Call Center Solutions Featured Article

CRM, Billing From FTS Picked for Indonesia's Sampoerna

By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor

FTS (News - Alert), a vendor of billing, CRM and business control products for communication and content service providers, has announced that Sampoerna Telecom Indonesia has deployed FTS' convergent prepaid-postpaid billing and customer care product for its entire subscriber base.

 

"Convergent prepaid/postpaid business models are ranking high on carriers' wish lists. We see more and more carriers evaluating and in the process of launching hybrid billing scenarios," said Ari Banerjee, Director, Enabling Technologies Service Provider Software Solutions The Yankee Group (News - Alert).

 

FTS' Leap Billing product features a single, unified system that provides "one rating engine, one product catalog and a single customer care interface," FTS officials say, "all working over a single customer database."

 

The FTS product lets STI define a single set of services and prices that are available for its entire customer base regardless of whether they are using prepaid plans or paying a monthly subscription. The platform allows for the transition of customers between the various payment methods as well as supporting hybrid customers.

PT Sampoerna Telekomunikasi is the sole licensee of CDMA2000 1X

technology at 450 MHz band in the country. It operates under the Ceria brand name.

 

Earlier this month, FTS announced that iBurst, a South African broadband provider, selected FTS' Leap Billing as its real-time billing product.

 

iBurst sells wireless services to a large customer base in South Africa. The company offers service bundles of data and VoIP services. FTS' Leap Billing platform was slated to be integrated with Softline's Sage Line 500 ERP system, Aradial's AAA and other components to cater for the provider's service requirements, including VoIP.

 

Leap Billing will also support quota management, VoIP interconnect, and customer management functionality, including financial transactions.

 

Cobus McQuirk, iBurst's Head of Information Services, said his company was "looking for a low-OPEX (News - Alert) product that will also enable us to streamline our billing operation to offer more service packages to a growing subscriber base."

 

Gil Hurwitz, FTS' Chief Operating Officer, called the iBurst deal part of "FTS' commitment to fortify its presence in the African market."

 

 

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David's articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi