Telecom Billing & Big Data Analytics

Big Data Analytics: Making the Most of Billing Data

Telecom Billing & Big Data Analytics: Making the Most of Billing Data

By Moshe Peterfreund, Director of Marketing, FTS
March 31, 2015

We’re seeing a significant shift in the way CSPs charge for services. Rather than measuring for each service and charging accordingly, the move to charging for services on a flat rate means much less metering is needed. It’s clear that the existing telecom billing model cannot work for much longer in the traditional sense.

However, just because billing models are changing, it doesn’t mean that billing data is obsolete – quite the opposite in fact. Data is important – and its significance is continuing to grow. Customer information, usage information, social media activities and behavior details – in fact anything about the customer that has been captured and stored – are valuable ammunition for service providers.

Feeding billing data into big data analytics enables improved marketing based on context and other subscriber experiences. Not only does it bring the CSP closer to its customer, it also gives them a valuable edge over competitors who are not making optimal use of their data.

Big data analytics can help operators understand, even in real time, what the subscriber is interested in. By knowing their usage habits – how much data they’re using and for what purposes, the device they’re using, where and when they’re using it, for example – and proposing a related and relevant promotion, subscribers will feel that their CSP not only knows and understands them but is also willing to put together contextual offers tailored exactly to what they want. Even better when implemented in real time.

By analyzing billing data, CSPs can serve subscribers with relevant, personalized and immediate offers in a non-intrusive and helpful fashion that, if executed correctly, will generate them additional revenue. With the right billing system in place, it is also very easy to implement. For example, a user who reaches their maximum data limit during an online gaming session can be offered an on-the-spot promotion for extra data for gaming only usage at a special price.

The result? A happy customer and a boost for the provider’s revenues.

Another example might be a service provider who wants to provide subscribers with the highest standard of service possible, whilst at the same time ensuring that this is effectively monetized. The CSP can implement a real time charging and policy control solution to adapt service and network behavior in response to customer interaction, using billing data and analytics tools. This enables them to generate new revenue from digital services by initiating a sophisticated service program that, for example, provides quota-based data credits for the data used on premium services.

By taking billing data and analyzing it, CSPs put customers – rather than campaigns or products – at the center of everything they do, using big data to increase revenues and reduce the challenges that flat rate presents to the bottom line.

Want to find out more? Get in touch to talk to us about FTS’ policy control, charging and billing software solution.

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