Billing system complexity makes billing errors likely

Changes in rate structures and rate plan assignments require additional quality assurance checks

Need to quickly check bills before sending

Need to reconcile billing input values against source data

Delivered parallel billing system to check system-of-record billing system

Reconciled every line item of every bill before being sent to customer

Rate editor enables real-time changes to rate structures and rate plans

Billing inputs reconciled against source data and any discrepancies flagged

Rate assignments on every account checked to insure that account qualifies for that rate

Eliminated need for $35 million billing system rewrite

Effectiveness of marketing and customer programs difficult to measure and analyze

The scale of large programs make data processing difficult

Need to analyze sub-groups within programs

Need to adjust group definitions based on changing conditions

Virtual aggregation for program participants to analyze aggregate behavior

Each individual customer’s behavior also analyzed

Aggregation rules defined for each sub-group within the program

Aggregation rules defined for reference groups that do not participate in the program

Programs can be analyzed at overall program level and sub-groups to identify where program is most effective

Program resources can be allocated based on effectiveness to maximize program impact and results

Key customer relationship are not always obvious – especially when customers have a portfolio of locations and multiple billable entities

Qualification for key account status based on spending levels and program participation can be complicated to identify and track

Implement qualification rules for key accounts

Implement aggregation rules to identify portfolio relationships

Classify every customer at both individual account and aggregate customer portfolio level

Enable profitability analysis by key account relationship

Identify key account customers by evaluating total portfolio behavior

Enables more focused customer programs by identifying impactful decision makers in customer base

Key customer insight data is often located outside of systems-of-record

Valuable customer information is located department-level computers or desktop spreadsheets that are not accessible by systems-of-record

Customer entered and customer maintained data needs to be incorporated into customer insight apps

Public domain information (eg. tax records) must be incorporated into customer insights

Implement continuous real-time data import from systems-of-record

Implement continuous real-time data import from department-level computers and desktop applications

Implement continuous real-time data import from public domain sources

Implement continuous real-time data import directly from customers

Deeper key customer insight

Enables all customer information, regardless of where it resides, to be incorporated into 360 degree view of customer relationship and customer activities

Assigning rates to accounts can be time consuming and error prone

Qualification requirements for rates change over time requiring reassessment of all customer accounts

Implement qualification rules for each rate class

Test every rate on every customer account

Enable “what if” scenario analysis for key account customers for qualification for different rate

Forecast customer budget impact and revenue changes for new rate assignments

Enable profitability analysis by rate plan

Saved half a million dollars in consulting fees for validating rate assignments

100% of customers on correct rate plans

Need to plan different rates across millions of customers every year

Costs millions of dollars to simulate rates, create financial forecasts, and estimate customer impact

Customers may get billing surprises when rates structures change

Implement real time rate planning engine

Test every rate, across every customer

Forecast annual revenue to the penny

Eliminate all new rate surprises

Enable profitability analysis by rate plan

Saved $2 million paid to rate consultants for single rate plan

Saved $8 million for subsequent rate planning

Data provider service level agreements can be challenging to monitor, analyze and manage

Data service level shortfalls can lead to billing problems with customers

Quick early detection of data provider problems is needed to prevent downstream issues

Parallel data management system

Analyze all source data to locate any missing data elements and test against service level agreement metrics

Reconcile all data to check for consistency

Machine learning module to identify unusual patterns that can indicate data issues

Increase in bill quality

Reduction is customer billing complaints and issues

The scale of customer base can make data management and automated communication challenging

Customers need to be able to update contact information and preferences to track changes in their internal organization

Contact information for problem notification can be different than billing contact

Customer portal that enables customers to update their contact information and preferences

Internal support portal for use by call center and key accounts team to track and update customer contact information

Customers proactively notified and updated on issues

Organizational and contact changes continuously tracked and updated

Customers want access to their data on digital devices

Customers want to do scenario analysis

Customers want budget forecasts

Customer want to supplement their data

Parallel customer care and billing system that is accessible from customer’s digital devices

Instant customer visibility to their real time bill

Customer can test scenarios in real time

Customers have easy access to budget forecasts

Customers can self-service their data needs which frees up key account and call center resources

$10 million development cost savings and customer support cost reduction for customer information portal

Customers increasingly requesting programmatic access to their data

Large customers want convenient access to their entire portfolio of accounts and associated information

An API is necessary in order to make many third party services available to customers

Web services API’s are exposed as components of parallel systems for managing billing data and customer information

Customers can access the data both via interactive web portals and via programmatic APIs

Multiple data format supported (JSON, XML, CSV) as well as custom data formats

Increased customer satisfaction

No additional load on IT resources

Third party services easier to enable for customers

Billing system too complex to easily modify

Needed 360 view of major corporate customers

Give customers ability to self-service their data needs

Check each bill for 100% accuracy before sending

Give key account team flexible customer info

Delivered parallel customer care and billing system costing 1/10th of legacy app

Reconciled every bill before being sent to customer

Delivered customer data portal to all customers

Entire solution in production in 90 days

Gained deeper understanding of largest customers

Key accounts team and call center increased customer satisfaction

Eliminated need for $35 million billing system rewrite