By developing billing-based, value-add services, the company has managed to create loyalty and 'stickiness' without significant investment in 'platforms' to support new-age media services.
Starting with just the basics of prepaid voice and SMS, Oi managed to first put a new spin on 'topping up' that unexpectedly set it on a path to creating a fiercely loyal customer base. Using its prepaid/real-time charging engine, Oi created a 'loan' service for subscribers that it recognized would otherwise be lost if there were no money in their accounts at the time top-up was required. That seemingly simple realization has created a following of students and younger people, and the 30% interest Oi makes on top of the standard fees for the prepaid service doesn't hurt either. By simply allowing subscribers to ask for loans to keep voice and SMS services running even after funds run out, the company is making significantly more than it would had it forced people to wait for money before topping up their account.
Oi made it as easy as possible to ask for the loans by enabling people to ask for money to be forwarded to their accounts via text messaging or via Oi's web portal.
Real-time processes
Whether a company like Oi, which is 80% prepaid, or more of a balance of pre- and post-paid like most European and American operators, the next step is creating services that appeal to both prepaid and post-paid customers. Then, for example, there is room to launch creative discounting services and policy-based services that appeal to both types of customers. Loyalty can be built by something as simple as rewarding a post-paid customer who downloads two videos with 100 free text messages on a mobile phone.
Many European operators are accomplishing that type of loyalty by separating charging from billing, and centralizing customer information about usage, limits, account balances and usage counts in a real-time environment from which services evolve.
To separate charging from billing, there has to be a close evaluation of all the processes that touch charging and billing. That gives service providers an understanding of where customer data resides and how it can ultimately be made available through SDPs and OSS environments. That understanding opens the door for engaging customers with more personalized and customized services, such as policy-based, or parental control type applications.
'Operators have to think about how each service relies on certain processes, and even affects processes. They have to go beyond managing just the service interaction with the user, and onto managing subscriber data so that it's available in real time. Then there can be self-care applications as well,' adds Cobb.
Because real-time charging and billing require real-time processes, many vendors and service providers are evaluating how to map real-time charging and billing into traditional processes. That is evident in the work being done by Telcordia, Microsoft, Oracle, Ericsson and Amdocs in the TM Forum programs. In fact, recent discussions have revolved around the insertion of real-time charging processes into the Business Process Framework (eTOM) - a natural path after the recent success of putting a billing map into the new eTOM v. 8.0 map, which now incorporates new revenue management process detail. That has enhanced the 'billing' area of the eTOM - an area has now become the 'Billing and Revenue Management' section of the eTOM. It adds a new expanded definition of charging, and of the process definitions related to charging.