Stay Covered on Every Front with an Evolving AI-Powered Billing Software

The billing requirements faced by telecom operators keep on rising with each passing day. There is so much to do and so little time to waste. With 5G and IoT added to the catalog of services, the challenge is only going to become tougher, unless you have a billing software and B/OSS solution that fulfills new requirements.

Stay One-Step Ahead with AI-Integration

Considering the rapid changes in billing and delivery processes, a telecom operator needs to stay proactive with his subscription plans, business operations and order management. It is impossible to pre-plan and deliver services via a monolithic platform that is reactive in nature.

At Telgoo5, you get access to an AI-powered platform that anticipates your needs before they become an urgent requirement. As a result, you can create custom flows to manage customers’ demands. The ability to make sense of the vast amount of data ingested by the billing systems and BSS solution that you have employed plays a key role in driving your telecom operation towards success.

Evolve as Per Evolving OSS BSS Architecture

OSS BSS architecture constantly evolves as per the technical specifications conceptualized by 3GPP. On top of that, a telecom operator needs to stay vigilant of the changes recommended by regulatory bodies e.g., FCC in the USA.

Taking this burden on as an everyday responsibility can take your focus away from strategic tasks. What if you can manage all these responsibilities with a platform that adapts as per these changes? Telgoo5 does exactly that. It allows you to stay free and focus on what you do best. Responsibilities like staying compliant, upgrading/customizing software etc., are managed well by Telgoo5.

Powered by a Real-Time Online Charging System

Regardless of the scale of your telecom operation and subscriber base, Telgoo5 provides you real-time charging platform with its revolutionary Online Charging System (OCS). It is a convergent charging platform that is capable of managing millions and millions of transactions every day. The OCS can charge both event-based and session-based transactions. It enforces credit limits accurately and provides timely reminders to your customers when they are about to exceed their allotted quota. Telgoo5 is intuitive, easy-to-use and comes with 24x7 tech support.

With Telgoo5 as your partner, you get access to APIs, CRM and a dependable point of sale for selling your telecom offerings. We are integrated with all the major carriers and can immediately provide you high-speed and secure connectivity. It is a holistic telecom services platform that lets you stay covered on all fronts, ready to meet the challenges of the future.

Inspire Innovation Immediately with a Convergent Telecom Billing System

2021 requires telcos to think on their feet. It is very important that a telecom operator frequently changes its strategy and adapts to the current market situation. For smaller operators such as Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), the challenge is to perform in the segment they are in. This segment is actually very competitive, especially in the developed countries such as the US and UK. In order to overcome the challenge of competition, it is required that you either develop a good telecom billing software or employ telecom billing services that have proven their worth.

Choosing a Telecom Billing System that Inspires Innovation

A telecom billing system that allows telcos to be innovative is very important in today’s time. Below are some essential features of such a phone billing software solution:

Convergence

Real-time charging platforms allow for convergence, which is very important in today’s time. A convergent charging platform is the gold standard for today’s telecom operators. It allows them to print single unified invoices that have all service charges reflected at the same place.

Faster monetization

Rapid monetization is the key to succeeding with your plans in the telecom industry. When you bring your plans to the market quicker, you are able to attract the interest of your customers.

Point of Sale

A point of sale is where the customers buy their telecom plans. The point of sale should be well-tested and work as per the requirements of different groups of customers.

Self-Care Options

Nowadays, many customers want to build their very own telecom service bundles. Therefore, you should offer self-care options. A multi-tenant platform that supports multiple user logins is required for this option to be a success. The self-care should come with options such as plan changes, payment methods, upgradation of services etc.

Analytics for Decision Making

An analytical package alongside a telecom billing system can make all the difference in your business strategy. It allows you to make impactful decisions, which ultimately help your business to grow.

Scope for Monetizing Every Old and New Service

Monetization of both old and new services is very much required. Nowadays, your telecom billing system should excel at service offerings such as prepaid, postpaid, IoT, 5G and broadband apart from the new-age OTT services like video streaming.

