A broad swath for broadband: Solect zooms in on billing

Solect Technology Group is winning customers on both sides of the pond. Following announcements this week that Tele Danmark and SwissOnline Cable have implemented its Internet administration framework (IAF) Horizon billing software, Solect added U.S. broadband service providers ZoomTown and Jato Communications as customers. Before choosing Solect, Jato was using a homegrown billing system. ZoomTown was using a product from Portal Software. Both were looking for a system that would allow more creativity in their service offerings.

"The IAF allows us to create the strategic capabilities to offer a broad set of features into the future," said Tom Danner, Jato's vice president of IT. Jato provides DSL-based Internet access on a wholesale basis.

ZoomTown's implementation began about four weeks ago and is expected to be complete by December. "When you implement something as complex as a billing system, you're looking for a minefield, but Solect has thrown great resources at any small problem we've found," said Mark London, ZoomTown's senior manager of billing.

IAF Horizon will help Zoom-Town provide Web hosting. "We'll also use it for every business we can think of that will come in the future," London said.

Parent company Cincinnati Bell uses ZoomTown's video-enabled conferencing in its stores. Zoom-Town also provides extreme gaming and claims to be the first transactive applications provider or company to mix transaction systems, interactive technologies and rich content, said ZoomTown President Michael O'Brien.

Enabling such services takes more than the high bandwidth these DSL providers already offer; it also requires the capability provided by IAF Horizon to bill for them.

IAF Horizon meets the flexible billing requirements of Jato and ZoomTown by using a rules-based rating engine co-developed with Telcordia Technologies. In addition, IAF Horizon's product console application allows marketing managers to create products, pricing and bundles through an HTML graphical user interface.