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The time for earning money through digital platforms has arrived - are you prepared?

In pursuit of distinct identities, Communication Service Providers (CSPs) remain committed to offering digitally immersive customer interactions, placing this at the forefront of their priorities.

Digital service providers are seeking means to stand out, and prioritizing the creation of...
Digital service providers are seeking means to stand out, and prioritizing the creation of digital-focused customer interactions remains a significant focus.

The time for earning money through digital platforms has arrived - are you prepared?

Hey there! Let's dive into the world of communication service providers (CSPs) and digital-first customer experiences. For the last decade, these providers have been working to enhance customer engagement and omnichannel experiences like discovery and purchasing.

But, they're now looking to go beyond that! CSPs are aiming to transform systems and processes across the complete end-to-end customer lifecycle, especially when it comes to billing and payments. The industry is moving away from connectivity towards digital services, and customer relationship management is evolving into digital engagement. We're witnessing the third wave of transformation coming, focusing on digital monetization from billing and revenue management.

Jennifer Kyriakakis, founder and CMO of MATRIXX Software, explains that old billing processes have been a drag on CSPs' financial performance, causing customer dissatisfaction. In fact, about 40-50% of calls to CSP call centers are billing-related, costing a typical telco around US$60 million per year.

So why this change? Because every billing error, confusion, or unexpected charge erodes customer trust and increases churn risk. Traditional billing consolidation projects only address the symptoms, not the underlying issues. To address this, CSPs need a modern, streamlined monetization approach. This evolution could save a typical CSP nearly 2% of their EBITDA, equivalent to close to US$168 million in annual savings.

Now, some established industries, like CSPs, are known for their reluctance to modernize internal operations and customer-facing processes. But with the rise of 5G, cloud, and AI technologies, new players are getting a chance to start anew. Whether they serve mass-market consumers like Verizon Visible or AWS, these new entities are embracing a simpler, leaner approach to billing operations, giving them a competitive edge.

As CSPs evolve around cloud, data, and 5G service offerings, this is the perfect time to redesign the processes that generate revenue from new services. Digital monetization provides real-time processing and visibility of all customer charges and offers customers transparency into accounts, balances, services, and usage. This leads to a better customer experience and real-time insights for CSPs. By moving beyond traditional billing and collections processes into active engagement, CSPs can drive more revenue and simplify the buying, using, and paying processes for customers.

Digital monetization consists of real-time charge calculation, including taxes and discounts. Charges are calculated when incurred, and the customer obtains up-to-date spend visibility throughout the billing cycle. The functional demarcation between billing, charging, ordering, and care is changing, with charging assuming more charge calculation functions, and billing providing bill-cycle-run functions like invoice generation and integration with other systems. Overall, the bill cycle process is simplified as it only needs to process charges already created and passed to it, making the experience easier for both customers and CSPs.

Now is the time for CSPs to rethink revenue management, ditch the silos, lose the complexity, and innovate beyond the limits of traditional billing. Digital monetization delivers a deeper level of customer engagement with real-time insights paired with a simplified operating model, streamlining costs, accelerating market agility, and collecting cash quickly. It places the customer at the center of the relationship, laying the foundation for the services that will define CSPs' futures.

MATRIXX Software is already embarking on this digital monetization transformation journey with customers around the world. If you'd like to learn more, visit www.matrixx.com/customers/!

In this transformation, CSPs are not only focusing on improving customer engagement and digital services but also on streamlining billing and payments, aiming to modernize their monetization approach using technology.

As CSPs evolve their services around cloud, data, and 5G, digital monetization will play a crucial role in providing real-time visibility, streamlining costs, and simplifying the buying, using, and paying processes for customers, all while placing the customer at the center of their operations.

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