THE FUTURE’S NOW
As the leading provider of billing and
provisioning software to the channel,
we’re often asked what the future has in
store. To a large extent, our development
roadmap mirrors the fast-changing
comms landscape. CPs are continuously
under pressure to adapt to disruptive new
technologies and to dierentiate their
market oering accordingly. It’s essential
that both we and our software are agile
enough to assist them in this regard.
An example of this can be found in the
move to subscription-based contracts
for bundled services. Around 70 percent
of what’s billed through aBILLity™ is
now subscription based and we have
developed its functionality over the years
to ensure it performs exceptionally in
this area. Subscriptions present great
opportunities for CPs to dierentiate
themselves with competitive packages
but, if the customer’s bill is fixed when
the CP’s remains variable, this poses a
risk. To assist in this, we have introduced
flexible functionality for creating bundles
and subscriptions. At the same time,
we’ve introduced granular reporting and
in-depth revenue assurance tools that will
identify loss making customers and help
to mitigate risk.
A challenge for the future can be found
in BT’s plans to withdraw ISDN services
in 2025. The replacement of millions of
ISDN lines with IP based telephony is
the biggest opportunity the channel has
had in years. CPs who can oer the right
service and package will clean up and this
is something we will help them with.
7
COVER STORY
Tony Cook, Managing Director
APPLICATION TRANSFORMATION
Much of our development resource over the past few years has focused on
transitioning aBILLity™ from what was a traditional desktop application hosted
on a CP’s own hardware, to a web-based application hosted in the cloud. This
change oers many benefits for CPs including increased mobility, high availability
and robust disaster recovery.
Union Street has recruited experienced web designers and user experience
architects to ensure that as we add functionality to aBILLity™, we keep the user
journey firmly in mind. The result is that aBILLity’s web client is not only feature
rich, it also looks amazing with an elegant, streamlined, highly intuitive user
interface.
A good example of this can be found in aBILLity’s reimagined WLR interface. As
part of our drive to completely transition aBILLity to a web-based solution, we
have been able to completely redevelop our WLR3 gateway from the ground up.
By working with CPs to understand their requirements, our new WLR3 solution
not only looks fantastic but also makes WLR3 provisioning a breeze.
It’s not just the looks that have changed in our drive to the web. We’ve also
upgraded our rating engine to deliver increased speed and eciency. CPs can be
confident that as the communications landscape continues to evolve, Union Street
and aBILLity™ will continue to provide all the answers to the billing question.
COMMSBUSINESS
AWARDS
CHANNEL SUPPLIER
2018
IS650048
ONES TO
WATCH
UNION STREET’S WINNING
FORMULA
Hard work and dedication paid o, as
2018 proved to be quite the successful
year for Union Street. Not only did the
company scoop the coveted prize for
‘Independent Software Vendor’ at the
Comms Business Awards, it also brought
home its seventh Comms National
Award with aBILLity winning the hotly
contested ‘Best Billing Platform’ category.
In addition, the company was recognised
as ‘One to Watch’ in the Sunday Times
Best companies to work for list.
Call 020 8614 9090 and speak to one of our experts
about your billing needs and how aBILLity™ can be
tailored to meet them. unionstreet.uk.com Powering your potential
www.commsbusiness.co.uk April 2019 | Comms Business Magazine | 21
/unionstreet.uk.com
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk