MARKET REPORT Billing
“Billing transparency as a differentiator will have more of a place than ever due to more flexible terms,
increased subscription services and a greater selection of products and customisations.”
Harry McKeever, head of operations, Tekton Billing
bundled, capital purchases.”
For Union Street
Technologies’ Disneur,
Covid-19 has simply pushed
billing vendors to perfect their
existing services. He said,
“Barring a few exceptions, I
don’t believe that the pandemic
has necessarily changed much
about what communication
providers need from a billing
provider. However, due to the
challenges caused by Lockdown,
communication providers have
denitely needed their billing
vendors to step up and do
more of what they were already
doing.”
Disneur added, “We have a
number of partners, FourNet
for example, that work
extensively with clients in the
blue light sector, and they did
have additional requirements
as a result of the pandemic.
Due to the tremendous strain
the blue light sector was
under, it became essential to
provide additional levels of
care for WLR3 faults and
orders. We took advice and
recommendations from our
partners to see how we could
better manage escalations
for the blue light sector in
response to the pandemic then
changed our working practices
accordingly.
“Whether the eects of the
pandemic will have a lasting
impact on the channel remains
to be seen. ere’s no question
that the lockdown provided
time and space for many
channel businesses to reassess
their billing operations and
that it exposed many actual
or potential vulnerabilities. I
think many communication
providers were forced to ask
whether it’s really wise to have
critical operations, such as
billing, dependent on suppliers
with limited resources.
Our longevity and stability,
combined with our robust
response to lockdown, gives
reassurance to our partners
that they can rely on us to scale
up quickly and smoothly in
response to the unexpected.”
Sabbagh, from Strategic
Imperatives, pointed out
that an overlooked area the
Covid-19 crisis has bought to
the fore is the value of strong
relationships between billing
providers, service providers
and the channel. He added,
“Our values and customer-rst
mantra meant that we were in a
strong position to help support
our customers through these
dicult times with passionate
support. at included both
technical and commercial
assistance, quick responses
to urgent requirements, and
a high-quality uninterrupted
billing service.”
Unlocking data
As the channel looks to future
requirements, billing providers
will increasingly need to
demonstrate smart ways to use
data. Sabbagh explained why
data is one of the most strategic
assets for a service provider.
He said, “With a treasure of
data at their ngertips, service
providers are sitting on a
goldmine of information and
have an immense opportunity
to reap its nancial benets
and signicantly enhance
market competitiveness.
“Service providers have
the opportunity to use this
information to deliver valuable
business intelligence, predict
opportunities, and create a
rich engagement model with
their customers, however,
this goldmine mostly remains
untapped and its potential
unrealised. Unlocking its value
enables agile service providers
to create and proactively
oer innovative and targeted
propositions at a price point
and time when customers are
most likely to respond positively
based on their behaviour,
demographic or geography.”
ere are clearly numerous
considerations when it comes to
billing platforms, and the right
option will vary according to
customer requirements. What
is important is that your billing
provider oers stability, whilst
adapting to emerging and
future needs.
many elements of functionality
can provide an advantage when
margins are under increasing
pressure. It is more important
than ever to verify all incoming
costs from suppliers and,
through our revenue assurance
tools, resellers can account
for every line, charge and
service delivered – maximising
revenues as far as possible.
Supporting customers
through this dicult period
has been essential for resellers.
Inform Billing resellers,
Bodsworth said, have made
use of in-built exibility
within the Eclipse software
to give payment holidays and
temporary discounts to specic
customers. ose charges
automatically recommence
when the period is up.
Bodsworth added, “Inform
Billing oers its software
as both a managed ‘bureau’
service as well as on a selfmanaged
basis. During Covid
we have tried to be as exible
as possible. We have helped a
number of our ‘self-managed’
customers by providing
temporary bureau support
where sta were furloughed
and it made sense to outsource
to our expert team.”
Iain Sinnott, from VanillaIP,
said, “Covid-19 has simply
shifted the market forward two
years. Whilst resellers could
previously delay a move to a
cloud model, focusing on voice
or dial tone services rst and
cloud applications second, the
market is now driven around
collaboration and exible
working rst, with
traditional voice tools
and infrastructure
second. Yes, all
elements of the
communications
portfolio have
relevance, but
billing control
must be based
on real-time,
on-demand
small service
management
and not on
single-sale, prepreferred.”
Tekton Billing’s McKeever
did point out that billing
platforms do need to be able
to cater to those who require
longer billing periods – whether
bi-monthly, quarterly or
annually. He said, “Billing
transparency as a dierentiator
will have more of a place than
ever due to more exible terms,
increased subscription services
and a greater selection of
products and customisations.
is will help to remove the
possibility of ‘Bill Shock’ and
customer frustrations from
aecting the relationship and
ensure loyalty remains.”
Unusual circumstances
Given the start to 2020,
it would be remiss to not
acknowledge the impact of the
ongoing coronavirus pandemic
on billing. Bodsworth
explained how Inform Billing
has experienced the knock-on
eects of coronavirus. He said,
“What all resellers ultimately
need from a billing provider is
a stable platform to get their
bills out accurately, on time, to
maintain cashow. On top of
that basic requirement, there are
Shaun Bodsworth, managing
director at Inform Billing
32 | Comms Business Magazine | October 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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