How to Select the Right Telecom Billing System for Your Business

Billing is one of the most important aspects of a telecommunications company, since it directly impacts the flow of revenue. Billing customers incorrectly, or failing to bill at all can be disastrous for telecommunications businesses. Telecom billing is also very complicated. Each individual account must be tracked for usage, have the correct rates applied to that usage, have the total cost calculated and have the correct invoice go to the correct customer. It is not a simple transaction. 

The best thing a telecommunications company can do for the health of their billing (and therefore, their business), is to rely on a telecom billing software. The software will handle all calculations, invoicing, and debt collection. The right software can really improve the health of a telecom business, while unburdening employees.

Here is how to select the right telecom billing system for your business: 

1.     Make sure the software you choose can do everything you need it to. The question behind the question here is how complicated is your business? Do you need really robust telecom billing software, or will a simple invoice management system suffice? Choosing a billing software that cannot do everything you need it to can be very frustrating. Similarly, overspending on a software that has a bunch of features your business does not use can be a costly error. The best way to go about this is to come up with a list of features you need before you even start researching telecom billing software. This list will guide your search and help you to narrow down your options.

2.     Check to see if the software will integrate into your existing systems. If your company relies on a CRM (Customer Relationship Management), the billing software you choose should integrate. If it does not, your employees will likely wind up tracking customer data in two different places. Not only is this boring and tedious, but it is a system that is rife with human error. You want your two systems to communicate and integrate with each other. If your favorite telecom billing system does not integrate with the CRM  your company is already using, then you need to cross them off of your list, as painful as that may be. 

3.     Ensure that the system is adaptable. When you invest in a telecom billing software, you are making a multi-year investment. Your business may change over the years, industry regulations may change over the years...a lot can happen. Make sure that the software you choose has a history of adapting to changing circumstances and can support your evolving business. 

4.     Analyze pricing. Telecom billing software is a significant expense, so make sure that the cost is something that your business can support. Telecom billing software can help your company to save and make money in the long run, but you have to make sure that you have the funds available to support the software today. This is not a business decision to take lightly. 

Remember, telecom billing software exists to make your life easier and your company more successful. Those should be your expectations as you consider which software to use.

Maintain Network Operations with Care via Cutting-Edge Operations Support System

An Operations Support System along with business support system constitutes a major share of telecom operations. In the past, both OSS and BSS were considered to be separate paradigms; however, the line between them is collapsing very fast. The modern-day approach is about increasing efficiency, for which, it is necessary to have an overlapping of these two telecom business functions. A rise in the use of IT methodologies and virtual functions has made it possible to have a single interface for managing both business and operational tasks.

Support Better Service Delivery with Innovative Operation Support System

An OSS performs the following tasks:

·       Management of different network functions

·       Delivery of service

·       Fulfillment of service

·       Service assurance

·       Timely support to telecom customers

To perform these tasks, an OSS relies upon:

·       Management of data

·       Arrangement of sequence, in which, the tasks need to be performed

·       Upgrades in technology to meet growing requirements

·       Management of data and processes via relevant applications (APIs)

An Operation Support System performs the extremely important task of identifying errors and making the operation error-proof. Nowadays, telecom operations are carried out in a seamless manner and the OSS functions can be performed by a single intuitive interface.

Combine B/OSS with Quality Billing for Best Service

A single interface that manages all day-to-day telecom operations is nothing less than a godsend. Platforms like Telgoo5 offer both single and unified telecom solutions that work ideally for MNO, MVNO and MVNE.

Complete management via a single platform

When you have a state-of-the-art B/OSS model along with real-time charging, you can serve your customers in the best way possible. It becomes easier to have a single view of customers during monetization, service delivery and billing.

Greater revenue assurance

A real-time Online Charging System (OCS) ensures charging of transactions in a few milliseconds. Hence, there is no revenue leakage, and the billing is completely transparent for the subscribers.