At Telgoo5, we have a readymade platform that caters to the exact needs of telecom operators. We also offer intuitive APIs, which can be easily installed for bringing in new functionalities into the system.

Harness Power of Innovative Next-Gen Telecom Billing Services to Succeed in 2021

In this age of technology, you need to be one step ahead of your competitors at all time. When it comes to the telecom industry, the competitive struggle is more intense because there are different types of operators in the industry. MNOs, MVNOs, ISPs and OTT service providers collectively form the entire telecom domain. Every player in the industry needs to be competent when it comes to telecom billing solutions, if it really wants to make a mark.

The Challenges for Telcos in 2021

2021 is expected to be extremely challenging for telcos, especially for the smaller players like MVNOs. Have a look at some challenges for telcos in the present times:

Revenue assurance

You simply have to deliver services as per your contract with the customers. Therefore, it is important to have complete revenue assurance. Considering the number of telecom services delivered these days, it is quite a challenge to be 100% accurate with revenue assurance.

Quick monetization of innovative plans

To break away from the crowd and provide unique telecom services, you need to have a billing system that allows flexibility in monetization. As a telecom operator, you should be able to combine disparate services and deliver them in an attractive manner. Also, the monetization needs to be quick if you want to exploit the trends prevailing in the market. For example, in the times of lockdown, you can provide conference calling as part of the package as more and more professionals are looking to connect remotely with their peers.

Management of third-party partnerships

There are simply too many things that an operator has to manage these days. It is impossible to grow one’s service catalogue – horizontally and vertically – at the same time without third party partnerships. Therefore, the complexity and challenge is huge, unless you have access to pro telecom billing services that offer APIs for third-party partnerships. A flexible system can manage various third-party partnerships with suppliers, video streaming vendors, payment gateways and shipping services. You can even manage an interconnect partnership for roaming services through an intuitive telecom billing platform like Telgoo5.

To overcome the numerous challenges, it is vital that a modern-day telecom operator uses telecom billing systems that have the necessary functionalities. Telgoo5 is an outstanding telecom support platform that simplifies day-to-day tasks and makes the challenge in 2021 simpler. The system comes with cutting-edge APIs that add new functionality and help in the evolution of telecom businesses.

What Is Next For The Telecommunications Industry In A Post-COVID World

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a widespread impact on people, communities, and businesses around the world. The fast-paced outbreak has already rendered a lot of business contingency plans null and void due to its unexpected and unpredictable nature.

Telecommunication companies have also been caught in the crossfire. Companies relying on store footfall to enhance their revenue and subscriber base have had to hustle to come up with other plans. On the flip side, the need to stay connected and social has skyrocketed with people having to stay at home. This can be a good opportunity for businesses implementing the MVNO model to find success.

In fact, both for consumers and businesses, there has been a massive surge in voice calls, data use, and streaming. A lot of telecom companies have already tried to help by removing data caps and introducing new packages. For the telecom industry, this situation can be an opportunity to build a much more loyal and dedicated customer base and to emerge from the other side of the pandemic with a much more established business presence. For those offering or considering offering MVNO solutions, working with a reputed service provider like Telgoo5 can be a smart, insightful option.

Important Focus Points

Businesses in the telecom industry would be best served to focus on specific short-term goals to survive and grow in these conditions. Some important focus points can include:

• Efforts to expand the customer base

• Bringing together customer data from all relevant channels

• Reducing support costs by dramatically improving customer experience

• Developing new strategies to enhance ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)

Unifying Customer Data

As things get back to normal, customers are more likely to start engaging with telecom companies over different channels. Implementing a CDP or Customer Data Platform can help companies merge all this data and provide a seamless and consistent experience to customers.

This can be a salient way to provide cohesive solutions to customers in online and offline environments alike. Contextual experiences can enhance the value companies offer to customers.

