OSS/BSS: Choice Is Yours...

Tips

So, what do service providers focus on? Experts give some food for thought.

n Streamline Processes: The main reason behind numerous billing complaints that operators encounter everyday—many of which charge them of being unscrupulous—is not that the billing systems do not have the capability to provide those basic functionalities. Neither it is any faulty implementation of the billing or customer-care system. In seven out of 10 cases, they are related to incorrect processes. Take for example, the case of a mobile user in Delhi. He did not receive his bills for four months. He could not even get outstanding amount for the first month, and when he asked, he was given a consolidated amount with no monthly bill break-ups. What is more, when he paid up, even after three weeks of the money being deducted from his account, he could not get a confirmation. Do you believe it’s the fault of a billing system?

This is an example of customer dissatisfaction. There can be revenue leakage, churn, and even fraud when processes are not in place. This, according to experts, is the highest priority area.

Migration Challenges

The billing migration task is indeed a complex exercise. Some of the major challenges that operators face are as follows.

l Data migration: Migrating huge billing data itself is a complex exercise, as any IT manager involved with large migration projects would know.

l Functionality mapping and gap analysis: Not any two the billing systems do the same thing in same way. There are always slight variations between the system’s functionalities. Most of the services that are based on the older billing system have to be exactly offered in the same way in the new billing system. Else, there will be customer dissatisfaction, confusion or revenue leakage or both.

l Third-party application migration: The older billing systems, at the time when they get replaced, consist of not just the core billing system but also third party applications. They need to be migrated to the new system so that there is no gap with the earlier functionalities and billing capabilities. The challenge becomes much more complex when a group has five different operations in five circles and all operators have different third party applications. The deployed core billing systems are a handful in the market. The third party applications could be numerous. That adds to the complexity.

l It is real time: The times, however, do not stand still while an operator is migrating the billing system. Especially in a fast evolving market like India. So the operator not only will have to tackle the issue of continuity of business, in some cases, it has to quickly respond to market changes even while the migration is on. For example, while Orange in Mumbai was changing its billing system, AirTel launched its service, introducing some new rate plans. Orange had no option but to respond. No CMO would take no for an answer from the CIO at a time when the market demands a change.

l Processes: The smoothness of migration depends on the internal processes. No matter, how good the system is, a smooth migration is not possible, unless internal processes are correct.

l Lack of professional integrators: Unlike most markets, Indian service providers have not worked with integrators that would have taken a lot of burden from their shoulders. Ironic, considering the fact that India is known for its software services skills globally and some of the Indian software giants have huge global experience in telecom practice. In many markets, the vendor does not even get involved in the project. It is the integrators who front-end and ensure the smoothness of migration. A good professional integrator reduces the complexity, uncertainty, and duration of migration. Lack of an integrator has added to the migration woes of the operators.

n Don’t Get Married to a Vendor: While turning vendor relationships into long-term partnerships is a good practice, an operator cannot afford to be dogmatic about it, especially when the vendor does not have some capability. If a vendor is not able to offer something, it is time to look beyond. This does not necessarily mean that one has to sever the relationship but merely look outside for solutions. That leads to the next point.

n Be Comfortable with Add-ons: You cannot change your billing system everyday. But you have to keep pace with the changing demands of the market. This means that if the vendor is incapable of providing something when the market demands, an operator can look outside (for small application developers that are in plenty in India) for point applications, that would run with the core billing systems. Many Indian operators have already done that but are still not comfortable with the idea. The problem: managing multiple relationships and lack of accountability if the systems are not functioning properly together. What is the solution? Over to the next point.

n Work with Independent Professional Services Companies: Once an independent professional services company takes charge of the billing system management, it is his responsibility to ensure that you get what you want as and when you do, and without any major hitches. This also means that you will not remain hooked to your vendor and he cannot blackmail you.

n Prepare for Outsourcing: Working with professional services companies could be the first step toward being comfortable with ‘outsourcing’. The way this business is moving, you will have to do it sooner than latter. And why not? When India is betting big on doing BPO for the entire world, why can’t we do that within India?

Prepaid-postpaid Convergence: Whose Purpose will it serve?

Like many markets, and unlike many others, India has chosen the prepaid path. Today, there is not an iota of doubt in anyone’s mind that only prepaid can grow the mobile penetration in the country to a significant level. Different estimates project it will stabilize at anywhere between 60 to 75 percent of the total mobile user base.It means prepaid has become the core business of mobile operators. Operators now have to face two realities. One, prepaid users have to be treated at par with the postpaid users. Two, at the same time, efforts have to be made to steadily (even if slowly) take up the prepaid ARPU level over the next few years.

So far, the operators had two options regarding offering services to prepaid users. One was to deny services, where authentication is difficult (mostly data services), to them. The other was to provide those services, but remain prepared for compromising on real time authentication, and thus leaving scope for revenue leakage.

Today, the CEOs have realized that denying services to 70 percent of users mean losing out on huge amount of revenues. The ARPU-starved operators certainly cannot afford that. So the new directive to the CIOs: "do something about it.". What goes unsaid is of course, "without significant revenue leakage."

That is a tough task for someone who till yesterday never seriously bothered about prepaid. Traditionally, prepaid has been part of IN and so has been the responsibility of the network head.

Quite naturally, the CIOs have turned to the people that they are most familiar with—the postpaid vendors.This is the first and non-contentious part of the story.

The next part is more interesting, which postpaid vendors term as a deliberate conspiracy theory.

And here it goes. Already worried about the loss of licensing revenue once the postpaid user base stops growing, the postpaid vendors realize it is their last chance to hold the empire from falling. So globally, especially in Europe and Asia, campaigns begin to bring the prepaid to the postpaid fold.

So the issue—a more flexible billing mechanism for prepaid users—gets redefined to what is arguably the biggest OSS market hype in recent times: prepaid-postpaid convergence. An extra item gets added to the billing wish-list of the mobile operators. Today, prepaid-postpaid convergence is the biggest talking point in industry. What do you think about it?

While full billing outsourcing may take some time, one could start with facilities management.

n Time to Invest in aCRM: With competition becoming intense, analysis of information to help take service creation and marketing decisions is something that operators need to invest in this year.

n Prepaid Issues Are Waiting to Explode: Be more proactive. Observers believe that Indian operators have not given enough attention to prepaid billing systems. The IN billing systems are not best for taking care of all future requirements and the converged prepaid-postpaid billing systems that many CIOs are waiting for, may not become a reality anytime soon. The operators, therefore, need to have their act in place in terms of prepaid billing systems.

n Treat OSS as a Strategic Tool: This is more discussed than practiced. With intense competition on the tariff front, operators are likely to continuously create niche segments and try to address them over a period of time, thus establishing a position for themselves. This means that new products—whether voice-based or more importantly SMS/data-based—would have to be created on a weekly, if not a daily basis. In other words, billing has to be treated as a strategic as well as a tactical tool, and not as a back-office function.

EXPERTS PANEL

Ashwani Vaccher, Chief Solutions Architect, Portal Software

Bithin Talukdar, Market Development & Alliance Manager, Software Global Business Unit,

Hewlett Packard India

Anu Bajpai, Head Convergence Software, Escosoft

Who’s Who: Vendors