Picture this:
You are a doctor who has to make frequent calls or who receives frequent calls from ten particular hospitals. You are using services of a particular tele-brand. A competitor has introduced new schemes and is luring you to shift loyalties. But you refuse. The reason - your service operator has customized billing and given you bonuses as per your lifestyle. Say for example- All calls made to these hospitals are absolutely free!
Telecom software companies are increasingly enhancing services for telecom operators so as to enable them to retain customer loyalty. They are making notes on the lifestyles of their respective high -end customers, and are in the process of customizing services in the form of value added services (VAS), according to their needs.
One such company, UshaComm recently unveiled a billing value pack, CRM and ERP solutions for telecom operators.
It has tied up with MaxMobility for the billing solution, Probil for CRM, Seasoft for ERP and Connectiva for Revenue Assurance solutions. It has partnered with Sun Microsystems for the hardware.
K.P. Unnikrishnan, director- strategic alliances & tele-web sales, Sun Microsystems, said, "The Sun Fire T2000 server, which powers the billing service, provides the perfect fit in ensuring that costs are kept to the minimum and at the same time scalable to handle the growing number of users and transactions that are typical of next generation services."
Tamal Bardhan, head- marketing & sales, UshaComm said that these partnerships are a part of the company's strategy to enhance value added services for its customers. He added that the company would be a single window for all telecom service operators, who now have to rely on various agencies for VAS.
UshaComm claimed that its solutions would increase cost of settlement, decrease changes of revenues leakage, etc. Quoting an industry research, Bardhan said that operators leak around 10-12% of revenues to competitors globally. However, the India estimates are not currently available.
The company that sells its billing solution under the brand name Unicorm, would share revenues on the new billing pack on usage basis. Bardhan informed that the pack would benefit mobile and ISP service providers. It would be rolled in a year and the pricing would depend on the hardware and the revenue sharing model with the operator.
Amit Lakhmani, CEO, MaxMobility said that VAS and billing applications on a single platform will reduce operator's time to market, do away with billing integration complexities and helps profitably charge next generation services.
UshaComm's CRM solution -Emptor would track a customers' behavior during bill payment. The company will launch various programs after completing behavioral studies. Bardhan said, "Customer retention, specially on the pre-paid segment is a major issue. We will use a combination of CRM and billing to launch personalized and life style value added services for customers. Say for example, a mother can make indefinite calls to her child in school, without paying a penny." However, whether to offer such free calls will depend on the telecom operator, he warned.
"Retaining existing customers cost effectively is a challenge. This solution will enable operators launch unique loyalty programs based on volumes of intelligent data collected by Unicorn billing system," said Gerald Groh, MD, Probil.
Cash Balancer- UshaComm's ERP solution will enable finance managers in a company; keep tab on the money spends. At present, most of the telecom operators rely entirely on their IT departments for crucial information. Dashboards placed on the desks of the finance managers will enable them to take critical decisions.
Kingshuk Dhar, director- marketing, Seasoft averred, "The solution reduces the risk of mismatch of critical financial data besides providing a real time view of the prime cash flow stream."
"Connectiva's product OVERVIEW can identify, correct and prevent leaks along the revenue chain," said Kaustav Ghosh, VP- operations, Connectiva Systems.
