Communications Crossroads - Winter 2007 - (Page 9)

By Vicki Gervickas In the fall of 2005, USTelecom investigated trends in billing and collections for telecoms. That feature proved so popular, we’re doing it again. This time, seven top billing and collections execs discuss what’s changed and what’s remained the same. They cover what’s on the horizon in the billing industry, hot new products, consumer and business trends, and ﬁnally, offer up some advice for small and rural telecom companies. Two years ago, the executives couldn’t speak enough about speed and choice. Today, it’s all about ﬂexibility and adaptability. Here are excerpts of their comments (edited for space and clarity), organized by question. What are the upcoming trends for your business and the billing industry? Bob LaBonté, CDG: One of the biggest challenges and opportunities we have at CDG is monitoring and implementing billing services that parallel the activities in the marketplace. Regulatory revisions, bundled services, switch technology and VOIP are but a few of the issues that we must constantly re-visit in order to provide services that match the needs of our customers Claud Gilmer, UDP: We are seeing more of an interest in integrating with existing systems instead of wholesale replacements. Also, service offerings with monthly accountability are more appealing than big capital purchases. Glenn Miller, Midwest Data: I am seeing a continued trend toward providing “customer-apparent” services and technologies, with a greater need for next generation applications—voicemail, self-care, e-commerce solutions— integrated to both the switch and the billing platform. The ability to seamlessly provide convergent billing of all services and integration of billing/provisioning of on-demand applications is becoming reality quickly. I am also seeing an increase in outsourcing of some of the front- and backofﬁce functions. It is much more than the traditional billing we have had to provide in the past. It is about providing telecom ofﬁce-effectiveness solutions—that is, solutions that increase ARPU, increase productivity and allow our Winter 2007 COMMUNICATIONS CROSSROADS 9

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Communications Crossroads - Winter 2007

Communications Crossroads Winter 2007 Up Front Contents Cover Story: Billing Redux Business Advantages: Reaching Consumers with Special Needs Technology Today: Femtocells: The Jury’s Still Out Industry Calendar Index to Advertisers TELECOMPAC

Communications Crossroads - Winter 2007

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