uchost
12-13-2001, 05:54 AM
Blueprints For Billing And Customer Care
by Jeffrey Stockton
Creativity and billing? You heard right. Stiff competition has virtually eliminated growth at the lower end of the web hosting market, and large players are investing heavily to aggressively penetrate the market and solidify their position as industry leaders. With the increase in competition, providers are struggling to differentiate themselves by offering improved customer support, introducing new services and rolling out creative pricing plans.
Traditionally, web hosting companies have focused on network infrastructure and have been slow to adopt dedicated applications to manage billing and customer-care needs. Now, thanks to competitive pressures and the need to increase profit while reducing expenses, there is an increased emphasis on improving what is collectively known as OSS/BSS - software systems that support functions such as network management, service provisioning and billing and customer care.
Listen up as we discuss the various components and requirements of an automated web host-centric billing and customer-care system (B&CC) from a generalized vendor-neutral perspective. Because every web host has a unique portfolio of services, requirements and growth projections, B&CC systems vary in terms of functionality, complexity, architecture and cost. As individual as each host is, we believe that the overall similarities of the hosting industry yield a set of common requirements.
B&CC SYSTEMS FOR THE HOSTING ENVIRONMENT
An IP B&CC system can be a plethora of functions: order entry, payment collection, provisioning, mediation/usage gathering, rating, billing, customer web interfaces, customer self-care and customer care via a customer service representative (CSR) and reporting (though not all billing vendors provide them all). Generally, a B&CC package includes the rating and billing engines, customer-care system, reporting tools and web interfaces. While some B&CC companies offer more limited functionality than this, other companies layer IP service-provider-specific CRM functionality on top of the core B&CC package, such as trouble-ticketing and marketing automation. Sophisticated mediation and provisioning are usually supplied by third-party systems that are tightly integrated with the B&CC system.
CHOOSING A B&CC SYSTEM
When looking at possible B&CC solutions, it's very important to have a detailed Request For Proposal (RFP). Many web hosting companies do not have their business processes comprehensively documented in their RFP, making it easy to select the wrong system. A system administrator may evaluate billing systems on technical criteria, but have very little idea of how a billing solution conforms to the company's actual business needs. The marketing department may have future marketing plans involving special pricing, discounting and promotions. Meanwhile, the accounting team may want to have access to specific accounting reports, while the customer service team wants feature X, Y and Z. Evaluating the business and technical requirements for a B&CC platform is clearly a team effort, not a one-man show. No one B&CC solution will fit all needs. The best approach, therefore, is to compare various solutions against established business processes, then to consider the billing systems that fulfill the most requirements. Other issues, like time-to-implementation, licensing fees and consulting costs come into play as a web host weighs its options. Investing in a system that does not fit the business model is often disastrous, as the web host must then try to work around the areas of the B&CC software that do not meet its criteria, often leading to additional expenses and production time.
CONFIGURING SERVICES AND RATING STRUCTURES
In the billing world, a rating engine is generally defined as a software program that calculates charges based on configured business rules; for example, rating structures for a particular hosting service. By configuring a rating structure for a service, a company is establishing the rules the rating engine follows when it computes a total charge.
Rules can be based on several criteria, including setup fees, periodic flat fees, usage-based fees and transactional fees. Often, service charges are based on more than one type of charge. For example, a basic shared hosting account might have a $15 setup fee and cost $20 per month. However, any disk space usage over the allotted 50 MB might cost 10 cents per MB per month, and any transfer over 500 MB per month might cost 5 cents per MB. Usage-based fees are becoming increasingly common at web hosting firms, especially as new value-added services such as hosted applications, data storage services, content delivery networks and next-generation communication services are being rolled out. Transactional fees are less common than usage-based fees in web hosting environments, and are typically utilized for one-time use of a service. For example, a company might offer streaming video on demand, and charge a fixed price for it.
by Jeffrey Stockton
Creativity and billing? You heard right. Stiff competition has virtually eliminated growth at the lower end of the web hosting market, and large players are investing heavily to aggressively penetrate the market and solidify their position as industry leaders. With the increase in competition, providers are struggling to differentiate themselves by offering improved customer support, introducing new services and rolling out creative pricing plans.
Traditionally, web hosting companies have focused on network infrastructure and have been slow to adopt dedicated applications to manage billing and customer-care needs. Now, thanks to competitive pressures and the need to increase profit while reducing expenses, there is an increased emphasis on improving what is collectively known as OSS/BSS - software systems that support functions such as network management, service provisioning and billing and customer care.
Listen up as we discuss the various components and requirements of an automated web host-centric billing and customer-care system (B&CC) from a generalized vendor-neutral perspective. Because every web host has a unique portfolio of services, requirements and growth projections, B&CC systems vary in terms of functionality, complexity, architecture and cost. As individual as each host is, we believe that the overall similarities of the hosting industry yield a set of common requirements.
B&CC SYSTEMS FOR THE HOSTING ENVIRONMENT
An IP B&CC system can be a plethora of functions: order entry, payment collection, provisioning, mediation/usage gathering, rating, billing, customer web interfaces, customer self-care and customer care via a customer service representative (CSR) and reporting (though not all billing vendors provide them all). Generally, a B&CC package includes the rating and billing engines, customer-care system, reporting tools and web interfaces. While some B&CC companies offer more limited functionality than this, other companies layer IP service-provider-specific CRM functionality on top of the core B&CC package, such as trouble-ticketing and marketing automation. Sophisticated mediation and provisioning are usually supplied by third-party systems that are tightly integrated with the B&CC system.
CHOOSING A B&CC SYSTEM
When looking at possible B&CC solutions, it's very important to have a detailed Request For Proposal (RFP). Many web hosting companies do not have their business processes comprehensively documented in their RFP, making it easy to select the wrong system. A system administrator may evaluate billing systems on technical criteria, but have very little idea of how a billing solution conforms to the company's actual business needs. The marketing department may have future marketing plans involving special pricing, discounting and promotions. Meanwhile, the accounting team may want to have access to specific accounting reports, while the customer service team wants feature X, Y and Z. Evaluating the business and technical requirements for a B&CC platform is clearly a team effort, not a one-man show. No one B&CC solution will fit all needs. The best approach, therefore, is to compare various solutions against established business processes, then to consider the billing systems that fulfill the most requirements. Other issues, like time-to-implementation, licensing fees and consulting costs come into play as a web host weighs its options. Investing in a system that does not fit the business model is often disastrous, as the web host must then try to work around the areas of the B&CC software that do not meet its criteria, often leading to additional expenses and production time.
CONFIGURING SERVICES AND RATING STRUCTURES
In the billing world, a rating engine is generally defined as a software program that calculates charges based on configured business rules; for example, rating structures for a particular hosting service. By configuring a rating structure for a service, a company is establishing the rules the rating engine follows when it computes a total charge.
Rules can be based on several criteria, including setup fees, periodic flat fees, usage-based fees and transactional fees. Often, service charges are based on more than one type of charge. For example, a basic shared hosting account might have a $15 setup fee and cost $20 per month. However, any disk space usage over the allotted 50 MB might cost 10 cents per MB per month, and any transfer over 500 MB per month might cost 5 cents per MB. Usage-based fees are becoming increasingly common at web hosting firms, especially as new value-added services such as hosted applications, data storage services, content delivery networks and next-generation communication services are being rolled out. Transactional fees are less common than usage-based fees in web hosting environments, and are typically utilized for one-time use of a service. For example, a company might offer streaming video on demand, and charge a fixed price for it.