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Prepaid, Evolved: Advanced Billing
is Getting a New Look in the Age of Convergence.
xChange Magazine- October,
2007 - Tara Seals
In a converged world, service
providers need a real-time billing system that quickly
can implement the ideas the marketing department comes
up with, supporting prepaid, postpaid and hybrid plans.
As a result, the concept of prepaid billing is being
made over as service providers are beginning to realize
that prepaid functionality can provide so much more
than simple service agility; it can make for entirely
new revenue streams.
"We are really talking about
bridging the back-office/front-office divide, "
says Dave McNierney, vice president of market development
at Highdeal, which offers real-time billing solutions.
"Next-generation prepaid billing architecture is
the way to get there."
As the industry moves into a multiservice
reality, carriers don't know what customers are willing
to pay for, or which segment will take which services.
"So you need a real-time feedback system in order
to make better decisions," says McNierney.
"The legacy for prepaid in North America is the
credit-challenged, but now those systems are providing
real-time visibility into the consumption of services."
That means service providers can mix or match services
and do trials and pilots almost on the fly, taking some
of the risk out of innovation.
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