MARKET REPORT Billing
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a brand-new API set enabling
customers to build links between
other systems and Eclipse NG in
a more structured way.”
Iain Sinnott at VanillaIP,
says “Yes, as should the level
of investment they have in the
evolution of their product. Great
products today will struggle to
cater for the unknown elements
of the future. We have 101
people in our development
team because there will be more
changes than you expect and
those who can move quickly
towards an opportunity, make
their sales when the prots are
still high.”
According to Keith Pearshouse
at Symbiant Technologies,
Integration with back oce
solutions is imperative to help
streamline activities, to minimise
the resellers’ operational cost-toserve
and reducing the risk of
error due to re-keying data, that
can cause customer dissatisfaction
and creates extra cost.
“At Symbiant we have
developed numerous APIs to
enable our systems to eciently
interact with popular backo
ce accounting, CRM and
wholesaler systems. We have
developed ‘Wizards’ to perform
regular recurring tasks, that
automatically update billing
systems and upload orders to
wholesalers, helping clients
to ensure their processes are
managed in line with business
rules in a cost-eective manner.
Providing information
stored on billing systems via
online portals can make a
positive dierence to end users
and reduce the likelihood
of enquiries. Self-service
options on such portals can
be developed for customers to
request additional services.
Data record imports can
be received several times each
day. Having the download
integrated with and managed
for resellers by Symbiant ensures
these important and timeconsuming
tasks are completed
without interruption, freeing up
time to focus on growing their
business.”
Graham Wilkinson at
Beyond Connectivity says
integration is important.
“Today’s cloud-based solutions
revolve around API’s which
is basically a link into CRM
systems. is draws in lots of
dierent information so when
you are loading up a bill there
is additional information such
as to what they last bought and
sold. It’s much more detailed.
ere’s layers of information
through one pane of glass.”
ED SAYS…
Why was I surprised at the strength of support still in the market for on premise
billing solutions? I get the need for some organisations to have data location
issues but surely that can be worked out. However, the need today for integration
between billing and back office applications is surely a must for most businesses.
Personally, I feel that fraud detection, mitigation and prevention should have a
higher profile when we talk about billing solutions as many cases can absolutely
devastate the ongoing viability prospects of those organisations affected.
features and billing techniques to
increase margin and add to the
bottom line, without necessarily
increasing published taris. For
buy-in rates, our ‘Carrier Watch’
functionality allows you to check
buying rates against an agreed
tari, automatically agging up
specic over-charged calls so
a credit claim can be e-mailed
back to the carrier.”
Should integration with other
back office solutions be a key
consideration in choosing a
billing solution/partner?
“Integration is one of the most
common requests from potential
new partners,” states Shaun
Bodsworth at Inform Billing.
“Everyone wants their
systems to integrate and talk
to each other in a meaningful
way, but all too often there is
not enough focus on the end
benet to the customer and the
business. Resellers should focus
on cost versus benets in terms
of scalability, accessibility and
avoidance of task repetition.
Not just integration for the sake
of it.
In larger businesses
integration is more benecial,
where the preference is to work
with a range of ‘best of breed’
applications that can share data
and avoid duplication of entry.
Inform Billing has completed
extensive integration work with
customers, building software
applications around Eclipse
NG and transferring key data
into CRM, provisioning and
accounting software.
Integration is not a holy grail
that xes all problems though,
as hooking up systems can
make it harder to react quickly
and make changes without
throwing everything out of
kilter. Overall it depends on the
requirements of the business and
if integration is cost-eective. A
potential billing partner should
understand what integration is
required and why, then advise on
the best way to achieve this.
In response to this everincreasing
demand and as part
of our ongoing development,
Inform Billing has launched
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