After years of rapid and notorious growth, primarily of prepaid customers, mobile operators are now shifting their focus from expanding their customer base to increasing their revenue by selling data packages and increasing the share of postpaid lines. Mobile operators have realized that a large customer base does not necessarily translate into positive financial results at the end of the day. This realization has prompted a radical change in strategy where mobile operators focus on profitability rather than on growing the number of customers.
Within this new world of data services, mobile operators must ensure quality and assertiveness while generating revenue for the products in this line of business. However, what problems and challenges may arise in this new world?
- Interaction between a variety of billing systems and networks elements to generate a single bill
- Increased number of network points of distribution and the introduction of online applications and content services
- Multiple loyalty programs, discounts, cross-product benefits and price schemes for customer rewarding
- A large number of cross-product packages and bundles with distinct offers and price schemes
And the challenges do not end here. In addition to theoperational problems that result from increased competition, operators must offer flexible billing plans that allow the development of new marketing campaigns and introduce competitive services to the market. The introduction of new services and pricing models are putting unprecedented workloads on billing systems and obstructing the ability for service providers to maximize revenues.
In this scenario, it is MANDATORY that operators perform consistent and continuous revenue assurance activities for the various rating and billing processes. This can be achieved by automating the validation of rated records for the different billing systems associated with Interconnect, Subscribers, Roaming, and Wholesale. Some suggested automated verifications include the following:
- Recurring charges (monthly plan) are correctly applied
- Discounts are correctly applied (e.g., bundles and packages)
- Taxes are correctly calculated
- Other billing rules have been properly applied
The success of these verifications requires flexible and robust tools to ensure the quality of rating processes, revenue control, and competitive advantage. From there, the smile of shareholders is guaranteed.