Licensing Business · Global · 51-200 employees
11+ processes unified in one platform, unlocking up to six FTE of annual operational capacity across finance, reporting and operations.
For a global fashion licensing business with 1,700+ licensing partners across 150+ countries, finance depends on accurate, connected information generated throughout the operation.
Licensing agreements govern royalty obligations. Product and SKU records connect commercial activity to licensed properties. Approvals, production samples and purchase orders provide the operational context behind the numbers.
Digital1 brought these processes together in one platform, combining connected data with AI agents that help complete the work: extracting agreement information, checking licensing rights, progressing royalty reconciliation and escalating exceptions for review.
The challenge
Finance needed connected information—and a way to act on it.
Disconnected operational processes create work for finance long after the original activity takes place.
Information needs to be gathered, checked and reconciled. Licensing terms need to be referenced against the relevant activity. Differences need to be investigated, often requiring input from other teams.
Across this business, 11+ separate processes created duplicate data handling, manual hand-offs and reporting work. Finance depended on information moving accurately between licensing, product development and production.
With a partner network spanning more than 150 countries, maintaining those connections was central to managing financial obligations and producing reliable reporting.
The opportunity was to connect information at source and automate the steps needed to turn it into completed work.
What Digital1 built
A connected operational platform with AI agents working across finance workflows.
Digital1 built a central platform linking licensing agreements, product and SKU data, design approvals, production samples, purchase orders and reporting.
Within that platform, AI agents support multi-step processes. They extract information, check it against connected records, progress routine work and identify where human input is needed.
Agreement information feeds into rights checks and royalty processes. Renewal monitoring surfaces items requiring attention. Reconciliation workflows bring exceptions to finance for review.
Teams retain control over decisions requiring judgement, while AI reduces the administration needed to prepare and progress the work.
Finance at the centre
Royalty reconciliation
AI agents support royalty reconciliation by bringing together licensing information and the relevant operational data, checking for discrepancies and surfacing exceptions requiring review.
This reduces the manual effort involved in gathering information and checking records, giving finance more capacity to investigate differences and resolve outstanding items.
Agreement extraction and licensing checks
AI extracts information from licensing agreements and makes it available within the operational workflow.
Agents use that information to support licensing rights checks, renewal monitoring and royalty processes. Extracted data becomes an input to the next task, reducing repeated document handling across teams.
This connects the terms governing a licensed property with the financial and operational activity taking place around it.
Financial reporting
The platform connects the information needed for reporting across licensing, purchasing and product workflows.
AI and automated processes reduce the work involved in assembling that information, while exceptions are brought forward for review. Finance works from a shared live view of the operation, with less duplicate handling and fewer manual hand-offs.
The team can spend less time collecting information and more time reviewing what it means for the business.
Purchase orders and product records
Purchase orders sit alongside the relevant product, SKU, sample and approval information.
That connection gives finance the operational context behind purchasing activity. Automated hand-offs keep work moving between stages and reduce the administration required to maintain separate records.
Human control where it matters
Routine work progresses. Exceptions reach the right people.
The platform combines AI with structured workflows and human escalation.
Agents help process routine tasks across connected information. Where a discrepancy, exception or judgement call requires attention, the workflow escalates it to a person.
AI handles repetitive processing, while teams focus on review, decisions and resolution.
Connecting the wider operation
Financial reporting depends on what happens upstream.
The same platform processes product submissions, progresses design approvals and connects production samples with purchase orders. AI and automated workflows support these hand-offs, reducing the coordination burden that ultimately reaches finance.
Licensing, design, production and finance work within one connected workflow, with shared information supporting each stage.
The impact
Up to six FTE of annual operational capacity unlocked.
By unifying more than 11 processes, the platform reduced duplicate data entry, automated hand-offs and gave teams a shared live view of the operation.
The capacity benefit spans finance administration, reporting, duplicate data handling, workflow coordination and operational rework.
For finance, this means less time spent collecting and processing information, with more capacity available to review exceptions and support commercial decisions.
For the wider business, it means connected processes supported by AI that helps progress work from one stage to the next—across a licensing operation serving 1,700+ partners in more than 150 countries.
Results
- Up to 6 FTE Operational capacity unlocked annually — Across finance administration, reporting, duplicate data handling, workflow coordination and operational rework.