Wholesale Billing DNA

CommsDay Presentation 19th May 2014

Phillip Kidd

(MD – Outworks)

Today’s Topics:

White labelling v 3rd Party v In-house

Questions

An interesting idea

A quick horror story…

• Client produced around 64,000 invoices each month

• Client only had a customer base of around 1000• Billing platform was a legacy system produced 15

years prior• Problem was that every invoice was produced at

service level only• If a customer had 30 services with the client, then

client produced 30 invoices every month for them• Lots of complains – more complaints than invoices• Golden rule of billing systems – when no one is

talking about billing, your doing it right!

And it gets better…

• Billing run was performed every day for their customers

• Invoices were produced on the monthly anniversary of starting date of each service

• If a customer had 30 services tolling with the client, all activated at different days of the month, customer could receive an invoice every single day of the month

• Can you imagine the nightmare for – Collections Teams– Accounts Receivables/Payables Teams

The moral of the story!

If you think your billing system is bad there is always some one worse!

White labelling v 3rd Party v In-house

What do the terms mean

• White Label BillingWhite label refers to a product or service that is purchased by a reseller who rebrands the

product or service to give the impression that they the reseller created/own it.

• 3rd Party Billing3rd Party Billing is when you engage in a

contract with another company to perform a certain service on your company’s behalf.

• In-House BillingIn-house billing is using your own company’s IT resources to design, build, implement and

perform the ongoing service.

White Labelled Billing

• There are basically 2 points of view when it comes to white labelled billing – the Wholesaler and the Reseller.

The Reseller:

GAINS RISKS

Cost – not having to spent $$$$ on infrastructure, network, systems

Loss of control

Speed/Time to market Loss of flexibility and individuality

Ability to provide consolidated invoicing from multiple wholesalers/competitors

White Labelled Billing cont.…

The Wholesaler:

GAINS RISKS

Stickiness Extra overhead and commitment

Control of the reseller Little or no direct monetary benefit

Influence

3rd Party BillingAdvantages:

• Independency – being able to source the same products from different vendors.

• Convergence – the Ability to converge multiple products from multiple vendors and/or suppliers.

• Experience – not having to re-invent the wheel and utilising greater industry experience/s.

Disadvantages:

• Costs – Implementation and ongoing.• Risk – Greater risk and dependency on 3rd party.• Security – Data Security, existing 3rd party

relationships/alliances and ownership structures.

In-House Billing

Advantages:

• Total Control– being able to source the same products from different vendors.

• Flexibility– the Ability to converge multiple products from multiple vendors and/or suppliers.

Disadvantages:• High Costs – Implementation and running costs.• Greater Risk – Risk of not having skillsets.• Staff Dependency – reliance on a few key personnel and

trying to retain/transfer that insider know-how.• Dealing with Geeks and Nerds – 110010100110001

White labelling v 3rd Party v In-house

• There is no perfect answer to this question.• The right solution for your business depends on

your business.• In order to determine which is the best fit, you must

clearly understand what your business does, what your business does not and what the role of billing will be within your business.

• Going with the cheaper option is not always the best option.

• Talk to experts with proven on the ground local experience – the money will be worth it.

Something from left field.• As we all know, Billing plays a large role in customer satisfaction.

• PWC recently reported that billing practices and policies can account for 14 percent of churn.

• The first bill in particular often sets the stage for a customer’s perception of a wholesaler/reseller and the relationship that will follow.

• A recent interactive poll in the USA revealed that 87 percent of customers wanted to be contacted proactively — but not in a telemarketing kind of way.

• There are of course many channels in which to interact with your customers these days: website, apps, email, SMS etc. But with Billing you are always guaranteed to interact with your customers at least once a month – have you thought about doing this proactively and in other non-traditional ways?

Introducing Video Billing

But wait - it might be worth thinking about

• Yes, you heard correct – Video Billing.

• Some service providers in America are now offering personalised video billing to customers.

• A customer service representative creates the personalised video and places it online for the customer to view each month.

• They have found that its customers watch about 80 percent of each video bill, dramatically lowering resource costs not only by call centre volumes, but also improved overall satisfaction and loyalty by engaging customers better.

• The video can clearly explain any discrepancies between what was understood at the time of ordering and what is presented in a bill including new service additions, product upgrades etc.

Any Questions?

Thanks for your time