Telecommunications Provider: Saving Millions in Billing Processing Inaccuracies

As a Fortune 200 telecommunications provider, this Precisely customer is one of the largest providers of global communications services. The company has thousands of employees servicing tens of millions of customers.  The telecommunications industry has been in a state of flux for some time, impacting already complex infrastructures. No longer just for fixed line phone services, communications services providers (CSPs) now have broad offerings that include mobile and data services for residential as well as commercial customers.

Billing processing is equally as complicated. Numerous billing systems span multiple computing platforms, from mainframe to distributed, with each service running often on a unique billing infrastructure. Mergers and acquisitions often incorporate a variety of legacy systems. Ad hoc service offerings are often brought on line with ad hoc systems. Expanded geographic service regions may involve complicated billing processing calculations for unique licensing and taxing jurisdictions. Pricing changes and promotions require continual system reconfiguring. Compliance oversight is now a constant concern.

The Fortune 200 CSP came to Precisely with a laundry list of challenges. Residential phone bills and billing processes in particular were becoming increasingly complex. Adding to this were individual state and federal regulations, inter-carrier rate changes, and taxing jurisdictions for inbound and outbound calls.

Systemic and recurring over-billing and under-billing errors were costing the company well into the millions of dollars, but there was no clear way of identifying exactly how much damage was actually being done. In addition, customer satisfaction, potential litigation and a Fortune 200 brand image were also at stake if errors continued.

For timely and accurate billing, retail residential billing processes required monitoring and control during processing cycles. The Fortune 200 CSP’s goal was to detect and address issues as close to the source as possible, thereby preventing errors from spreading downstream. There was a growing number of lost, improperly billed and incomplete customer bills ramping up customer dissatisfaction and triggering higher call volumes to customer call centers.

Read more about how this fortune 200 Telecommunications Provider tackled address billing processing issues close to the source and improved customer satisfaction by reducing call center volumes.