Facts and More: the B4E Newsletter

Capgemini just signed a License Agreement with B4E for using their B-oo-levard® Rating and Billing system for outsourcing services to be provided to a wireline operator.

Earlier a turnkey contract has been awarded to both, Capgemini and subsequently to B4E, to implement the software. Already during the implementation project, Capgemini and B4E could support the operator intensively in receiving approval of new tariff plans by the regulator with several tariff simulations - conducted in parallel to the ongoing project work.

More details will follow.

Jackson Pollock, the famous American abstract painter, became a quite familiar name when his picture 'Convergence' (e.g. at academics.uww.edu) was issued as a jigsaw puzzle. With just 340 pieces, 'Convergence' was declared the world's most difficult jigsaw puzzle as there were only multicolored drips and splashes of paint with no points of emphasis or identifiable parts. This puzzle became a legend with several hundred thousand people around the globe discussing how to put together this impossible picture.

I assume, that this is not the same group of Billing Managers, CTOs, Product Marketing Managers and Finance Staff of the telecom industry, is it? Convergence has become the buzzword for the telecom billing industry: One-bill convergence, prepaid/post-paid convergence, service convergence, network convergence, agnostic network convergence, fix/mobile convergence, end user device convergence ...

And still most probably none of the telecom service providers has one single convergent charging, rating, and billing system processing all those transactions responsible for the revenue. Instead the following situation is typical: for prepaid one system accomplished by some other adjacent systems for SMS, MMS, and Content is implemented, while for post-paid a retail, a wholesale, an interconnect, a 3rd party rating, billing and settlement system is in place. The important task is to find ways to describe the process of simplifying transactions for today's and tomorrow's competitive markets. And - as long as the telecom billing industry is not pursuing different routes - this is a task comparable to the 'Convergence' jigsaw puzzle.

A look at the trends in the telecoms market brings us back to the issue of convergence in billing: real-time charging and cost efficiency. Perhaps the biggest telecoms change is the shift towards more content-based services. SMS, MMS, ring tones, music and video clips are the rising revenue generators. However, there are also worries about the popularity of new services such as VoIP, whose growing importance is seriously undermining revenues for many established PTTs.

Finding ways to overcome these challenges are varying in each telecoms region, but what is certain is that all operators have woken up to the financial importance of an effective charging, rating, and billing management. Unfortunately, many of them still do not have the adequate visibility of this important function. This could delay financial optimization, especially in an age of next-generation services.

Another fact is for sure delaying True Convergence: that is the refusal of the key vendors to invest into developing a new truly convergent product, like SAP did when they first created SAP R/3 and later mySAP. While in the meantime the risk to change anything around rating and billing grew dramatically - for a good part because of the complexity.

Going down a different route now is a great chance for the stakeholders of innovation: service providers to improve profitability, for managers to achieve excellent results, and for billing system vendors to make their way to clear the Convergence puzzle.