RESEARCH FOCUS  -  CUSTOMER CARE IN TELECOMS

Customer Care & Billing Systems Selection

The purchase of a Customer Care & Billing (CCB) system is one of the most important decisions a telco will make. CCB systems are now considered to be vital to telcos, providing essential data regarding customers and call handling. Selection of the most appropriate system can make the difference between success and failure in today's increasingly competitive telecom service markets. 

Selection of a CCB system is far from being a one-off decision. Such is the speed of telecoms innovation and the pace of change in CCB systems capability, that telcos constantly need to re-evaluate the suitability of their CCB system in relation to their changing business requirements and plans. In some circumstances a telco will need to significantly enhance, or change, its CCB system every 3 - 5 years. telcos looking to introduce a new, or improved CCB will need to take a number of factors into account, including:

	Amount of customising availability
	Capability to handle many different charging schemes
	Flexibility, to add new modules
	Integration with existing systems and modules
	Number of functions and capacity
	Provision of different types of metrics and statistics
	Purchase and lifetime operating costs
	Scalability, for increasing customer volumes

There are now over 100 CCB software packages, and many more modules, available for telcos to choose from and the decision making process is complex, involving careful consideration of detailed business requirements against the merits of each option. Telcos need to approach CCB systems selection in a structured and professional way if they are to avoid the many possible pitfalls. The main components relating to CCB selection are illustrated below: