Billing MARKET REPORT
“A modern-day billing provider must cater for the future and this can only happen with industry
Meeting needs
e billing providers
Comms Business spoke with
outlined some common
functionalities. When asked
what functionality(s) is the
most important deciding
factor, Strategic Imperatives’
Sabbagh, said, “To avoid listing
a long list of features available
in most billing systems,
albeit to a varying degree of
quality, it is best to assume
that traditional functionality
such as contract management,
supplier reconciliation, auto
CDR processing, fraud
detection, invoice generation,
API integration and basic
reporting are a given; as are
harder to measure features such
as scalability, disaster recovery
and security. ese should
always be a starting point for
any service provider.
He explained that there
are some key functional areas
that de ne a model billing
platform and will empower
service providers’ to thrive in
the digital age. ose areas
t into four categories: realtime
performance indicators,
recalling historical information
(i.e. from a legacy system),
payment management, and
scalability.
Shaun Bodsworth, managing
director at Inform Billing,
outlined the company’s
independent, exible solutions.
ose new to billing, he
said, often suit a tailored
bureau service where the
portal is part of the solution.
Bodsworth added that “for
more established resellers,
the package focuses on key
elements of functionality,
options for automation and
integration and the reseller’s
bespoke requirements, which
are often more critical.”
ose users, Bodsworth
clari ed, are usually familiar
with the billing process and
have dedicated resources to
manage it, but some still
prefer to outsource the billing
process. Inform Billing
o ers its software for either
preference.
engagement, commitment to R&D and a future-proof service delivery framework.”
Balancing usability and
compliance
Disneur, from Union Street
Technologies, emphasised
the importance of protecting
sensitive data. He said, “It’s
not just what a billing platform
does that’s important, it’s
also how it does it. From a
compliance point of view, the
billing process presents a lot
of risks for communication
providers. Accuracy is one
such area, so it’s advisable for
a billing vendor to comply
with Ofcom’s Total Metering
and Billing Systems (TMBS)
standard.
“A billing platform is also
likely to hold customers’
personally identi able
information (PII), payment
details, call destinations
and more. Any sensitive PII
should be managed securely
by the billing platform and
encrypted where appropriate.
It’s just as vital that the
vendor behind the platform is
operating in accordance with
best practice for information
security. Compliance with
the internationally recognised
ISO27001 Information Security
Management standard is a good
indicator that the vendor has
implemented robust security
measures.”
At the same time, vendors
must ensure their platforms
are both usable and accessible.
Disneur explained, “Billing
really shouldn’t be any more
complicated than it needs to be
which is why a billing platform
should be intuitive, with
exible accessibility options and
Wail Sabbagh, managing director, Strategic Imperatives
true cloud deployment. More
advanced platforms can o er
accessibility via the web and
provide an intuitive and robust
user journey. We’ve worked
hard to make this the case with
our aBILLity software and
have even taken a step beyond
by introducing a mobile app
to complement the platform
pictured to the right. It’s
an industry rst, providing a
high-level overview of billing
activities which is ideal for
upper management and
business owners that want to
keep tabs on how their billing is
progressing.”
The end of monthly billing?
One area that is frequently
discussed is the view that
monthly billing might be on
the way out. Yet the providers
we spoke with unanimously
agreed the ‘death of monthly
billing’ has been exaggerated.
VanillaIP’s Sinnott said, “I am
not convinced the billing date
is as relevant as the accuracy of
the charge in respect to when
a service is applied and/or
removed. Ecommerce will bring
in a need for real-time payment
gateway transactions coupled
with ongoing monthly recurring
charges, but I don’t see payas
you-go replacing monthly
invoicing.”
Union Street Technologies’
Disneur had a similar view. He
said, “Monthly billing cycles
have been around for a long
time and, at least as far as the
channel’s concerned, they’ll
be around for a long time to
come.” He pointed to frequent
Above: Union Street’s mobile app
visits to partners’ billing teams
to assess their requirements,
where Union Street has asked
if an ad hoc approach to billing
would be preferable to monthly
cycles. Partners are generally
indi erent about this.
Disneur added, “If anything,
we’re seeing the complete
opposite. Changing a billing
platform gives communication
providers a perfect opportunity
to restructure billing data, tidy
it up, and get it all aligned. We
frequently take on partners that
have got into a mess with their
billing by using competitor
systems to perform mid-month
cycles and bespoke billing.
ey’re almost always looking
to normalise this into regular
calendar month aligned billing
routines.”
is chimes with the view of
Bodsworth from Inform Billing.
He said, “Monthly bill cycle
work because both resellers
and their end-customers need
consistency and to know when
a bill will arrive and when a
payment is due. It is critical in
any business to manage cash-
ow, from a sales and purchase
ledger perspective, all the way
through the chain. Whilst
this can be done more of less
frequently as required, monthly
billing is still overwhelmingly
>
Above: Inform Billing’s Eclipse platform
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