Venturing into uncharted territory is always risky, and in the U.S. telecommunications market it can be downright dangerous.
But what’s even more deadly – to both revenue and user rates – is simply standing still.
Communication service companies have seen direct-to-consumer content providers and app developers capitalize on the internet to devour huge portions of their SMS, international voice and roaming markets, according to one PricewaterhouseCoopers study. The time for action was yesterday, but with the right strategy today is far, far better than nothing.
So what’s still preventing CSPs from expanding their service offerings into new frontiers?
High cost of entry
Money is at the root of many, if not all, concerns surrounding service portfolio growth. Telecom suffers from long-entrenched corporate interests that have, over many decades, shaped the industry in their image. If it doesn’t pertain to telecom bureaucracy and literal infrastructure, then it pertains to the massive capex required for research and development to compete in new markets.
Luckily, major technological disruptions listed above, embraced by consumers, have stripped some of this power away. But even though the old telecom model has lost its luster, it still prohibits new companies from sitting at the table or playing a hand without a high ante up front.
Seemingly unavoidable complexity
No business dives into a new market and lands perfectly. Some stumbling is fairly typical, and we’ve seen faceplants aplenty. But for reasons we’ve already discussed, CSPs cannot afford to trip themselves up because they’ve never had to create or manage the processes behind these services before. As understandable (and even, in the long run, beneficial) as failure can be, there isn’t any room for it in telecom today.
In our experience, enterprise billing software is usually where most failures happen. The solutions underpinning billing operations either don’t allow for the integration of innovative billing methods or cannot perform usage rating where required.
Working with a team of telecom billing experts can have an incredible impact on your service rollouts.Peaceful coexistence with IDI Billing Solutions
As a premier communications billing as a service leader and the creator of the award-winning B/OSS CostGuard, IDI Billing Solutions understands the struggles CSPs face when trying to innovate and offer new products and services their customers demand. We want to give that community a leg up by resolving those concerns through a partnership and something we call peaceful coexistence.
Say your business wants to expand through a new service launch, but your current billing systems can’t handle what’s necessary to make this new service a success. Maybe your subscription bill can’t handle complex rating scenarios, or you’re moving from strictly unlimited services to metered ones. Maybe you really like your customer relationship management system and can’t imagine life without it, even though you understand equally the importance and need for better customer offerings.
In any event, IDI Billing Solutions will work with clients to establish a partnership where we take on the duty of getting your new services operational, while integrating with key portions of your existing platforms – peacefully, without any burden of converting your core business, or any major disruptions to your operational processes. Here are some scenarios we’ve run into in the past:
- A wireline company asked us to help it launch a wireless mobile virtual network operator.
- An electrical utility wanted to start a fiber-to-business telecom service.
- A municipality hoped to develop its own telecom service from scratch.
Private or public sector, IDI Billing Solutions can assist in turning wishful thinking into functional realities:
Fast start times
Every minute counts when you’re looking to corner the market and capitalize on new services. The integration experts at IDI Billing Solutions know what it takes to get projects going and keep them on budget, on time and to scope.
Zero disruption
You can’t sacrifice what’s working for what needs improving. We specialize in integration controls that compartmentalize projects, connect cleanly with current systems and prevent our work from affecting day-to-day operations.
Expert management
We’re not just software engineers. We’re also telecom and tax experts who understand that your organization can’t survive without accurate financial reporting. If a complete integration will take time or requires a big build-out, IDI Billing Solutions will output data to your financial systems.
Telecommunications is rife with opportunity, and the years ahead are sure to be even more exciting. New players will enter the field, new ways to communicate or enjoy content will be unveiled, new M&A activity will be announced and new challenges will present themselves to trailblazing CSPs. We want you and your organization to focus on your long-term objectives instead of letting logistical complications ruin your potential.
Contact IDI Billing Solutions today and ask how our peaceful coexistence strategy can enable growth and help your telecom operations thrive.
