At IDI Billing Solutions, innovation isn’t about chasing trends — it’s about creating lasting value for customers. Every new capability, integration, and enhancement stems from a simple goal: helping service providers grow stronger, smarter, and faster.
In this edition of Behind the Innovation, we sat down with Don Culeton, CEO of IDI Billing Solutions, to discuss the company’s mission, its approach to balancing innovation and reliability, and the role of people, process, and purpose in shaping the future of telecom.
What are the biggest challenges facing providers today, and how does IDI help clients navigate them?
Shifting regulatory requirements is always an issue, whether it’s FCC mandates or changing industry standards such as PCI and HIPAA. Our product team works to stay abreast of these requirements and, together with our customers and partners, to understand the requirements and rapidly deliver solutions to keep our customers in compliance.
Second, the rapid pace of technology change. Our customers face it with changes to their network and customer expectations. It’s about when to invest, how to automate provisioning and fulfillment of that investment, and finally, how to monetize those investments.
IDI’s solution allows for automating provisioning and fulfillment and billing of all types of products and services, whether it is simple monthly subscriptions or complex offerings that involve usage. So, our customers are ready to quickly monetize and drive ARPU.
What is your vision for the future of IDI?
Our mission is to empower service providers to turn their ideas into growth – fast!
That starts with creating dedicated teams of talented and experienced people who love working with each other. At IDI we are picky about who we hire to ensure we get the best people, and we create a work environment where they can thrive.
We listen closely to the needs of our customers and prospects, ensuring we understand their business goals. We stay ahead of the curve by tracking market trends and continually training on current and emerging technologies.
Armed with this insight, we deliver solutions that help our customers bring new offerings to market quickly — so they can stay agile, competitive, and focused on serving their own customers.
How does IDI balance innovation and reliability?
The secret starts with our architecture and processes. We develop features in small modules that are surrounded by documented Open APIs. Our team creates automated tests using these APIs. Every night the software is rebuilt, and tens of thousands of tests are automatically run against it with any failures being routed to our development team to correct.
This incremental approach and automated testing ensure fast delivery of high-quality software.
Next is to deliver the changes to our customers. We automatically push new software out to customers monthly. We take a three-ring approach, pushing it out to internal testing, customer testing, and finally to production.
This allows us to rapidly deliver high-quality software that meets new regulatory, compliance, technology, and business needs of our customers.
I’d like to add that security is top of mind at IDI. Our security department partners with experts who are testing for vulnerabilities in our solution and reviewing our processes and solution against industry standards to ensure we are meeting and delivering to our customers a high level of reliability and trust.
What industry trends are you most excited about?
I believe AI has the largest potential to change how we do our job and how we better understand the needs of our customers.
At IDI we are taking an internal and external approach to AI.
- Internally we’re using it to help us work more efficiently. For example, our development teams have found Microsoft Copilot can remove some of the drudgery of developing software so our team can spend more time on the solutions.
- Externally we are looking at ways to bring AI into our solution to help customers do their job more efficiently and identify trends to help reduce attrition.
Like all new technologies that promise radical improvements in productivity, it just takes time for it to evolve and it’s difficult to imagine and predict the future state. For example, looking at a little company called Amazon who 25 years ago was pioneering a new way to sell books using the internet, it would be difficult to imagine the retail and technology powerhouse they are today.
The key is to experiment rapidly to find applications where AI can increase efficiency and magnify human abilities. Our rapid incremental approach to development is the perfect platform for IDI to experiment with AI.
Want to hear more from Don? Watch the full interview here.
How does IDI support the broader communications industry and contribute to its growth?
At IDI, community is at the heart of who we are.
We’re deeply committed to the places where we live and work, and we back that commitment with action. Our team actively serves on the boards and committees of leading trade associations and supports advocacy efforts to ensure our customers’ voices are heard in Washington.
Closer to home, we proudly participate in United Way campaigns and Day of Caring events, annual food drives, or support families in need around the holidays. Our Community Connections Committee is regularly bringing opportunities where our employees can help strengthen our communities. We also provide employees with paid time off to individually volunteer for the causes that matter most to them.
At IDI, we believe we’re strongest when we work together for the greater good.
Continuing to Build What’s Next
From modular design and continuous delivery to a culture rooted in trust and collaboration, IDI Billing Solutions continues to innovate with purpose. As Don shares, success starts with great people — and grows through a commitment to customers, communities, and continuous improvement.
By combining reliability with forward-thinking innovation, IDI is helping telecom providers adapt faster, deliver smarter, and build stronger connections that last.
Ready to simplify the way you bill, innovate, and grow? Connect with us here or call 800.208.6151.