Billing CRM - News and Views on Billing, CRM, Provisioning and Payments

Never be out of touch again with credit top-up on-the-go from Truphone

London, UK – Wednesday 23rd July - Truphone has phased in important new service improvements that ensure its customers need never run out of credit again. The improvements are fourfold:

customers can now easily top-up [refill their credit] while on the move, via either handset screen-optimised web pages or an automated telephone top-up service;
customers may set their account to 'auto top-up' [screenshot], in which case their credit is automatically refilled when credit has fallen to a specified level;
Truphone now sends 'low balance' SMS alerts to customers as their credit starts to exhaust;
payments may also now be made via a wider variety of credit and debit cards.

The top-up improvements benefit all Truphone customers, including users of Truphone for the Apple® iPhone™. Designed to provide low-priced international calls for iPhone users, Truphone hit Apple’s new App Store on July 11th and was the first internet telephony application available for the iPhone.

ROAMSYS Teams Up with VeriSign Communications Services

ROAMSYS Teams Up with VeriSign Communications Services:
VeriSign customers are now able to benefit from the leading RAEX
(Roaming Agreement Electronic Exchange) Solution on the market

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MIS CDS Has Become a PCI DSS QSA

Maidstone, Kent 3rd July 2008 - MIS Corporate Defence Solutions (MIS CDS) is pleased to announce the company’s addition to the list of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) Qualified Security Assessors (QSA). As the UK’s leading Security Services organisation this means you are guaranteed assurances for any audit work undertaken to meet your requirements under the PCI regulations. In addition, MIS CDS is the first senior Check Point, Juniper, Nokia and RSA vendor partner to attain PCI QSA status in the UK which gives you assurances that you are working with an organisation with expertise and real world experience working along side these and other compliant vendors.

PCI DSS is a set of standards that is mandatory for all organisations that process debit and credit card payments. These requirements are managed by PCI Co, a US-based organisation that oversees these requirements and disseminates any changes regarding the regulations.

The requirements were developed to ensure that cardholder data is being properly protected. These standards cover everything from making sure organisations build and maintain secure networks, to having a comprehensive information security policy in place to rigorously protect cardholder information.

MIS CDS are pleased to offer our customers two services around PCI DSS. MIS CDS’ PCI DSS consultants come from a technical background and can offer you auditing services to ensure that your solution meets those requirements as set out by PCI DSS and by working to very tightly audited frameworks ensure that you are compliant at all times. Additionally MIS CDS can offer Consultancy Services to assist in the design and installation of solutions required to meet those requirements as set out by the PCI DSS mandate.

MIS CDS can take clients from the first stage - actually identifying where cardholder data flows and is stored throughout the organisation to performing annual PCI DSS audits, and all points in between.

“As the UK’s longest Security only focussed Security Solutions Provider, we are pleased to have been appointed as the UK’s first senior Security Solutions organisation” comments Tracey Hannan, Product Marketing Manager at MIS CDS “this allows us to further assist our existing customers to meet the ever growing regulatory mandates and pressures placed on them and to offer both an auditing and solutions service to new customers”

FTS Launches Leap� Billing & CRM

Empowering Service Providers to Independently Manage Personalized, Multi-Service Business Processes and Business Rules in Real Time

Herzliya, Israel | 8th July, 2008: FTS (LSE: FTS), a global provider of Billing, CRM and Business Control solutions for communication and content service providers, today announced the launch of Leap™ Billing & CRM – the next generation of its converged billing & CRM solutions.

The product suite has been designed to inherently unify billing and CRM information, providing a holistic view of all customer events and billing events, and enabling in-depth service personalization. Based upon a process-driven design, the solution offers unparalleled flexibility, empowering service providers to quickly launch and easily manage multi-service offerings in-house, in real time, without vendor intervention.

Leap Billing & CRM is an end-to-end converged solution based on telecom-specific business processes that reflect the industry’s best practices. The solution allows new business practices to be instantly implemented, and new services, bundles and promotions to be rolled out immediately, without involving costly billing and CRM integration projects. In this way, Leap Billing & CRM offers a long-term, viable solution to the ever-evolving needs of telecom providers.

“With knowledge-driven personalization becoming a critical differentiator in the multi-service environment, service providers need to quickly implement ever more specific business processes and business rules,” said Teresa Cottam, Associate Principal Analyst, Analysys Mason, and author of The Next-Generation Bill: Commercial and Technical Strategies. “Being able to do this in-house in real time, without the vendor’s intervention, is compelling because it eliminates a time-consuming and often costly stage in the delivery chain.”

“While many solutions try to offer integration between billing and CRM systems, Leap Billing & CRM is a truly unified solution that improves customer experience and gives the control back to the service provider,” said Amos Sivan, CEO, FTS. “Service providers can now offer their customers a much more personalized service, while maintaining full control of their business processes, as new products, bundles and promotions no longer require lengthy integration projects or external resources.”

FTS’ Leap Billing & CRM enables service providers to respond quickly and flexibly to each billing or customer event, taking full advantage of all existing CRM and billing information to increase revenues and improve customer satisfaction:

- Leap Billing & CRM has been designed from the ground up as a converged solution.

- Using a unified product catalog that centralizes product offerings across billing, CRM and order management, Leap Billing & CRM enables service providers to easily define new bundles in-house. This means they can respond immediately to market trends and differentiate themselves from their competitors.

- The platform utilizes SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and Oracle’s BEA market leading Aqualogic® BPM (Business Process Management) engine to provide an open and highly flexible solution.

- Leap Billing & CRM offers a holistic view of all customer and billing events, ensuring efficient, effective, and seamless customer and account management.

- A unified desktop tool for Customer Service Representatives (CSRs), with a single view of all customer information, removes the need to navigate between multiple interfaces. Aside from enhancing efficiency, this also maximizes the value of each customer, boosting cross-sales and up-sales processes while improving customer satisfaction with service personalization.

Vertex Signs Agreement For Purchase Of Alliance Data�s Utility Services Business

Vertex, a global outsourcing firm, announced today an agreement with Alliance Data Systems Corporation to acquire the company’s Utility Services business. Alliance Data’s Utility Services provides billing systems, professional services and process outsourcing to utilities in the U.S. and Canada. Alliance Data previously announced its intention to sell its Utility Services business to focus on its long-term strategy of delivering loyalty and marketing solutions. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.

The addition of Alliance Data’s Utility Services to Vertex’s existing utilities business will create an industry leading service provider with 2,500 utilities professionals across 18 centers of excellence in the U.S. and Canada. The combination of Vertex’s strengths in transformational process outsourcing and high-quality customer experience management with Alliance Data’s Utility Services’ capabilities in application maintenance, hosting, systems integration, and customer information systems will position the new organization to best serve the evolving needs of the Utilities sector. The new Vertex Utilities organization will serve more than 70 electric, gas, water, and retail energy providers in the U.S. and Canada.

Richard Graham, Vertex’s CEO, commented, “This is an exciting time to serve the utilities industry. Utilities are looking for ways to engage with their customers to work together on win-win opportunities to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Demand response and other emerging priorities are changing the emphasis of the relationships between the utility and their customers from supplier/rate payer to one of collaboration. The purchase of Alliance Data’s Utility Services business provides the intellectual capital, products, and services needed to be a nimble and responsive partner to the utility industry in these changing times.”

Merck scoops Adam Smith Award for �Harnessing the Power of Technology� with Wall

London and New York, Merck & Co., Inc, the global research-driven pharmaceutical company, has won the Treasury Today Adam Smith Award for Best Practice and Innovation in 2008 for the category ‘Harnessing the Power of Technology’. The win came as a result of Merck’s implementation of Wallstreet Suite from Wall Street Systems, the global provider of treasury, trading and settlement solutions and services. The winners were announced yesterday at a ceremony at The Four Seasons Hotel in Canary Wharf, London.

Rêv worldwide launches global payments platform for underserved markets

Paves the Way for Worldwide Access to Payment Solutions for the Unbanked in Regions across the Globe

AUSTIN, TX, June 23, 2008 – Rêv Worldwide, a global network of payments companies for underserved markets with operations in Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific, today launched a groundbreaking new platform created to drive widespread commercial availability of new and emerging payment solutions for billions of underserved consumers worldwide. Rêv offers the industry’s only platform focused on international underserved markets, providing seamless global connectivity and universal language and currency support to carry transactions across countries, currencies and payment types, including card-based, mobile, retail and online transactions. Rêv Worldwide encompasses RêvEurope Payments Limited, Rêv Latin America, Inc. and Rêv Asia Pacific.

More than 2 billion people around the world are currently excluded from access to basic financial services. New and emerging payment platforms that arise as part of the evolution and convergence of banking services with mobile communications are widely viewed as promising avenues for reaching these customers with relevant products and services. Turning that promise into reality requires making it simple and cost-effective for providers to deliver and for consumers to adopt new payment solutions anywhere in the world.

“Payment innovations like prepaid and mobile payments put financial services within reach of underserved markets,” said Richard Child, executive chair, international strategy and corporate development for Rêv Worldwide and former Executive Vice President of MasterCard International. “Given the rapid pace of evolution we are witnessing in the payments industry today, our ability to expand and deliver on that promise of financial empowerment requires not only global reach but also the utmost speed.”

