5 Questions to Ask a New Billing System Vendor

When it comes to migrating your business support system (BSS), choosing the right vendor is non-negotiable. The complexity and potential challenges of such a transition necessitate a partner who not only understands your industry but also has a proven track record of successful implementations.

This post will guide you through the critical questions to ask—and responses to look for—to help you make an informed decision that aligns with your business goals.

From evaluating industry experience to assessing proven business results, we’ll help you navigate the vendor selection process with confidence. Always consider these five capabilities before selecting a new billing system vendor:

1. Migration experience and expertise

For communication service providers (CSPs) in particular, introducing a new billing system requires a vendor with specialized expertise. Migrations for these types of organizations typically involve legacy system integrations with massive complexity and scale. Verify that the billing system vendor has ample experience with your industry to ensure they can handle your needs with ease.

Questions to ask:

How qualified is your team to execute a CSP billing system migration? Do they have experience with large migrations?

What to look for in response:

Look for a vendor with a dedicated migration team with extensive experience in large conversions and standardizations, including conversions from older, legacy systems.

2. Proven business results

A BSS vendor may have extensive experience with billing system implementations, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they saw successful outcomes. It’s critical to go one step further and probe into their track record for concrete evidence of tangible business benefits before trusting the vendor with your billing system.

Question to ask:

What benefits have customers experienced by switching to your BSS solution?

What to look for in response:

Consider a billing system vendor’s ability to deliver outcomes such as:

• Lower operational costs
• Increased revenues
• ARPU enhancement through new offerings and partner access
• Process optimization
• An overall boost in customer and employee satisfaction

The switch to a modern billing system should yield any—or many—of these results. Make sure you confirm a vendor has sufficient proof of providing similar benefits during your evaluation.

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.”