What are the Current Concerns and Challenges of an Wholesale Operator ?? – Subex Limited
Last week I spoke at the GSC conference where an august group of carriers convene to discuss the problems they face and best practices within their organizations. So apart from being in Windsor one of the loveliest places in the UK and setting aside the fact we had a great treat from a British multinational Operator – a meal at the Guards Museum, Westminster. What was discussed?
Two interconnected topics ( no pun intended) were top of the agenda item. GIPX and credit control and management. Here carriers debated whether and how to give smaller players access to their network and how to limit debt liability. British multinational telecommunications services company spoke about their pre-pay component in billing and how that manages debt, predicts traffic and spend and successfully allows (untested) new carriers access. As the provider to them it was great to hear how pleased they are and what practical use the solution gives them.
We had a very interesting talk from the director of the Institute of Credit Management explained his organization’s mission to educate about the issues of credit, risk and to stress the importance of positive cash flow. Again this had carriers discussing issues around cash collection and customer management. Opinion was divided – some leaning backwards in pursuit of the relationship others just pulling the plug when debt became unacceptable. This just reiterates how slightly different this domain is – retail billing is, you don’t pay – you’re gone ( well there are exceptions in cases of hardship). This is about carrier relationships and the bi-lateral sessions where carriers sit and negotiate with each other face to face – stresses the complex and often personal nature of the inter- carrier relationships.
The meeting also had a great speech from a Belgian Operator discussing Fraud prevention and the problems By Pass and PBX hacking remain ever constant.
What did I learn?
New technologies offer new opportunities – not really a massive learning point – but more automation, alerting and deeper MIS gives carriers the capability to avail themselves of these new opportunities and as providers of software to them we need to make sure that their days are as easy as possible.
Director- Product Management
Anne has over 25 years experience in the Telecoms industry. At her time in BT she developed managed and deployed a wide range of enterprise systems including network, finance and billing systems. Her specialty subjects are billing and wholesale partner management. Anne holds a BA from the London School of Economics and an MBA from the university of Leicester where her specialism was in IT change management.
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