Powering the New Era of Financial Inclusion With seamless global connectivity and universal language and currency support, Rêv’s processing capabilities are ideally suited for delivering payment solutions to underserved consumers. Rêv can extend its growing retail financial services network anywhere in the world; develop and support payment programs in any market while adapting to local currencies, customs, languages and laws; and sustainably support cost and fee structures that are attractive to its retail and banking partners while at the same time offering an accessible offering that promotes the long-term financial well-being of underserved customers.

“We conceived Rêv out of the belief that everyone in the world deserves the same access to trusted payment solutions that allow them to play a part in today’s mainstream economy,” said Roy Sosa, CEO, MPOWER Ventures and Chairman, Rêv Worldwide. “With the majority of the world’s underserved living outside of the U.S., we knew that bringing access to basic financial services on a global scale would require us to focus outside of the U.S. and to build a platform to support it, a network capable of serving the dreams of underserved consumers in any market in the world.”

Rêv Worldwide Products and Services
Rêv Worldwide’s products and services connect underserved consumers seeking access to mainstream financial benefits with financial institutions, telecommunications companies and merchants in lasting economic relationships through mobile and next-generation payment solutions. With the following core offerings, Rêv gives partners rapid, cost-effective access to new markets and brings underserved consumers convenient, safe, affordable and reliable new ways to pay:

- Partner Services – With deep payments and market expertise, RÊV helps partners develop and market custom payment programs that meet the unique challenges of serving the unbanked population in their market, shorten product development cycles and accelerate market adoption. From concept development to rollout, Rêv supports the entire process with expert capabilities including brand development, marketing, risk management, regulatory compliance, product management and customer service.

- Worldwide Network – Rêv’s growing international retail distribution and reload network for new and emerging payment solutions gives customers access to their money anywhere in the world by plastic, phone or online to make purchases, send money or pay bills. Rêv supports transactions through all major payment networks, including MasterCard and VISA. Rêv network partners include banks, processors, point-of-sale (POS) providers and ATM networks.

- Innovative Payment Products – Rêv offers a broad range of innovative payment products through partners and directly to consumers, including Rêv branded, co-branded and affinity programs. Rêv focuses on developing payment solutions tailored to the needs of underserved consumers including card payments and payment processing, mobile payments, reload networks, loyalty programs, remittance and bill payment.

The Logic Group Releases Contactless Payments Solution at Retail Solutions 2008

Access to real-time contactless payments

(Retail Solutions, ExCel London – Stands D6 and C19)

Fleet, 24th June 2008 – The Logic Group, specialists in the secure management of information and transactions across Europe, today launches a new Contactless Payments Solution designed to enable retailers to introduce contactless card payment solutions that offer more convenience, security and speed.

Faced with ever increasing cash handling costs and with estimated 20 billion cash transactions in the UK for less than £10, the case for a more convenient faster and more secure payment method is clearly compelling.

To date, major retailers wanting to offer contactless acceptance, have had, in the main, to consider deploying bank-owned terminals, which require double entry on the part of the retailer. While an effective use of the core technology, such systems have not yet offered retailers the opportunity to experience the true benefits of faster transactions, reduced cash handling costs and increased consumer footfall and basket spend.

Justin Schuil-Brewer, Product Marketing Manager for The Logic Group, believes the availability of an easy to implement, integrated Contactless Payments Solution will help to accelerate rapid uptake in tier 1 and tier 2 retailers where a significant number of sub £10 basket size sales occur.

“Retailers are constantly striving to accelerate throughput and the speed of the payment process within the customer experience since they recognise the dramatic impact it can have on their customer interaction. Systems to date have also provided little insight into the significant return on investment contactless payment solutions can deliver in terms of increased brand loyalty, reduced cash management and greater consumer purchase insight. The Logic Group’s Contactless Payment Solution offers retailers an integrated system that can realise these returns.”

APACS estimates over five million contactless cards will have been issued by the end of 2008, and they will be accepted in at least 100,000 merchants across the country. Two thirds of the £23 billion cash transactions made in the past year were for less than £5. Over the last five years cash payments have seen a continued decline, falling 14%.

As fully-integrated contactless payment systems roll out in earnest over the coming months, participating retailers should also expect to see a rise in the average basket size particularly for convenience items, as consumers are no longer restricted by the amount of small change in their pockets.

The accelerated uptake of contactless payment systems through The Logic Group can also be seen as a natural step on the road to the future introduction of mobile payments advises Justin Schuil-Brewer.

Morten Broegger Appointed New Chief Commercial Officer at MACH

Updates to MACH’s Management Team

Luxembourg, 24th June 2008 – MACH today announced several changes to its Management Team to reflect the forward growth path and dynamic nature of it business.

Morten Broegger has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer to take charge of MACH’s Global Account Management. Morten moves to this role from his previous position of Chief Operating Officer, which he held since joining MACH in November 2006.