Matt Boone
Case 4 · Motorola Solutions · 2024 to 2026

In 2024 I made the case for a recurring-revenue team and heard "great idea, not the right time." In 2026 the CFO approved it, and the reporting got more honest before it got better.

Senior Director, Recurring Revenue, December 2025 to July 2026. I built a six-person team and set reporting standards across 120+ businesses in a $4.5B+ portfolio, mostly through influence.

6
People on the team, within six months of approval
150+
People interviewed in the first 90 days
120+
Businesses assessed against one scorecard
<20% → ~30%
Share of businesses reporting to the new standard, January to July 2026 (estimate)
Then

Each business measured recurring revenue its own way. Activation timing got little focus, and renewals were not improving.

The calls

Keep building until the timing was right, build the team around people I had developed, listen before changing definitions, and give renewals an owner.

Where it landed

A team in place, one scorecard across 120+ businesses, and reporting partway to the standard when I left.

The years, at a glance
202420252026The plan, and a no2024Role widens, Oct 2024New roleDec 2025Left, Jul 2026Kept building inside Alta, then across fixed videoTeam of six built
The calls, in order
Call 1 · 2024 to 2026
Keep building until the timing was right

In 2024 I saw the gap across the company, built the business plan and took it to executive leadership. The answer was "great idea, but not the right time." I kept building the capability inside Alta, then across fixed video when my role widened in October 2024.

What changed: in 2026 another part of the company needed the same focus, and the public company's CFO approved the team.
2024
  • Great idea, not the right time
  • Capability built inside Alta, then fixed video
2026
  • CFO approval
  • A dedicated team across 120+ businesses
Call 2 · 2026
Build the team around people I had developed

My first hire was someone I had coached and mentored inside the company for several years. As the team's requirements became clearer, I filled the next seats from inside the company, then hired from outside.

The team
6

people within six months: a person I had mentored, then internal moves, then outside hires.

Call 3 · First 90 days
Listen before changing definitions

Alta's playbook was the most efficient proof of how to run recurring revenue at speed. We still interviewed more than 150 people in the first 90 days before assuming Alta's way was right for every business. A gap analysis across systems, definitions, team structure, mandates and reporting followed.

What came out of it: three measures for the team: revenue acceleration, revenue quality (net revenue retention), and the overhead it costs to maintain recurring revenue.
People interviewed in the first 90 days
150+

across the businesses, before we changed a definition.

Call 4 · 2026
Set one definition of start, renewal and churn, and give renewals an owner

Many businesses had no renewals process, and renewals often arrived a year or more late, so retention swung from quarter to quarter. I set one definition of when a contract starts, renews and churns, with no exceptions, and put activation timing in front of the teams that owned it. We counted ARR from the accounting records, with a bridge from contract value.

What it cost at first: drops that used to surface a year late now showed up in the quarter they happened.
The ARR bridge
Starting ARR+ Expansion− Contraction− Churn= Ending ARR
Beside it, not inside it
Renewals due
  • Listed by account, in dollars, each with a named owner
  • A work queue, not a change in ARR
How we sorted revenue (our internal reporting categories)
One-timePaid once.Example: an install feeRecurringA contract with an end date.Subscriptions, hardware as a service,ongoing servicesRe-occurringNo end date, a predictable refresh.A camera about every six years,a server every three and a half to four

Re-occurring revenue is a forecast of replacement purchases, not contracted revenue. These are management reporting categories, separate from recognized revenue.

How people's work changed

The businesses accepted the logic and objected to the work: no budget, not the right team.

I secured separate funding for data engineers so the build did not fall on business finance teams. Adopting the standard still took work from them. My first hire, someone I had coached for several years, became a founding member of a company-wide team.

Where it landed

When I left in July 2026, the team was in place and one scorecard had been applied across all 120+ businesses. The share of businesses reporting to the new standard had moved from under 20% to roughly 30%, my estimate, so the work was partway done. Drops in recurring revenue showed in the quarter they happened. Leadership funded a larger data engineering team and a data warehouse to keep going.

Source: Motorola Solutions records, 2024 to 2026. Recurring-revenue figures are management reporting metrics, separate from recognized revenue. The reporting share is an estimate.
Matt Boone | Finance and operating executive | Case 4