Resellers must grasp every opportunity to market their products and services to customers, yet billing, all too often thought of as a necessary evil, presents an ideal opportunity.

More resellers are taking full advantage of billing services to promote their products and services to end users. For example, online billing analysis enables Shrewsbury-based Purecom's customers to log on and carry out all kinds of analysis of their telecoms spending; and it's the bill they get once a month, either by PDF or by post, that reminds them of the value of this, and other Purecom services. "I can get messages out to my customers through the monthly billing cycle, to promote things like extra services or our online billing analysis tool. It makes our clients far more sticky," said Matt Sandford, Managing Director of Purecom.

That's in part because Purecom uses a bureau service, from TM Solutions (TMS), that means the reseller can outsource its billing service without sacrificing its own relationship to the customer, and that's important, stated Sandford. "We're not a middleman," he points out. "We could be a dealer for one of the telecoms carriers and that would be great, but then customers would be getting bills from that carrier, not from us. This way, clients know us. They don't know TMS."

The intelligent use of billing differentiates a professional comms reseller

What's more, adds Sandford, Purecom has a direct, contractual obligation to its customers that helps the company build up its net worth. "They are my terms and conditions on the back of the invoice," he says.

For Purecom, using a bureau service like TMS has been a good move. Purecom splits its business 50:50 between mobile and fixed line services, and while in the mobile world customers receive their bills directly from the networks, things are different in the fixed line environment. Sandford wanted to avoid having to spend time and effort on the complex task of billing, but wanted to keep a direct relationship with customers. Using a bureau service has enabled him to do that, while he has also been able to get on with developing the business and concentrate on sales.

David Newstead, Managing Director of Carlisle-based Online Systems Northern, decided to opt for a specialist bureau service after experiencing problems with a previous billing supplier. "We had one or two large customers and the company we were with made an absolute nightmare in billing some of our customers," he explains. While the problems were sorted out, that process was not as quick as Newstead felt it should be. As a result he looked around to see what else was available.

Newstead has some advice for resellers about selecting a billing supplier. "Look at what is behind the operation," he suggests. Support is clearly important, as is choosing a billing supplier with a good range of trade partners. History and pedigree counts for a lot, but so does a clear view of the future and a commitment to invest in billing software to ensure it can keep up with changes as they happen, particularly in the light of changing billing structures, the introduction of WLR3 and so on.

"We could go for our own billing portal, but we can see that more and more investment has to be made into billing systems to keep up with the market. That's not an investment we want to make," commented Newstead. "With a bureau service you get the best of both worlds. We get our billing right for ourselves, but we can leave the specialist knowledge of dealing with suppliers to someone else. There are cheaper services, but it is a question of how much time it takes you to sort things out."
Ian Fishwick, Managing Director of Adept Telecom, says his company has never believed that billing is simply about charging customers, or even about creating as many tariffing options as possible, although after 16 acquisitions Adept now has virtually every pricing capability in the market.

"We have always used our bills as a communication tool," he commented. "The intelligent use of automated systems is one of the things that differentiates a professional telecoms reseller from the rest of the industry."

Adept Telecom started by putting simple marketing messages on its bills, and a newsletter with every bill. Over the years, the company has enhanced this offering. Now it includes intelligent bill layouts with extra marketing messages clearly identified to catch the end users' attention, and jointly-branded bills with key business partners, as well as customer-specific advertising that is tailored to what products customers already do, or don't, receive. For instance, if a customer has calls but no line rental from Adept, the systems are clever enough to recognise this and put a line rental advert in their bill.