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Cellcos deny billing inadequacy


Johannesburg, 10 Apr 2012

Despite recent reports that communications services providers' (CSPs') legacy billing systems are inadequate in light of the digital age, SA's cellphone operators say they are up to speed.

A recent Accenture survey, the report from which is entitled “How CSPs can Transform Billing Operations to Support a New Convergent, Digital Business”, reveals that telecom billing systems are hindering CSPs in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America from introducing new digital services to meet customer demand, competing more effectively, and generating incremental revenues.

According to Accenture, 92% of executives who participated in the survey said their billing systems impede the launch of new offers, while almost half (46%) said their current billing capability is a major barrier to delivering new products and services to customers.

Fernando Usera, MD of media and communications for Accenture SA, says a number of South African executives were included in the survey. He says it emerged from interviews with local CSP executives, who cannot be named, that current billing systems have significant impact on the time to market for new services that the operator should launch, as well as improvement to the customer experience in the current saturated environment.

Usera says, due to the “extreme pressure” on telcos to introduce new services in an environment of shrinking development and product launch time frames, it is essential that they rethink their billing systems, and design new infrastructure and processes more attuned to the demands of today's communications environment. “[CSPs] know they can't grow revenue by operating as traditional 'communications' businesses.”

Sufficient systems

SA's cellphone operators say their billing systems are capable, despite challenges and new products associated with the current communications environment.

Vodacom spokesperson Richard Boorman says the survey may in fact have been misinterpreted. “The reality is that implementing even a simple idea [in terms of products] is a monumental effort if it requires changes to the billing system. That doesn't mean there is a deficiency in the billing system - it's just the nature of something that has a massively complex task to do.”

He says, considering the billions of billable events on the Vodacom network each week, it is clear that modifications to the system have to be approached with great caution.

MTN SA CIO Louis Nel says the company is continually investing to upgrade its billing systems. He says, guided by customer needs, numerous system implementation projects are taking place to improve the service experience of customers.

While there is no quantified loss of revenue as a direct consequence of inadequacy of the billing systems, says Nel, MTN does experience a “perceived loss” from the lag between new product design until products go to market. “[This is] a factor heavily influenced by the agility of billing systems.”

Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig says the company replaced its entire billing system last year and, despite initial teething problems, the system is “stable and running accurately”. He says the system is unique in that it is a converged billing system that combines prepaid and postpaid in the same system. “It also enables the company to launch innovative and unique products and services to the market.”

Senior managing executive of Telkom's mobile arm, 8ta, Amith Maharaj says that, while there are challenges, including the speed of change and readiness to reconfigure systems to support new products, the operator's current billing system is adequately equipped to meet them. He says, however, that there are limitations that are inherent in all billing systems and as a start-up business, 8ta has to be “fast and innovative”.

“Normally billing systems are the slowest component to implement new features, mainly due to the amount of testing that is required to ensure data integrity.”

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