The CEO of a Tier-1 operator recollects the days when Billing was only a trivial part of the whole IT services; but it was more than a decade ago. The investment on ‘Billing management’ was just a few percentages of the total spending with ‘network infrastructure’ staking lion’s share.
There are two main issues troubling the Billing heads- saturated markets with little scope to expand and increasingly layered product offerings in order to enhance individual customer experience. But with deployed legacy systems, the operator is facing high expenditure and significant business risks as they are prone to glitches and recurrent breakdowns. These systems also lack flexibility and scalability in tune with the mounting data and customization information, which is driving the operator to invest more in the billing systems attuned to the new reality.
As the new digital technologies become more advanced and accessible telecom billing has to keep up the pace. Over the years, subscribers have shifted towards online payments rather than traditional paper bills. According to Dazeinfo: “Online Payment In India Accounted For 14% Of Total Transaction Amount In FY 2015”1. New vendors and firms are entering the market which seize this paradigm shifts in traditional billing. If we take example of India as one of the fastest growing markets, companies like PayTM and Freecharge providing services like mobile wallet have become one of the preferred means by which subscribers are paying their bills. Another area where digital technologies are impacting billing is the surge in mobile-apps due to exponential rise of smart devices. Keeping this trend in mind, we can see how it is imperative for the operators to have a mobile self care app for their subscribers, which they use for all billing transactions. With digital payments on the rise, the operators now have put their money where their ‘money’ is – enabling digital billing.
The new trends are evolving quick in Business Service Solutions (BSS) domain, for example real time and near real time rating and charging mechanisms; as compared to flat rate billing systems, fragmented product catalogue to centralized product catalogue for the complex offerings with lesser time to market.
We believe that to succeed with all the surge in digital technologies, BSS should be at the heart of the digital strategy of the operator. The operator needs to choose a BSS that is equipped with all the modules enabling the operator to easily launch digital services in the market.
Elitecore Next Gen OSS BSS a carrier-grade, IP based system that enables the operator with an integrated digital strategy with product offerings including pre-integrated Centralized Product Catalogue, Real Time Rating & Charging, Self Care App, Payment & Collection Management, CRM, Partner Management, Real Time Analytics etc. This whole stack Elitecore enables the operator to launch innovative plans like Shared Wallet, Bill Shock prevention, Parental Control, sponsored data, OTT based plans, Social Media Integration etc. Elitecore Next Gen BSS modules are compliant to TM Forum eTOM processes via its standard based API which enables them to interoperate with operator’s existing 3rd party systems.
References:
