The capabilities of billing systems will only be curbed by a lack of imagination and investment - such is their potential as a true platform for integration and innovation.
Demand for cloud-based systems has emerged as a major trend, not just in the billing space, but across the whole industry. So much so that Inform Billing provides its Eclipse software via the cloud as a matter of course, unless a customer requests otherwise. "Continued investment in cloud-based solutions that will simplify deployment as well as improve resilience will remain a key factor in our development," explained Shaun Bodsworth (pictured), Managing Director. "Using more up-to-date cloud-based technology will allow us to significantly advance our integration strategy and market share."
Inform Billing's proposition is two-fold. The first is geared towards new entrants in the comms market. "With this segment we base our proposition on simplicity of set-up, ease of use and we take care of hosting, servers, back-ups and licensing for our customers," added Bodsworth. "Our bureau service is priced as an entry-level option to help those starting out to get off on the right foot. Our second proposition is directed towards the established reseller looking to enhance their billing capability. This offering focuses on scalability of the software, reliability and the capacity for bespoke development alongside the existing complex feature set."
Inform Billing has doubled in size over the past two years. The company has developed close relationships with its customers and is able to respond swiftly to their development requests. "We strongly believe in the value of competition and have worked hard to position ourselves as a credible alternative for the larger reseller," added Bodsworth. "As an independent UK billing provider and a specialist in our field, we continue to promote the importance of independent billing options for resellers, rather than network or aggregator provided options.
"While we have always supported resellers to become self-sufficient with their billing and increase control and visibility over their customer base, we are finding that more and more resellers are happier to take advice and guidance from us and use our bureau billing team as an extension of their own. In the future we see the gap widening between those who want to buy 'Billing as a Service' and those who simply require a software solution."
The trend for outsourced services will continue to grow with a greater requirement for solutions that provide 'Billing as a Service', in addition to the traditional market for buying or renting a billing platform, believes Bodsworth. "Years ago a billing system was a large investment costing £20k-plus upfront," he stated.
"This is no longer the case, and the change in model has created an opportunity to nurture relationships, continue investment and essentially become more profitable as our customers succeed. The current trend, especially for fledgling companies, is to extend that link further by outsourcing all elements of billing to a specialist, freeing up precious time to go out selling and to grow the business."
According to Bodsworth there's a host of opportunities in non-core markets and Inform Billing has to be selective when choosing which opportunities to pursue. Any diversion into a new business stream requires significant development to take a product to market that is 'off the shelf' but still meets a variable set of complex demands. "With the move to more subscription-based revenues comes opportunities outside of the traditional telecoms and IT arena," added Bodsworth. "This includes, but is not limited to, the growth in IoT and M2M markets. Our biggest challenge is to develop systems flexible enough to cope with these emerging opportunities, yet to still maintain the core functionality required by the masses."
In the midst of such a dynamic market it should come as no surprise that Inform Billing has an ongoing development cycle and reinvests around 40 per cent of revenue into development. "This year is turning out to be a year of development launches for Inform Billing," he said. "We will see continued improvements with a major relaunch of our Eclipse billing software before the end of the year, reaffirming our commitment to cloud-based solutions, but retaining the flexibility for those who want to manage their own hosting and hardware. We will also be releasing enhancements to our accompanying Enlighten customer facing web billing portal, and increasing our capacity to integrate with third party systems."
According to Stephen Redman, Head of Customer Services at Aurora, the traditional telecoms reseller will cease to exist and the broader portfolio that resellers are now offering requires a solution that can cope with the complex billing demands of different product types. "The paradox, however, is that as the underlying complexity grows, solutions need to become simpler, easier to use, and integrate with businesses and complementary systems," commented Redman. "We have already added a number of features to the Affinity solution."
He agrees that trends in the cloud and 'as a service' are reshaping the billing landscape. "Flexible billing solutions that can support a range of hosting options while maintaining high standards of service are a key aspect of Aurora's solution delivery," stated Redman. "The industry is in a constant state of change, bringing both challenges and opportunity. Against this backdrop all resellers are seeking to differentiate their solution and for Aurora this challenge is an opportunity to tailor our solutions, from the modular aspect of the Affinity software that needs to integrate with other reseller systems, to defining the appropriate hosting and service solution."
As the world moves to a more connected environment with end users possessing multiple devices that are all talking to each other, the implications will extend to billing, pointed out Redman. "The need not only to hold and store data, but to understand and be able to act on it will play a greater role," said Redman. "For billing, this means that systems need to provide stakeholders with the means to analyse data quickly. It's no longer about waiting for a bill to arrive. Analysis needs to be as close to real-time as possible."
Aurora has relaunched its roadmap and this year will see through an evolution of the Affinity solution. Some of these developments are enhancements to the software suite. Others, noted Redman, will be 'revolutionary' changes that will help Aurora's customers to gain a competitive advantage.
For Nick Jarret, Group Billing Manager at Nine Group, the biggest industry change has been the adoption of cloud-based alternatives to previously deployed on-site solutions. "As software companies continue to move their products to the cloud and open their doors to APIs, integration between these systems is becoming more common and the flexibility, time and cost-savings of having a hosted solution is starting to be realised," he said.
"One of the most exciting developments is the changing profile of our customers. As the telecoms landscape continues to merge with other technologies, such as IT, we're supporting new customers who are branching out into telecoms from other backgrounds. Telecoms billing can be a complicated process, but it's something we've perfected over the 20 years that we've been providing bureau billing services to help resellers."
Nine has over 150 resellers using its Cascade WEB Billing system, giving the company a pool of feedback and suggestions that help to shape its development roadmap. "Our biggest challenge is deciding which of the many ideas to implement first," commented Jarret. "We've spent a long time developing the framework of Cascade WEB to be scalable, secure and resilient; and we're in a favourable position to build on our successes and integrate further ordering options and third party software, while accommodating new products and improving customer visibility, management and control for our resellers."
Integration to third party systems and automating from the point of order through to cash collection are also hot topics, noted Jarret. "Our customers are our drivers, so we can see first-hand the areas where we can add the most value," he said. "If you're able to integrate your ordering with your supplier and your billing information with your CRM, there's no reason you can't build on this to automatically recommend relevant products to the customer, demonstrate potential cost savings and allow them to place the order without you having to lift a finger.
"Billing systems will continue to evolve as new technologies emerge, but I envisage the ongoing movement being towards complementing third party software packages to offer resellers complete business solutions. I expect the future of billing systems to be in gateway solutions."•