Ability to launch differentiated products

Modern-day telcos need to think on their feet. A versatile telecom support system allows telcos to create attractive plans that combine a wide range of services. For example, you can monetize a video streaming service with a data pack. Also, you can manage the complete partnership with a third-party service provider. There is complete abstraction in the process i.e. the system does everything for you and you do not feel out of your depth even while creating complex service plans for the users.

Serve Every Market Better with Superior Billing Support Systems

Telecom operators have evolved over the years from being product-centric to customer-centric. The shift in approach hasn’t actually changed the way things are done on a technical level, but it has transformed the business aspect considerably. Whether it is a fully-functional CSP (Communication Service Provider) e.g. Verizon or just an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) e.g. Liberty Wireless, the change in business model is pretty evident. Especially the smaller players i.e. MVNO are increasingly focusing on the customer experience who are using their services. With MVNE (Mobile Virtual Network Enabler) handling their requirements on technical front, they are more concerned about the more visible aspects such as billing support systems.

Improving the Customer Experience with Better Billing Support Systems

A Billing Support System is the most important piece of software in the repertoire of telecom operators. It allows them to alter their monetization strategies, offer a better point of sale and at the same time improves revenue assurance.

Essential requirements of modern-day billing systems:

Real-time charging

At the least, every MVNO should have a real-time charging platform. Such a platform is an integral part of telco strategy in the modern times. It allows for consolidated billing service, which is an absolute must-have. As almost every operator nowadays deals in more than one telecom service, it makes no sense to send separate bills. Especially when your competitors are already using convergent billing, you cannot afford to stay behind the 8 ball. A real-time charging system offers greater revenue assurance and allows you to bill prepaid, postpaid, broadband services at the same place.

Greater control over monetization strategy

The complexity of telecom domain is rising as we speak. There is no avoiding the technicalities if you want to be successful in the domain. Hence, it is essential that you have an intuitive telecom billing platform that allows for greater control over monetization. You should be able to monetize every service at the same place and serve your customers better. For example, intuitive platforms like Telgoo5 abstracts you from intricacies such as interconnect billing, tax application, vendor partnership payments etc. All you need to do is mix and match different services to create telecom services plans that appeal to your customer base.

Not only that, a real-time charging system also implements credit limits accurately. It means customers get timely alerts when they are about to exceed their allotted quota. Also, you are provided APIs, which offer turnkey solutions to emerging requirements. Whether you are a Data MVNO or a dedicated ioT services provider, Telgoo5 can do wonders for your telecom services.

Prepaid And Postpaid Plans: Which Is Right For Your Business?

In the telecom industry, astute decision-making concerning your service offerings can be a key element behind sustained success. If you have already planned how to differentiate yourself as an MVNO and have all the important strategies in place for consistent growth in a competitive market, you still have to figure out a very important point – do you choose prepaid or postpaid plans for your business?

When it comes to offering telephony plans to your customers, you can choose between prepaid and postpaid plans. There are important pros and cons to consider on each side. If you work with a seasoned billing and charging service provider like Telgoo5, you can keep your options open and adopt a service strategy that maximized revenue, retention, and customer loyalty for your business.

Prepaid vs Postpaid

With prepaid plans, customers purchase a set amount of data and phone services from you with an upfront payment. This can then be used for the duration of the plan or until the service limits are exhausted. Prepaid plans are meant for quick and easy adoption.

The benefits of offering prepaid plans include:

• Undisputed revenue in the form of upfront payments

• Seamless onboarding of customers with no credit checks required

• The ability to offer flexible, customizable plans from the very outset

• Preventing overuse

• Preventing revenue loss though defaulting or late-paying customers

Postpaid plans involve a more long-term relationship with customers who pay monthly or yearly fees for their usage plans. The main difference is the fact that payment takes place after the service has been used. This style of service is more in tune with the needs of customers who need unlimited plans and are more likely to use your service heavily.

