Real-time Billing Leads the Way to Profitability, says new TM Forum Report

TM Forum, the world’s premier industry group focused on business effectiveness for the communications and media sectors, advocates that delivery of new individualized services will place increased demand on Communications Service Providers’ billing systems. However, its latest Insights Business Intelligence Report, “Winning in a Shrinking World: Significance of the Billing Metamorphosis,” finds that many Service Providers are lagging in their ability to provide near-real-time billing. Significantly, the report shows that those service providers who have invested in efficient and flexible billing systems are already leading the market in terms of success and profitability.

The report offers valuable insights from TM Forum and Stratecast, the telecommunications strategy and analyst firm, on the impact new converged, multimedia services have on billing systems. The report incorporates analysis of data gathered by TM Forum’s Business Benchmarking Program, which includes more than 130 Service Provider participants from around the world. The report was supported through sponsorship by Amdocs (NYSE: DOX).

According to the report, subscribers continue to embrace converged and customized services, despite the current economic climate. Delivery of these complex, individualized services requires automated billing processes that operate in near-real-time, as well as billing systems that support converged services through unified billing data.

However, the Forum’s Billing Performance Benchmarking data finds that many Service Providers lag in their ability to bill for these services. In particular:

· Subscriber billing accounts are updated anywhere from an average of once a day to five times a day; with over 50% of study participants updating accounts once a day, 33% less frequently, and the remainder more frequently.

· Leading Service Providers generate bills twice as fast as lagging Service Providers. Leading Service Providers are at or close to a real-time capability, while the average for those lagging is approximately three days.

· There is a strong correlation between bill processing time and cost. Leading Service Providers have good process maturity and efficient systems that enable them to run frequent billing cycles while keeping costs down.

“As Service Providers deliver increasingly complex bundled services, they must be able to bill for these services accurately and quickly — and at minimal cost,” said Martin Creaner, president and COO, TM Forum. “Current approaches to handling customer interactions and bill adjustments will not scale to absorb the explosion of customer interactions resulting from widespread deployment of individualized services.”

“The business intelligence gained from TM Forum benchmarking results indicates that many Service Providers do not currently have the capabilities required to support converged, customized services,” added Tonia Graham, TM Forum Business Benchmarking program manager. “Service Providers must transform their billing systems and processes to support near-real-time billing —or risk the escalating costs of manual processes.”

“Winning in a Shrinking World: Significance of the Billing Metamorphosis” is the latest in a series of TM Forum Insights Business Intelligence reports, exclusively available to the Forum’s membership of more than 700 companies, addressing strategic Service Provider issues. TM Forum members can download the report now at http://www.tmforum.org/ResearchPublications/7097/home.html.

This latest report complements the ongoing work of TM Forum’s Revenue Management Initiative, which drives the TM Forum’s extensive billing, revenue, and customer management efforts.

To learn more about this Business Intelligence report, or to participate in the Business Benchmarking program, please contact Tonia Graham at benchmarking {at} tmforum(.)org or visit www.tmforum.org/benchmarking.

Members of the press interested in obtaining a copy of the report should contact Geoff Devlin, PR director, TM Forum at pr {at} tmforum(.)org.

About TM Forum

With more than 700 member companies in 75 countries, TM Forum is the world’s leading industry association focused on improving business effectiveness for Service Providers and their suppliers. Serving the information, communications and entertainment industries, the Forum provides practical solutions, guidance and leadership to transform the way that digital services are created, delivered and charged. Members include the world’s largest Service Providers, cable and network operators, software suppliers, equipment suppliers and systems integrators.

TM Forum provides a wide range of information and support to help its members reduce the costs and risks associated with creating and delivering profitable services. These include industry research and benchmarks, technology roadmaps, best practice guidebooks, software standards and interfaces, as well as certified training, conferences and publications. The Forum also provides its member community with extensive marketing and networking opportunities, enabling business with new customers and partners.

About TM Forum’s Business Benchmarking Program

“Winning in a Shrinking World: Significance of the Billing Metamorphosis” is the latest in a series of Insights Business Intelligence Reports that address strategic operations within Service Provider organizations. The reports are created by the TM Forum Business Benchmarking Program and available exclusively to TM Forum members.

The TM Forum Business Benchmarking Program is a one-of-a-kind program that provides tools, reports, and analysis that enable Service Providers to compare their business and operational performance to the performance of over 130 Service Providers from 20 countries around the world.

The Business Benchmarking Program manages and delivers metric-based benchmarking studies, surveys on qualitative aspects of performance, and business intelligence reports. All Service Provider data is contributed anonymously through a secure portal to a secure database.

To learn more about this report or to participate in the Business Benchmarking Program, please contact Tonia Graham at benchmarking {at} tmforum(.)org or visit www.tmforum.org/benchmarking.

About TM Forum’s Revenue Management Initiative

The TM Forum’s Revenue Management Initiative provides a forum and on-line community for discussion and contributions concerning all business processes that affect the Service Provider’s contact with the customer and the customer’s service experience.

The Revenue Management Initiative provides valuable billing, revenue, and customer management direction and support as the industry transforms itself from focusing on technology to focusing on services and customers. The Initiative undertakes projects and drives new requirements into the TM Forum’s existing frameworks.

For more information on TM Forum’s Revenue Management Initiative please visit http://www.tmforum.org/RevenueManagement/4323/home.html

Global TM Forum Media Contact

Geoff Devlin PR Director

gdevlin {at} tmforum(.)org

+44 (0)7894 300 280

United States Media Contact

Nate Hubbell

March Communications

tmforum {at} marchpr(.)com

+1 617 960 9875