THE BILLING REPORT

March 2004

In the battle for market share new products, services and applications are being launched on an almost daily basis. However, for many operators, the ability to move with the speed necessary to remain competitive is severely limited by their billing systems. Operators now appreciate the strategic importance of billing and accept that it is no longer an issue just for billing and IT departments.

Indeed, in a recent survey on billing carried out by TelecomTV, more than half of the respondents came from not from the traditional billing, mediation and customer relationship management departments, but from strategic company management positions.

The Telecoms TV survey indicates clearly that, at present, two different but complementary issues are occupying the minds of these executives:

• How to use CRM & Billing systems to improve operational efficiency

• How to bill for content and new services

The Telecom TV survey also revealed that most operators perceive the biggest limitations in their current billing systems to be the operational ability to roll-out new business processes and the implementation of changes or enhancements to critical software. The uncomfortable fact is that, in a market where organisational agility is now vital, it is the operator’s CRM and billing systems that all too often are holding them back.

Many telecom services, and especially voice services, are becoming commodities. The operators have two main strategies to counter this trend and the reduced revenue streams that are the inevitable result.

One is to endeavour to reduce costs and so achieve an overall cost leadership position within the market. The other is to segment and target certain groups in the market with special products, packages and tariffs to give a strong differentiation.

Customer Relationship Management and Billing are critical to both approaches.

There’s no doubt that telecom is a dynamic, exciting and potentially lucrative industry sector, but these self-same characteristics make it very difficult to predict what will happen next.

To thrive under such circumstances operators must make themselves as agile as possible, as cost effectively as possible - and that means investing in a proven and flexible CRM and billing solution that is itself agile and cost effective.

The Survey Details
Registered subscribers to the TelecomTV web site and to the Cerillion “Evolve” videozine were invited to respond to a brief questionnaire. 86 replies were received which divided into the following types of organisation.

Amongst the “others” category were network hardware vendors, IT suppliers and investors. The actual types of people responding showed a high proportion of general and strategic management.

Question 1
What are your top billing priorities over the next two years? - 30% Improving Operational Efficiency
- 13% Multi Service Convergence
- 12% Billing For New Services
- 10% Billing For Content
- 9% Pre-post Paid Convergence
- 7% Cutting Costs
- 5% Improving Revenue Assurance

Question 2
What do you consider to be the most important qualities in a billing vendor? - 30% Flexibility
- 21% Value For Money / ROI
- 10% Responsiveness
- 9% Extensive Support Capability
- 8% Reputation For Innovation
- 7% Minimum Risk
- 5% Good Track Record

Question 3
What is the biggest limitation that you experience with your current billing system? - 19% Implementing New Business Processes
- 15% Getting Software Changes/Upgrades/Extensions Implemented.
- 13% Integrating With Other Systems.
- 10% Not Having Single View Of Customers
- 6% Making Tariff And Product Changes
- 5% Managing Business Customers