You can consider offering postpaid plans for the following advantages:

• Consistent revenue and relationship-building with long-term customers

• Catering to customers with large-scale service needs that limited prepaid plans cannot cover

• The opportunity to automatically incentivize heavier use of services with unlimited plans

• The ability to recover revenue by charging customers for overuse

• The opportunity to upsell new service offerings to loyal customers

With careful consideration, it can become evident that both prepaid and postpaid solutions have their perks and you cannot ignore either if you are looking for massive adoption and business growth.

Planning Your Service Offerings

Depending on the target audience you want to cater to, you can either lean heavily towards one of the options or choose to create a balanced service offering that leverages every opportunity. While offering customer prepaid plans can allow for a quick recovery of your investments, offering postpaid services can set your business up for long-term growth.

It’s crucial to have the right billing solutions partner in your corner if you want to make the best use of these opportunities. Working with a company like Telgoo5 offers you a seamless, integrated solution where you can use one centralized platform for charging, rating, and billing.

You can use Telgoo5’s service to create and offer different tariffs and bundle plans, integrate online payments, deals, and discounts, provide value-added services, and still retain the ability to manage both prepaid and postpaid billing requirements from one comprehensive solution. This can also be a great opportunity to avoid having to pass up on either strategy as you grow and evolve your business.

Telgoo5: The MVNE You Never Knew Your MVNO / MNO Needed

With 15 years in the industry, (v)WeCare is very well aware of the ever-changing landscape the telecommunications industry is facing today. That’s a decade-and-a-half of providing BSS, online charging, MVNE, Diameter and other expert technical and sales support, and as you’ll see, much more.

We’ve partnered with countless telecom organizations to transform their MVNO/MVNE by optimizing operations, expanding their reach, and growing their subscriber base overall. Furthermore, (v)WeCare has empowered companies just like yours to globally launch their MVNO/MVNE in a matter of weeks instead of months, and we even provide dedicated account managers as well as 24/7 NOC Support.

However, these partnerships actually evolved into a bit of symbiotic relationship as well. As our clients learned from us, we learned a lot more about their operation’s deeper needs.

That’s where Telgoo5 comes in. An end-to-end billing support system (BSS) and Online charging system (OCS) that is tailored to fit the specific needs of telecom companies.

The Telgoo5 Difference

There’s no denying that the ever-changing environment of the telecommunications industry can make proper management more than a bit of a challenge. With Telgoo5, that becomes a whole lot easier.

Imagine having the ability to provision and activate features on the fly, monitor service performance, track customer usage, bill for content, ensure revenue capture, and so much more. And we really, really mean so much more.

With Telgoo5’s BSS, you get a subscriber management system that is efficient, quick, responsive, and provides subscribers with excellent customer service. You also gain the ability to setup custom sales chain based on your business needs with sales chain management that supports 3 levels and has the ability to be customized for more.

Furthermore, with Telgoo5 and the BSS features, you have access to the following:

• A config and admin panel that facilitates effective user management and enables you to define permissions, create plans, and gain greater control overall.

• Reporting and analytics that provide in-depth subscriber data, giving you further insight and helping you manage and monitor your sales more easily and efficiently.

• Expanded abilities to manage inventory status, reassignment, and reconciliation, spawning more efficient management and distribution of inventory units.

Even if that was the end of the list of benefits of Telgoo5 it would be rather impressive, but as we said above, there’s much more.

The key features of the BSS side of Telgoo5 are not only impressive, they can actually be critical in helping you meet the demands of today’s industry. Efficient billing is key to the survival of any organization but this can be evermore so true for telecom organizations.

Telgoo5’s Postpaid Billing System has a slew of impressive tools that are destined to transform your operations, including:

• Payment gateway integration.

• Real-time or manual invoice generation.

• Postpaid tariff plans.

• CDR rated bills sent in XML.

• CDR mediation process.

• Call barring services.

• Call exception services.

• And More!

Need a wholesale billing system? Telgoo5’s Online charging system has that covered too with additional key features for MNOs/MVNAs:

• API controls.

• Ability to create ‘n’ number of MVNOs.

• Separate logins for MNOs/MVNAs and MVNOs.

• Built-in online user guides that provide instant assistance whenever needed.

• And once again, much more.

Have a little better understanding for why we said that your MVNO/MNO needs Telgoo5? If you’re ready to move forward with transforming your telecom into an entity ready for both today and tomorrow, give us a call at 206-384-4669.

If you still have questions about Telgoo5, you can visit our website or contact us directly and we’ll reply as quickly as possible.

Put years of experience and expertise to work for you with Telgoo5 augmenting your telecom business.

Is Your Billing On Point

Billing is one of those things that businesses sometimes don’t give a lot of thought to, but smart companies in the telecom industry know that consistent and accurate customer billing is one of the cornerstones of a successful MVNO.

Some MVNOs handle billing in-house, tasking one or two staff members with what should realistically be the job of an entire department. The truth is, your if your billing is not on-point, your customers will suffer and look for other MVNO’s to get their service from. Since telecom billing is notoriously tricky, smart companies trust their billing to expert MNVEs.

Look For Flexibility

The telecom industry is always shifting and changing, which puts MVNOs in a challenging situation when it comes to billing, especially if they are poised to start scaling. As you get more end customers, your billing needs are going to adapt to different business situations. You need an MVNE that can adapt with you and offer real-time solutions to your customer’s needs. Smaller organizations simply don’t have the bandwidth to be able to support the level of growth that most MVNOs will experience, leading to customer frustration and annoyance on the part of the MNO.

At Telgoo5, we understand the importance of flexibility and ability to scale. Our sophisticated infrastructure was built to withstand shifting company demands and rapid scaling. What’s more, we can offer all of our MVNO partners CRM and BSS as well as a real-time view of business performance and trends!. Many of our long-term MVNO partners are US based companies that love working with us because they know that they will be able to scale with us and, we will be there to support their needs in a prompt and outstanding manner!

Look For Added Value

If you have an in-house billing department, or if you contract out to a smaller or less flexible MVNE, you won’t necessarily get bare-bones service, but you also won’t get all of the perks that come alongside working with a company that can address all of your needs on multiple fronts. Distribution and inventory management goes hand-in-hand with billing, and if your chosen MVNE doesn’t have the capacity to handle all three, you’ll have to find another one to attend to these services. Anyone who runs a business knows that dealing with multiple vendors can be costly and time-consuming.

Telgoo5 offers distribution and inventory as value added services to their billing plan, so you won’t need to be hopscotching between different vendors to get your customers the services that they need. With us, you can rest easy that it will all be handled in one secure, professional place!

Support Is Key

It’s hard to over-emphasize the importance of quality customer and tech support. You and your chosen MVNE are a team, and it should feel like a partnership. This is especially true if you’re scaling, taking on new customers or dealing with additional products. Customers depend on detailed, accurate and itemized bills for their telecom service, so you need to know that your MVNE has your back. That’s why you should be in regular contact with your MVNE about billing and other areas of your business.

At Telgoo5 we pride ourselves on taking our relationship with all of our MVNOs very seriously. You have an account manager who is responsible for handling your needs, and weekly calls to handle any concerns that might crop up. Additionally, we have an escalation procedure that is specifically designed to get to the root of any problem as efficiently and effectively as possible. We prioritize consistency and organization because we know that they are the cornerstones of a successful MVNO/MVNE relationship.

Anyone in the telecom industry knows that billing can be the trickiest part of the business. When you’re dealing with multiple customers and a host of different services, getting billing down perfectly poses something of a challenge. That’s why it is imperative to make sure that your billing is on point. The best way that you can do that is linking up with a smart MVNE that has your best interests at heart. Let an MVNE like Telgoo5 take billing off your plate so that you can focus on growing your business!