Latest Thinking / Case Studies

The complexity of telecom expense and resource management creates problems for the carrier as well as the customer. But if these complexities can be managed effectively, doing so can offer the carrier a distinct advantage in the marketplace.

Collaborative Customer Relationship Management

Carriers are continuously attempting to expand and deepen the relationship with the customer by upgrading their services and contracts. All relationships are built on trust. But many customers are wary of their ability to trust the two basics provided by the carrier: bills and contracts.

On the billing side, customers suspect that bills are not accurate, and this suspicion clouds the relationship. For the carrier, this poses a serious dilemma. Multiple legacy billings systems, each with its own quirks, are fertile grounds for the unintentional perpetuation of errors made at the time of provisioning or during system upgrades. And, by definition, there is no easy way for a billing system to check its own accuracy.

CommADVISOR provides a paradigm-shifting resolution to this decades-old conundrum. By effectively acting as a ‘client-side’ billing system, CommADVISOR independently re-computes the bill from scratch, comparing its final detailed calculations to those on the bill. Every discrepancy is explained in detail. This ‘final filter’ provides the carrier with an independent means to implement billing assurance, a way to completely guarantee the accuracy of the bill. Doing so builds trust on the customer side. The carrier can see detected errors just before the customer does, and use the collaborative CommADVISOR workspace to proactively resolve newly discovered errors to dramatically reduce disputes, and increase customer satisfaction.

Implementing a Billing SLA

On the contract side, CommADVISOR can build customer trust as well. Today, the customer is concerned that the terms of a new contract do not show up accurately in the bill. CommADVISOR provides the industry’s first solution to this concern, by having a contract calculus that codifies the terms and conditions of every contract, and their interlocking cross-references, and applies these terms accurately to every charge in every bill. Thus CommADVISOR will flag every instance in which a new contractual term is not being correctly applied. Now, the customer has a way to monitor contract implementation, from the day a new contract is signed or a new service is provisioned, assuring he is getting the terms and conditions the carrier agreed to provide.

By having a collaborative workspace to monitor, analyze and constantly optimize the accuracy of billing and the enforcement of contractual terms, the carrier can differentiate his relationship with the customer. By being able to interactively find and resolve problems, the carrier gains a new way to communicate with the customer, to accelerate problem resolution, and to build the relationship with the customer.

Good business is as simple as ‘win-win’. But managing the data to get to that point is not easy. CommADVISOR can get you and your customer to win-win, faster, and more reliably.