Staying profitable in the extremely competitive telecom industry has become a challenge for telcos. Receding profits from their ever-dependable traditional offerings like calls and SMS is one of the biggest reasons for their struggles. However, it is not the sole reason for their predicament.
The Delivery Conundrums and the Trap of Customized Telecom Billing
Nowadays, customers using telecom services demand better services and complete transparency in billing. They have many options to pick and choose their services from and hence, they are liable to change their provider at the first glimpse of disregard for their desires. Also, there is a rapid influx of groundbreaking technologies that are creating new services that need to be delivered. The complexity that goes with stacking up these different services as packaged deals for customers is at an all-time high.
Telcos utilizing customized telecommunications billing software are encountering difficulties while bringing their plans to market on time. This is a direct result of their inability to alter their billing system on the fly as they have to send it back for alterations whenever a new technology comes along in the market. Also, the cost of buying/altering new custom-made software is quite high, which cannot be sustained in the current state of the telecom industry. Custom-made software solutions for telecom billing are like traps. Once you get caught, you will find it hard to come out.
APIs: The Perfect Solution for Constant Change
The constant change in the telecom industry can be easily addressed by employing the services of a telecom billing specialist that excels in API creation. Such a vendor can make your work easy by providing specific event driven APIs for every business use case. For example, if you want to deliver SIM cards to your customers but do not have any partnership with a shipping carrier, then you can use their API and start printing your shipping labels. Or, if you want to connect with different payment gateways, but do not have any partnerships in place, simply fire up the relevant API and you are good to go.
There is no need to amend the software. No need to waste your time in search for new partnerships. It is a much better way to get your work done without breaking the bank.
Important Considerations for Telecommunications Billing Software
A partnership with an API-driven telecom billing expert can be fruitful for your telecom operation only if the delivered solution offers the following functionalities:
- Complete convergence – A real-time OCS that charges all services can help you deliver comprehensive invoices with complete detail of usage. As modern-day customers utilize a myriad of telecom offerings and expect a single detailed bill, complete convergence is a major requirement.
- Security, revenue leakage and fraud detection – The billing data contains vital customer information that simply cannot be compromised. Ensure that the telecom billing expert that you are employing takes security of your customers’ information in the highest regard. Also, fraud detection and revenue leakage detection can help you prevent the occurrence of debilitating financial losses.
- Analytics – The importance of analytics has increased considerably since the mass employment of AI-based technologies in different industries. To avert the threat posed by the rising competition, it is essential for a telecom operator to have analytics as part of the telecom billing software package.
Vcare’s Telgoo5 is a comprehensive telecommunication billing software that is built while keeping the interests of modern-day telecom operators in mind. It comes with many event-driven APIs for most business use cases and allows for complete convergence.