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Telecom billing software helps communication providers manage and automate their subscriber billing.
Billing software is needed because most providers eventually outgrow their manual billing process. What worked for your first 100 customers won’t work at 1000.
The first sign of needing to change is often that they dread the end-of-month bill run.
Consider this: A typical manual bill run can involve downloading CDRs, reconciling carrier data, and copying it to accounting tools, and generating invoices. A tedious process that can balloon to hours of work as your subscriber base grows.
(And that’s not counting the effort of payment collection, chasing outstanding debts, and closing off overdue accounts).
By improving the billing process, this specialised software enables service providers to get paid faster – with less effort. And end-customer appreciate the automation too.
Adopting a telecom billing software platform offers a multitude of benefits for startups, telecoms and Managed Service Providers (MSPs), particularly in an increasingly competitive and technology-driven market.
By automating billing processes, subscription billing platforms enable accurate and timely invoicing. They also help reduce manual errors, avoid billing disputes, and accelerate payment collections. Overall, this adds up to an improved customer experience.
A key part of this is being able to connect your onboarding / provisioning process and your billing process. Ideally, they’re built into the same platform.
Integrated provisioning and billing help to simplify customer onboarding and eliminate the need for manual intervention. This means you don’t forget to charge customers in their first month, or miss a critical hardware inclusion, bills go out accurately – and on time.
One of the biggest pain-points for service providers is finding the time for identifying and chasing overdue payments. It can also be a process of difficult conversations – needing to pester late payers.
Thankfully, telecom billing software can help communication providers by automating these communications.
For example, with the Telcoinabox Billing & Provisioning platform, customers will receive email and SMS alerts prior to their bill. Then, an emailed invoice, and finally, a series of reminders. If a bill becomes overdue, providers can setup business rules to automatically suspend an account or escalate to a customer service representative.
This process is good for providers – and good for consumers. This transparency and timely communication ensure that end-customers understand their bill, have ample warning of an upcoming payment, and can pay on time.
The telecom market is always changing, and that includes how often and by what model customers expect to be billed. A recent example is the shift away from ‘all inclusive’ or ‘per user’ call plans, towards ‘channel-based’ and ‘PAYG’ models.
Moreover, different telecom products are billed in different ways. This makes telecom billing especially difficult.
In Australia, NBN services have fixed speed tiers, fibre services have unique installation charges, VoIP services consume minutes and call capacity, and mobile services are charged differently based on the type of network (4G/5G) or subscriber access (eSIM vs physical SIM).
With a dedicated telecom billing platform, service providers don’t have to do all this thinking. The platform does it does it for. So providers can adapt to evolving market demands and new product types. Offering flexible pricing models, service bundling, and customised billing and discount options.
Another popular aspect of billing software is the ability to support customer self-service via an online portal. Customers can login and pay their bill, access invoices, update payment details, and make other routine changes.
By leveraging advanced features like self-service portals and online payment options, small telecoms and MSPs can elevate customer experience, improve communication, and foster stronger relationships.
Embracing billing software means that telecom businesses can optimise their operations, enhance customer experience, and drive sustainable growth.
If you are starting to ‘dread’ your monthly bill runs, or struggle to charge for all the products you offer, it might be time to explore potential billing platforms.
The Telcoinabox Billing platform is a comprehensive solution. Every month our platform is used to generate millions of telecom bills across voice, data, and mobile services. Plus, our platform can scale with you – from 100 customers to 100,000, and beyond.
Contact our team for a demo of our billing and provisioning platform.
