A small Westbrook, Maine, company plans to carve its niche out of the giant telecommunications industry by focusing on the billing and customer care needs of small- and medium-sized carriers.
The founders of Infotech Solutions Corp., which include President David Packhem and Bill Oliver, vice president of operations, wanted to give smaller carriers a competitive edge. The company created Voyager, a client server Windows 95 application using UNIX-based relational databases to provide flexible data management and convergence billing.
After managing their own small telephone and cellular companies and providing billing services to their own companies as well as several unaffiliated companies, Packhem and his partners concluded that carriers with fewer than 50,000 subscribers paid too much for billing, didn’t have access to sophisticated customer care and didn’t receive much personal attention from their billing vendors, Packhem commented.
The group founded Infotech in October 1995 and spent 10 months building the company’s advanced system from scratch while consulting with a large well-known carrier to ensure the proper functionality was incorporated. “We took all of the advanced technology we could find and threw it on the table,” said Oliver.
For carriers to compete, “they need a robust customer care system that allows them to make very rapid changes in prices and marketing,” said Packhem. “In addition, a good database management (system) permits companies to market multiple services. A lot of billing vendors are struggling with this … We knew we needed to have technical capability for fairly complex switch-based programs. This functionality not only makes the billing system and switches consistent, but reduces customer service time.”
Less than a year ago, the seven-person company completed its installation and activation of Voyager for Highland Cellular, a rural service area carrier based in Beckley, W.V.
The system has been producing consolidated bills since September, said Oliver. Infotech’s second client, Maine Wireless, operates in the Portland, Maine, metropolitan statistical area. Voyager is scheduled to fully activate its Maine Wireless’ network by the middle of March, said Packhem.
“We take care of the information, we maintain the databases, run all the message processing and coordinate mailing of the bills,” said Packhem. Computer programmers are available to answer carriers’ questions, added Oliver.
“While we are pleased with Voyager’s functionality, our success will be rooted in our ability to provide our clients with superior service,” said Packhem.
Infotech’s marketing plans are modest. The company wants to service eight to 12 companies itself and license its software to other companies that are interested in providing billing systems.
Although its niche encompasses smaller operators, it won’t rule out servicing larger carriers.
“There’s an element there for the larger carrier turnkey,” said Oliver. “You have to crawl before you walk.”
