5 Questions to Ask a New Billing System Vendor

3. Agile and scalable solutions

For CSPs, the capacity for swift innovation is essential to future success. If a billing system can’t scale to support new partners, products or services, it will lead to costly headaches down the road. Make sure your vendor’s BSS can grow alongside your business before committing.

Questions to ask:

Can your solution support a wide range of services and pricing models? Can it handle a big or sudden increase in customers and transactions?

What to look for in response:

The solution can accommodate your needs when you expand into a new market (e.g., wireless), offer new subscription services or add new business lines.

It can process thousands of transactions per second.

4. Strong customer support during and after migration

For a good billing system vendor, the partnership doesn’t end after the implementation. Empowering the customer to use their new BSS with confidence is an essential component of the migration. Ask vendors what steps they’ll take to equip you with the knowledge you need to succeed after deployment.

Question to ask:

How do you support customers during the migration?

What to look for in response:

CSPs should prioritize a billing migration vendor with 24/7 support availability, proactive issue resolution and clear SLAs to ensure responsive and reliable customer support.

5. Emphasis on customer and employee experience

For all the benefits a modern billing system brings , any major change will naturally carry a degree of stress. That’s why it’s so important to take care of your customers and employees during the BSS migration process. With the right vendor, strategies to optimize their experiences will be factored into the implementation from beginning to end.

Question to ask:

How do you reduce the negative impact of migration on subscribers—and employees—to minimize churn?

What to look for in response:

CSPs should avoid overcommunicating about the migration, as too many emails can create apprehension. The billing vendor should work with the CSP to develop a communication plan for subscribers about the upcoming migration. They can also collaborate to provide comprehensive training for employees.

Additionally, billing solutions should improve CX and EX by offering self-service options, such as a tool that explains billing charges and changes .

Partner with a Trusted BSS Vendor

Choosing the right vendor can make or break your billing migration success. To evaluate a potential partner for your organization, the questions outlined above can serve as a strong starting point.

For all seven capabilities to consider in a new billing vendor (plus best practices to avoid common migration pitfalls), read the eBook, “ It’s Time for Telcos to Switch Billing Systems: 7 Low-Risk Migration Strategies .”