Don’t Let Your MVNO Customers Leave, Employ Quality OCS ASAP

A bill shock is as bad for you as it is for your subscribers. It happens when a customer receives a bill that surpasses his expectations, and in not the right way. While most big operators have the wherewithal to absorb pain of a lost customer, it is the MVNOs that are worst hit by such an event. The negative publicity it generates, no matter how small, has the potential to compromise MVNO’s best laid plans, which generally revolve around creating customer goodwill. Mostly, it has been seen that such debacles happen when the OCS you have is not up to the mark.

Enhance your Prospects with a Better MVNE and OCS

Losing out on customers can be debilitating for an MVNO business. Therefore, as an MVNO owner you should focus sincerely on finding the right OCS. The best and the most convenient way to do this, is by partnering with a competent MVNE that has already delivered successfully in the past. An MVNE that is capable of creating tailor-made solutions can help you build an OCS that meets your particular requirements.

There are many things that you should expect from your MVNE, however, the two most important features you should never compromise on are:

Complete convergence with itemization: Customers of today are extremely choosy when it comes to their billing. They want all their usage details and service rates to be present in their invoices. Even more importantly, they want one invoice for all the services that they are using. For this, a quality OCS is required that can charge, rate and maintain customer account information at one location. This allows for complete convergence in billing, which lets you create converged bills with complete itemization as per your subscribers’ requirements.

Meets 3GPP’s technical specifications – A 3GPP compliant OCS ensures no revenue loss. Hence, it is important that your MVNE can provide you an OCS system that meets every single technical specification laid out by 3GPP.

WHY YOU SHOULD EMPLOY AN OCS THAT COVERS REQUIREMENTS OF PAST AND FUTURE?

Nowadays, telecom industry is in a state of flux. Every telco is looking to venture into new territories to compensate for the money lost to competition and OTT (Over the top) services. In the past, telecom operators used to thrive on revenue generated via voice calls and SMS. However, in the present times, the range of services that they need to deliver has widened considerably. The legacy systems employed by telcos no longer do justice to the modern innovative telecom services that need to be delivered. Moreover, telcos require most services to be delivered in real time, which is why; a flexible and real time charging system is needed for timely tracking and accurate billing.

Online Charging System: The Backbone of a Successful Telecom Billing System

An online charging system is a must-have for any modern telecom billing system. An OCS is essential for telecom operators as it lets them:

Charge on the basis of events e.g. SMS
Charge on the basis of sessions e.g. calls

OCS is a real time charging system that allows the telecom operators to control credit. At the same time, it also allows users to control what they spend. Although an OCS is a vital part of any present-day billing operation, it can only be of true value if it works with the applications of past and is designed with an eye on the future requirements.

Importance of a Future Proof and Backward Compatible OCS

There are many attributes of an OCS that make it stand out. However, the most important aspect of an OCS is how well it works with your legacy solutions. The compatibility of an OCS with your pre-existing equipment and applications allow you to introduce it into your workflow without hampering your current billing tasks. Also, an OCS should be flexible enough to accommodate the requirements of near future like 5G offerings, so you do not have to change your billing systems frequently to meet constantly changing technology.

There are many other features that make an online charging system worthy of your business. Have a look at some of these key features of an OCS:

Analytics – Most traditional OCS solutions available in the market do not support analytics, which is why; telecom companies often struggle to understand customers’ requirements. Hence, they are unable to devise new plans to attract customers towards their services. However, there are many cutting-edge real time charging systems available in the market that come with analytic features. Using such OCS solutions not only helps you in your present tasks, it also helps you forge better business strategies for the future.
Adaptability with complex revenue management – There are so many revenue streams (for a telecom business) nowadays that keeping track of each one of them can be difficult for a telecom operator. Prepaid, postpaid, IPTV, different type of data services and OTT partnerships, there is simply too much to handle for telcos. In this complex situation, a revolutionary online charging system can simplify their work and ensure accurate completion of real time charging and billing tasks.

Maximize 5G Potential for Your Business with a Real Time Charging System

Although the launch of 5G is a great initiative in the race to match wired broadband speeds, its value for a telecom operator hinges upon several factors. Faster data connection may seem like a real boon for the subscribers, however, it does not automatically translates into profits for telcos. A lot was expected by telcos after the launch of 4G, which supplanted the erstwhile 3G connection. But instead of bringing in new revenue streams, it dug a hole in their pockets as subscribers were lured away by OTT (over the top) platforms like Netflix, Facetime and Skype. Hence, it is imperative for a telecom operator to be proactive in his strategy while tackling 5G. One way of ensuring that you maximize the advantages offered by 5G is by investing in a real time charging system that monetizes all your offerings.

6 Important Features of OCS

OCS (Online Charging System) is a real time charging system that is designed to match the current requirements of telecom billing. It is 3GPP release 11 compliant and works a lot better than the charging systems employed in traditional billing solutions, which lack the desired scalability and flexibility. Some key features of an online charging system and traditional charging systems are listed below:

1. Session based and event based charging for different telecom offerings like voice calls and SMS.

2. Identification of subscriber and service before offering access to a service.

3. Monitoring and tracking service usage and also maintaining records in the database.

4. Updating subscriber balance.

5. Management of important features like blacklisting, prepaid lifecycle, live balance etc.

6. Calculating charges as per CDRs (Call Data Records) and recording them in the system database

Things to Consider before Investing in a Real Time Charging System for 5G

Although OCS has immense benefits and can be a worthy upgrade for your older charging systems, there are certain things that you need to be mindful of before investing in a real time charging system.

1.Past and future compatibility — To ensure that OCS works with legacy and future applications, you should invest in a robust and backward compatible real time charging system. A good upgrade option is an OCS that can be integrated with older IN (intelligent network) along with next-gen IP, 5G, FTTH/HFC, wireless and wire line networks.

2. Postpaid/prepaid convergence — An OCS should allow for complete postpaid/prepaid convergence, so you can offer composite VAS (Value Added Services) along with video and voice services quickly.

3. Convergence between service and network — With so many different data speeds provided by different connectivity platforms e.g. CDMA 2.5G, LTE, WiMAX, Wi-Fi, 3G, IMS, 5G, broadband, it is important that an OCS should show true convergence in rating a variety of applications with different bandwidth requirements.

4. Intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) — To make operations simple, the OCS should have an easy to operate GUI that lets telcos customize their 5G offerings quickly and as per requirement.

5. Support vendor partnerships — A real time charging systemshould allow for the management of different vendor partnerships e.g. partnerships with MVNOs, MVNEs, OTT etc.