Billing May Be A Ticket to Efficiency

In fact, outsourcing goes well beyond simple cost reduction. It generates greater business value and true competitive differentiation. The enhanced capabilities provided by comprehensive billing outsourcing can enable a telco to introduce new products more quickly and accommodate sophisticated product/service bundles that attract and retain customers. The new processes and platform also make it easier for telcos to gain deeper insight into what customers want, which results in the creation and delivery of a more compelling customer experience, and helps retain customers. And, because the outsourcing provider manages the mechanics of bill production and billing capability maintenance, telcos can spend more time focusing on competitive differentiation through strategic product development and leveraging their enhanced billing capabilities for revenue generation. Combined, these benefits translate into a revenue lift of between two and three percent.

Is outsourcing the right choice?
Outsourcing provides access to current “best practices” in billing, advanced technologies, and highly skilled talent that can dramatically reduce a company’s cost structure, increase customer satisfaction and retention, and more effectively support new products and services. It also allows the company to focus on its core business and other critical areas.

How does an organization determine whether outsourcing may be appropriate for its needs? Answering the following questions can help companies make that determination:

Does the company need to lower its cost structure?
A telco that needs to significantly reduce costs in its billing operations, under pressure from financial markets to restructure – and is unable to fund a wholesale replacement of its billing operations organically – is a good candidate for outsourcing.

Does a company need more effective business capabilities to meet customer expectations?
Unwieldy, complex and unresponsive processes and organization structures that impede efficient cross-functional or cross-unit billing are signs that a telco could benefit from outsourcing.

Does a telco need better technology underpinning its billing operations?
If a telco has multiple, complex and aging technology platforms that prevent it from rolling out new products or bundles as efficiently as customers and the market demand – and make it difficult to synchronize billing across business units or products – outsourcing may be the right option.

Through the strategic usage of outsourcing for billing, telcos can transform the way their business operates by cost effectively developing the billing functions that put them on a path toward growth and high performance.