In the telecommunications industry, basic voice and data connectivity is quickly becoming commoditized. Service providers recognize this and are seeking to introduce digital products and services that will generate new recurring revenue streams and deepen relationships with consumer and enterprise customers. As they do so, they are dramatically expanding their universe of partners, teaming with nontraditional service providers to leverage 5G and bringing a range of these new services to customers.
CSPs going down this road have been confronted by a significant impediment – their billing systems. Legacy BSS architectures, built to support the voice and data service that primarily drove revenue previously, simply do not have the ability to support new services, complex pricing models, or the rapidly expanding ecosystem of partners. The inflexibility of these expensive, on-premises systems was not meant to deliver the automated billing, partner reconciliation, and collection capabilities required by today’s modernizing, digitally transforming service provider. And they cannot be adequately retrofitted to meet the task at hand.
Leading analyst firm IDC sees the embedded billing system as a pervasive obstacle for CSPs with ambitions of digitizing their business models. In a recent Market Note, IDC analyst Karl Whitelock underscored the requirement for digitally evolving CSPs to adopt a “new type of charging and billing capabilities.”
Whitelock goes on to say, “Business model enablement, partner interactions, network operability, and ultimately customer satisfaction are limited if traditional charging and billing solutions are expected to meet the level of business change that today’s new network technology environment brings to light.” The note highlights Aria as a cloud billing vendor capable of delivering the agile, flexible, and modern billing solution required by a modernizing, digitizing CSP.
This is essentially a warning to CSPs that have not already discovered the inherent limitations of their existing BSS systems. Public Cloud-Native solutions are clearly the antidote that will enable CSPs to pursue new business models, maximize 5G investments, and ultimately realize their digital goals. In addition to providing enhanced interactive and automated billing capabilities and support for complex usage-based pricing models, cloud billing solutions like Aria deliver the critical partner management, revenue collection, and reconciliation support that become vital as partner ecosystems continue to grow and expand.
For more on the BSS challenge confronting today’s global telecoms providers and a deeper understanding of how Aria is best suited to help a CSP transition to a modernized and enhanced billing capability, we invite you to dive into IDC’s report: “5G Operational Readiness – Aria Enables Open Partner Ecosystems in the Evolving 5G Communications Industry.”
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