Expanding the Customer Base

A deep understanding of how customers can use your services during these times can be a key component in being able to expand your customer base. For example, you can analyze exit intent on your business website to find product and service offerings that really resonate with new customers during the pandemic and its restrictions.

Simple changes in your acquisition strategy, like free home delivery of SIM cards or driving the installation and use of your mobile apps can be a great way to enhance customer lock-in and engagement. MVNO companies can take advantage of streamlined MVNO billing solutions and other features from a provider like Telgoo5 to leverage customer acquisition efforts.

Increasing ARPU

Providing new, unique, and varied user experiences can be an excellent way to engage existing customers and drive revenue while people continue to largely stay at home. You can use social proof displays to drive and expedite purchasing decisions, provide a fun, gamified experience across your website and apps to enhance the lead collection, and focus on time-appropriate messaging to provide customized, tailored solutions to customers who are staying at home or working from home.

Looking Ahead

The Wuhan virus or COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the notion that being connected is a highly prized commodity. Keeping this in mind, it can be a good time for the telecommunication industry to embrace innovation and cater to a rising need for more customized experiences. In this environment, reacting to changes in customer expectations can be the most important element for telecommunication companies to keep growing and thriving. Forging partnerships with a company like Telgoo5 can prove to be decisive in such situations.

Setting Up Convergent Billing? Implement These Best Practices With Telgoo5

When customers are using your services, they want to spend more time on their calls, texts, and data exchange than dealing with billing issues. We at Telgoo5 know that in today’s competitive environment, not getting this convenience can cause them to switch to another provider right away. To make matters worse, this all happens before you even have time to turn things around for the better.

That’s why almost all telecom companies use convergent charging for improved customer experience.

Simply put, convergent billing helps your customers deal with different charges on their accounts in a single invoice. They no longer have to pay individual payments for multiple services or devices. Everything is now present in a single bill. This presentation makes their lives that much easier in a day and age where customization is the most critical factor in utilizing telecom services.

If you are integrating convergent billing through your mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE), it is essential to ensure they are set up the right way. Being mindful of the following best practices can help you determine if you are fulfilling the crucial requirements of this segment.

Best Practices for Convergent Billing

As mentioned above, ease of use should be your guiding force throughout the setup process for convergent billing. Remember to keep this simple rule of thumb in mind. Set up your convergent charging in a way that ensures optimal customer retention.

But apart from ease of use, the following tips by Telgoo5 are also crucial in setting up this billing mechanism. This strategy allows your customers to make the most out of the simplicity you are offering to them.

Make It Simple to Understand

Since you are representing all of your charges in a single invoice, it is paramount for that bill to be as transparent as possible.

Separate and segment your invoice into different sections, such as data and voice charges. If there are any other charges that you think need a separate section, make sure to list them accordingly as well. Setting up your backend convergent billing interface with this goal in mind is the key to achieving more straightforward billing delivery.

This distinction makes the invoice easier to read, and your customers appreciate this transparency as well. This process also reduces your call and inquiry volume that is related to resolving basic billing questions.

Make It Easy to Set Up

Convergent charging should be as easy to set up as it is simpler to understand. Ensure that your customer relationship management (CRM) application makes it easy to assign different charges to your customer profile. This refinement helps your representatives in delivering on-call changes without getting into unnecessary complexities.

This also holds for your customers’ end as well. Don’t use convoluted mechanisms. Don’t go for complex interactive voice recordings (IVRs). Don’t assign complicated service codes to use. Make everything as straightforward as possible.

This process helps your customers change their services promptly. With the assurance of a consolidated bill in mind, this easy setup translates to better customer experience.

Have a Clear Difference in Service Charges

While setting up convergent billing, you must offer a variation in charges through your MVNE.

Make sure to take a look at what your competitors are offering and develop your subscription packages to be better in delivery. With this, also ensure that your packages are different from each other to offer a diverse range of experiences.

Having little to no difference in subscription costs kills the whole concept of convergent charging. If you have a clear difference in subscription packages, it translates to a charging system telecom consumers find much easier to use. This notion also goes a long way in customer retention.

