Billing MARKET REPORT
“The overwhelming majority of resellers assume that everything is cloud-based these days and
expect billing software to be too”
Shaun Bodsworth Managing Director of Inform Billing
Keith Pearshouse at Symbiant
solutions.”
Technologies, a provider of
Iain Sinnott Head of Sales
billing and associated systems
at VanillaIP, questions the
in the telecoms market since
question.
2001, has seen rst-hand how
“I am not sure the question
the market has evolved as well as
should be about the location of
changing resellers requirements
the solution but on its’ ability
and expectations, and says that
to manage the real needs of the
established clients are often
customer. If we want to deliver
content to rely upon the ongoing
true cloud, an on-demand, real
use of known CPE-based
time experience, then our billing
systems.
and invoicing function needs
“Providing that the billing
to be able to support it. If we
system has the exibility to be
restrict purchasing exibility
adapted rapidly, to meet ever
because it causes problems
changing market and product
in back o ce commercial
needs, resellers will continue
management, then we have the
to use legacy systems that are
wrong system.”
reliable and trusted.
Graham Wilkinson, Head
Suppliers need to give their
of Sales at Beyond Connectivity
clients choice. O ering both
(Formerly the Network
CPE and cloud-based solutions
Service Division at Nimans),
that meet the client needs has
says, “Organisations are still
become the norm. Our clients
buying CPE but as cloud-based
who do not want to carry the
alternatives begin to kick-in
rare to speak to a business that
overhead of hardware and IT
the market is shifting. It’s the
doesn’t have ambitions to grow,
support costs, and wishing to
market that is driving change
and rightly so.
make use of our capacity and
rather than manufacturers and
“As such, scalability is an
back-up capabilities, prefer to
suppliers. Cloud is de nitely
important consideration and
select our cloud-based SymBILL
making its mark as an overall
those that come to us are looking
option, that provides ready
communications solution.”
to bill or expand to bill a whole
availability of customer data
myriad of services and suppliers.
24/7 via securely managed
Is scalability perhaps one of
Our Eclipse NG platform is used
access.”
the most important yet most
to bill anything up to several
It’s an emphatic yes from
overlooked features when
million pounds every month,
Derek Watson, COO at Aurora.
choosing a billing platform?
which provides con dence to
“We still have organisations
Keith Pearshouse at Symbiant
prospects that the platform will
approach us for CPE based
Technologies recalls it was the
continue to meet their needs as
billing solutions because they
time it took to prepare and
they grow. It has the exibility
want to host their own back
issue monthly bills that was
to bill not only large volumes
end database, and rely heavily
historically a key factor when
of calls and lines, but also other
on integrating to the A nity
selecting a billing partner,
recurring and consumptionbased
database, about a third of our
because of impact on the
charges, allowing for
customers have CPE billing
resellers cash ow.
multiple uctuations in close to
requirements.
“With the market moving
real time.
Sometimes this can also
towards data intensive products
When discussing scalability,
be far more cost e ective and
resellers are increasingly
speed is an important
much more responsive than
seeking assurance that system
consideration that can make
using cloud-based systems and
performance today and
a huge impact on resources.
API links. Some customers
immediate access to real-time
Eclipse NG auto-collects and
feel strongly about being
data will be matched or bettered
auto-imports CDRs, processing
responsible for the security and
in the future.
up to 20 million records in an
infrastructure that is used to
At Symbiant we deal with a
hour – so when volumes hike
support their customers and
wide range of clients, from small
up, this can be the di erence
being able to invest in the best
resellers up to wholesalers, and
between minutes rather than
systems to provide dedicated
constantly track systems usage
hours of processing.
resources and response times to
and performance to ensure we
It is more often the
their customers. Integration to
continue to meet both current
functionality and complexity
other third-party applications
and expected needs for capacity,
involved for future ventures
such as phone systems and other
performance and functionality.”
that is overlooked. It is not
legacy systems can also prove
Shaun Bodsworth at Inform
uncommon for a reseller to
problematic with cloud-based Billing, notes that it is very
decide to sell mobile services,
>
Derek Watson, COO at Aurora
without having given any
thought to the customer
proposition. At Inform Billing
we provide expert support
and guidance to help pull new
propositions together, but the
time and thought required
should not be underestimated.”
Iain Sinnott at VanillaIP
believes that if you are not
planning for success then either
your sales or your pro ts will
eventually su er.
“ e world moves fast, so
if you think you will have to
change downstream, make the
change now and focus on sales
downstream.”
Graham Wilkinson at
Beyond Connectivity says
scalability is very important for
several reasons.
“A company may wish to
expand or downscale and a
cloud-based solution makes this
ideal, almost at the press of a
button. It’s easier to manage and
is much more cost e ective too.”
Can Billing systems and
solutions guard against fraud?
Shaun Bodsworth at Inform
Billing, says that while billing
systems have a part to play in
highlighting potential fraud
they are often too far removed to
provide complete protection.
www.commsbusiness.co.uk October 2019 | Comms Business Magazine | 33
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk