MIAMI BEACH, Fla.—Several more billing companies announced news as Billing World 2003 kicked off June 24 in Miami Beach, Fla.
- Portal Software Inc. said Microsoft Corp. will integrate Portal’s billing and subscriber management software platform with Microsoft .NET technologies to offer service providers a .NET solution for rolling out new voice, data and content services and to support legacy and business-to-business integrations. The combined solution, dubbed BillingAgility, will use Portal’s Infranet software with Microsoft Windows Server 2003, SQL Server 2000 and BizTalk Server to offer flexibility, performance and reduced total cost of ownership, according to Portal.
- MetraTech announced a partnership with telecom taxation software company BillSoft to provide a solution that will offer timely and accurate billing and taxation for new and existing services. MetraTech also announced customer capture solution provider Who’s Calling Inc. has deployed MetraTech’s MetraNet solution to automate critical processes, identify revenue leakage and improve data integrity.
- Bridgewater Systems said it now supports SIM-based Wi-Fi authentication and billing mediation solutions for GSM carriers, allowing GSM carriers to offer 802.11 WLAN services to corporate and consumer customers. “Our Wi-Fi experience and existing GSM product offerings makes for a powerful and reliable system to enable Internet access in the busiest of hot spot areas,” said Doug Somers, executive vice president of business development and alliances at Bridgewater.
- Amdocs released version 5 of its Partner Relationship Management product. The enhanced version features self-care capabilities, enhanced product architecture for improved scalability and performance, it is highly configurable and allows for flexible agreement management and settlement rules. Amdocs also announced the full-scale deployment of its customer care and billing platform at Nextel Communications Inc. and Nextel Partners Inc. Finally, Amdocs received Billing World’s best new billing product award for the Amdocs Enabler rating and billing product.
- CSG Systems announced its Kenan Prepaid billing solution has been integrated with the HP OpenCall Service Controller, creating an integration point between the network and the billing platform.
“By pre-integrating two open-standards products, we will provide a faster way for carriers to offer these services today as well as prepare for running customer transactions over [third-generation] networks and beyond,” said Darla Thompson, CSG’s vice president of product management, global software and services division.
CSG also announced it plans to establish a service bureau offering the CSG ICMS and CSG Data Mediation solutions as an outsourced customer care and billing solution for North American wireline and wireless service providers. Rural telecommunications provider Fairpoint Communications Inc. has signed a five-year agreement to use the outsource offering.
For more news from Billing World 2003, read Billing news abounds at Billing World 2003.