Contact Telgoo5, an Experienced MVNE, Today

To make sure that you are setting up complex convergent billing in an easy to use way, having an experienced MVNE is of paramount importance.

The Telgoo5 team can assist, with extensive experience in setting up convergent charging systems, we can help you achieve your goals with ease. Our targeted setup and delivery mechanisms setup convergent billing in a way that’s easy to use for your customers and even simpler to deploy for your company.

At the same time, we deliver these services at competitive rates, which is due to the modern infrastructure that we have built for our operations.

If you are looking for an MVNE to set up convergent billing or improve your existing online charging systems, don’t hesitate to call Telgoo5 today. The Telgoo5 team will be glad to discuss your needs and help you deploy better services for your customers in no time.

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!

Why CDR Meditation Is an Essential Part of Telecom Billing?

Telecom billing is probably the most confusing and scrutinized task in the telecom industry. The scrutiny comes from customers who are more often than not dissatisfied with their bills. This leads to confusion amongst the telecom vendors who start looking everywhere for new telecom billing solutions. Mostly, this problem arises because the telecom billing software used by them are subpar and do not meet the high requirements of modern-day businesses.

Why Telecom Billing Solutions Are Important?

All the efforts made by telecom service providers in setting up a network will amount to nothing if telecom billing is not up to standards. This is why, telecom billing solutions become important as they play a crucial role in accounting for those services. Not only is the revenue generated by a telecom provider dependent on billing, customers’ trust is also directly connected with the quality of the billing services. For instance, if a customer starts receiving wrong bills, his trust in the services nosedives from that moment onwards. On the other hand, if the billing services are sound, the customer stays faithful and brings in new customers.

CDRs: The Fundamental Unit of Telecom Billing Process

CDR (Call Data Record) is the fundamental unit of telecom billing process. All interactions between the user and telecom networking elements are captured by CDRs. A CDR has the following attributes:

1. Date and starting time of the call

2. Duration of the call

3. Calling party

4. Called party

5. Type of call e.g. voice, SMS, data etc.

6. Unique record sequence number that is used for identification

The captured CDRs are vitally important for the proper operation of a billing system. However, these CDRs are raw in nature, which means they cannot be interpreted by a billing system.

CDR Meditation System: The Unsung Hero of Telecom Billing Solutions

To ensure the captured CDRs are converted into a format that is understood by the billing system, a CDR meditation system is employed. The meditation system receives the unformatted CDRs, converts them into the necessary format and sends them to the billing system. Besides conversion, it also performs the operation of filtering out calls that do not meet set criterion by the telecom vendor. For example, if a call with duration less than 10 second needs to be filtered out, it is done by CDR meditation system. Moreover, if some extra information needs to be provided that is crucial for billing procedure, the meditation system gathers that information based on certain attributes and then sends it to the billing system via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). FTP is required for transfer of this information as both billing software and meditation modules are installed on different systems.

After the billing system receives the formatted CDR, it is able to interpret the information and rate the services utilized by customers.

Summary

Billing system in telecom is quite complex and requires processing of data at different levels for accomplishment of billing-related tasks. Although the user is not aware of what goes on behind the scenes, the role of systems like meditation system that converts raw CDRs into formatted CDRs is extremely important. All telecom billing solutions require correct formatting of CDR for reliable and accurate completion of billing tasks.

The One Thing You Did Not Know About Telecom Billing Software

Telecom billing is a thankless task. You can be right 99 times out of 100, but if you make a single error, all the good work you have done previously goes down the drain. Just like politics, customers have short memories when it comes to the telecom services they use. Politicians have the advantage of evoking the right emotions at the time of elections but telecom operators do not enjoy such a luxury. They have to be right all the time and then some.

