How to simplify invoicing as CSPs look beyond connectivity

Commercial context

The sheer variety of organizations CSPs must now support – as they look beyond connectivity and work with multiple vertical industries to deliver sophisticated connected services – introduces significant complexity when it comes to billing. Such services are frequently modular, comprised of ‘moving parts’ assembled from different suppliers with dynamic pricing and diverse commercial terms – and, as responsibility for invoicing typically falls on the CSP, the risk of customer experience detriment is their problem to solve.

Invoicing errors, ‘bill shock’, fragmentary invoices and completion delays are not well liked by customers – and the time taken to mitigate their effects is a major distraction to operations team – meaning the need for CSPs to simplify these processes both for themselves and their clients is growing with the 5G era.

The solution

The BiMa: Billing integration for marketplaces - Phase II Catalyst is therefore developing a versatile platform that compiles numerous CSP and partner bills into one invoice through a unified interface, meaning complex integrations and flows can be hidden from customers who simply receive a consolidated bill from a single entity. The aim is to support intricate billing patterns and post-billing activities while using TM Forum assets for seamless integration. Complex billing requirements can therefore be simplified greatly, taking into account dynamic variables such as usage-driven or tier-based pricing. It will also employ event-driven standardized integration patterns to simplify post-billing operations across partners and CSPs.

Now in Phase II, the project is also looking beyond the process of billing itself and showing how the platform can reduce complexity in post-billing activities across diverse B2B2X scenarios, considering the respective requirements of various marketplaces to ensure scalability and operational efficiency. This allows for rapid onboarding of CSPs’ partner organizations and their products, which in turn ensures shorter time-to-market and higher NPS scores once launched.

The TM Forum assets used in this Catalyst are as follows:

• TMF620 Product Catalog Management
• TMF632 Party Management
• TMF651 Agreement Management
• TMF666 Account Management
• TMF668 Partnership Type Management
• TMF669 Party Role Management
• TMF678 Customer Bill Management

Applications and value

Ultimately, the project is aimed at producing a novel and scalable solution catering to the evolving demands of the telecommunications industry, designed to be flexible, holistic and versatile – supporting onboarding of CSPs’ partners and products, managing account relationships, bill cycle time integrations, and post-billing scenarios.

The potential benefits are considerable to participating CSPs, who can expect to enjoy reductions in billing errors of around 30%, 20% lower operational costs for billing, and time savings of up to 50% when onboarding partner products. The outcomes will therefore be improved customer experience and satisfaction, major financial savings and rapid launch of bundled services.

“This Catalyst shows a clear route to resolution of major challenges faced by CSPs when it comes to invoicing in complex B2B2X scenarios,” explains Ajith Lenin, Associate Research Fellow and Lead Enterprise Architect at Verizon Communications. “The solution’s potential is by no means limited to the telecommunications industry however – these benefits can be enjoyed by any industry seeking to add efficiencies to their aggregated billing requirements.”