Be Smarter Than the Smartphone with a Cutting-Edge Billing and OSS System

The widespread use of smartphone has made life difficult for telcos in a number of ways. Unlike in the past, when their responsibilities were restricted to mainly voice and SMS, they have to now juggle with many services ranging from IPTV to OTT to data (different types of data like 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G). Not only a telecom operator has to create infrastructure and manage the supply chain for disseminating these services, he is also tasked with generating revenue via his new offerings. And, this can be only done if he has access to latest OSS telecom billing software that ticks all the right boxes in terms of usage capturing, rating, charging and generation of invoices.

Make Smartphones work to your Advantage with a quality Billing and OSS System

Agreed, the fallout due to extensive use of smart services (better known as over the top services) like Skype and Whatsapp has been quite substantial for telecom operators; however, the new developments in the telecom industry have also opened up a window of opportunities. With a vast sea of exciting new offerings at their disposal, it is time for telcos to bring them to market in a new and improved fashion. A few different ways this can be accomplished are listed below:

1. Offering bundled services – Nothing excites a customer more than a bundle of telecom services available at a slashed price. With so many services available to an operator, he can pick and choose a few and combine them together to form a bundle that appeals to a user base. The biggest advantage of bundled services is that different plans can be offered to different customer groups for maximum benefits.
2. Cross-product discounts – There could be many underutilized services that you, as a telecom operator may want to make revenue from but you simply can’t because subscribers are not interested. In this case, offering cross-product discounts can be a great option. Let’s say if your IPTV service does not have many takers (as people are not aware of its benefits), you can offer one month IPTV subscription for free if the subscribers make over 100 voice calls. This way, you will not only improve your revenue because of an increase in call volume, you will also find new subscribers for your IPTV service (as after using it for one month, they may add it to their active plan).

Just like the advantages mentioned above, there are many smarter ways to make the most of the new opportunities offered by smartphones. However, a telecom operator requires a quality billing and OSS system that can help him come up with innovative new plans.

Key Attributes of OSS Telecom Billing Software

OSS telecom billing software solutions need to have the following features for them to be effective in the current state of the telecom industry:

1. Real-time charging function – An OCS (Online Charging System) can charge events or sessions in real-time. If an OCS is a part of the billing system, it allows a telecom billing software to be effective in prepaid billing.
2. Convergent billing – A billing and OSS system should allow for convergent billing. With convergent billing, it is possible to send a common bill for all services used by a subscriber. Not only it makes billing more transparent, it also keeps the usage data in a centralized location for easy access by a customer support team.

Some other attributes in a billing and OSS system that can be of use to telcos are:

• Analytics
• Fraud protection
• CRM Software Integration
• Interconnect Invoicing