Not so long ago, when telecom billing systems were not as evolved as today, it was even harder to provide accurate bills to the customers. But at that time, the competition in the telecom industry was relatively low. At the sight of a wrong bill, customers used to think twice before crossing over to another provider. Not anymore! In this age of information and evolving telecom market, the playing field is a lot more competitive. Every year we see new entrants who try to lure away customers with flashy schemes and minimum tariff plans. This trend makes life difficult for established players in the market, especially for those who are still using outdated OSS telecom billing software.

“Hello! Have You Heard About Our New and Improved Telecom Billing Software?”

Do you know what most telecom operators do after hearing this line from a sales representative? They disconnect the line. It is not as if all the telecom billing software solutions made by IT companies are good and work well for every business. Not at all! However, complete disdain for something that you automatically think of as an exorbitant expense. Doesn’t make good business sense!

If till now, you have refrained from purchasing OSS telecom billing solutions because you thought they cost too much, you are in for a surprise. Most telecom entrepreneurs, in spite of their vast knowledge, do not know that telecom billing software can be procured as Software as a service (SaaS). If you are still not clear how this can help…read on.

Telecom Billing Software as SaaS

One of the least expensive ways of employing telecom billing software in your business operations is via SaaS model. With SaaS, you do not have to purchase any license or acquire any infrastructure. You can even decide on whether to host the services on your company’s cloud or employ the billing platform already operating in a cloud provided by the vendor.

This approach best suits startups and organizations with a limited budget. Enterprises that wish to integrate the billing software ASAP have to wait for only a day or two before beginning the use of billing software as part of SaaS model.

Can Blockchain Make Telecom Billing System Better?

Ever wondered how many people have invested in bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies? As per a survey performed by Cambridge University, somewhere between 2.9 million and 5.8 million people utilized a cryptocurrency wallet in 2017. This number is staggering, especially when we look at the way governments of different countries are doing their best to stop people from using it.

Many governments deem it illegal, others tell the people that it is unsafe for their hard-earned money and some even go as far as saying that it is downright immoral (some people use cryptocurrency for purchase of drugs and illegal video content). Right or wrong, we are not here to discuss about the virtues of cryptocurrency. We are here to analyze what makes it click. Which is that unseen force behind this phenomenon that people trust? The answer is simple: Blockchain.

Bitcoin is an unregulated and de-centralized currency, which means that there is not one single entity that controls it. The power lies in the hands of people. It is the best form of democracy when it comes to financial transactions. And, it has been made possible by the use of blockchain. For a layman, blockchain is like a ledger that is made available to all users. The data and transactions are completely transparent, which is clearly seen by all the users at all times. It won’t be wrong to think of it as a Google Doc spreadsheet, which can be edited at any time and the changes are there for all to see. Due to transparency in all transactions, people are ready to put their faith in it and hence, cryptocurrency has become so popular.

Use of Blockchain in Other Fields

Although, blockchain hasn’t been used in any other field, its promising start as part of the cryptocurrency operations makes it a wonderful option for other domains. In a field like telecom, where customers are often worried about the telecom billing system employed by their service provider, it won’t be a bad idea to give blockchain a try.

However, an immediate overhaul of the system is not advised and companies should look to integrate it slowly with their telecom billing solutions. Some of the benefits that can be extracted by its implementation in telecom are listed below:

1. Solution to the problem of roaming – Blockchain can help overcome the major hurdle of operators that require them to integrate expensive systems, so they can offer authentication/access settings for starting roaming calls. Blockchain addresses this problem by enabling complex datasets across multiple parties, in real time and with great reliability.

2. Better Connectivity – Use of blockchain along with telecom billing and payment software will make it easier to offer several local hotspots along with Wi-Fi accessibility based on permissions. The transparency that comes with blockchain can go a long way in fostering trust amongst customers with regards to billing for these difficult-to-track services.

3. Telecom providers can become remittance providers – Remittance is the action of transferring money in a different country. By using blockchain, telecom providers will be able to serve their clients better by offering remittance services.

4. Reduction in cost of operation – Last but definitely not the least, the implementation of blockchain will automatically lower the requirement of infrastructure, which will in turn lower the cost of operation.