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Frens Jan Rumph
Profile: I am a researcher, technical consultant and software engineer based in Holland. I have specialized in Charging, Accounting and Billing architectures. From both a technical point of view (IETF, 3GPP, etc) and a business point of view (TM Forum, GBA).
Main interests: Telecom, Charging, Accounting, Billing, Service Orientation, Software Architectures, Software Engineering
Disclaimer: All data and information provided on this site is for informational purposes only.
I do not make any representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.
Furthermore, this is a personal weblog, the opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.
BIMS 2008 World BSS Awards
The BIMS 2008 World BSS Awards were announced Tuesday 10th of June, and are as follows:
Overall – Best Contribution to BSS
2008: LHS
2007: Amdocs & Orga Systems
2006: LHS
Judges’ Award: ‘Above And Beyond The Call Of Duty’
2008: Nawras
2007: BSNL
Innovation In Billing & Information Management
2008: Highdeal
2007: Progress Software
2006: Highdeal
Best Billing / Charging Implementation
2008: NTT DoCoMo
2007: Vodafone UK /Flexphone
2006: BT Mobile / Martin Dawes Systems
Best Content / Partner Management Implementation
2008: No nominations carried forward
2007: Interia PDTM / Comarch
2006: MTN South Africa and Echostar / MetraTech (Co-Winners)
Best e/m-Commerce / Payments / Collections Implementation
2008: Maxis/paybox & Garanti Bank
Best Revenue Assurance / Management Project
2008: BT / cVidya
2007: BT
2006: Allround/Magyar Telekom
Best Customer Management / Business Intelligence / Marketing Project
2008: No nominations carried forward
2007: Mobilink
2006 -Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications
This years Judges:
Anil Prakash – President, Telecom Users Group of India
Barbara Lancaster – President, LTC International
Chris Sanders – Partner, Business Change Partners
Hugh Roberts (Chair) – Consultant Director, BSS/OSS RM Events, IIR Telecoms &
Senior Strategist – Patni Telecoms Consulting
Olga Botero – CIO, Bancolombia
Peter Smith – Director of Information Technology, Hong Kong CSL
Teresa Cottam – Principal Telecoms Analyst, Analysys
Frens Jan Rumph
Global Billing, Customer Experience and Revenue Management Initiative
It’s becoming a bit tumultuous in the group previously known as the Global Billing Association. After naming themselves the Billing and Customer Experience Initiative after teaming up with the TM Forum, they have now changed their name into the Revenue Management Initiative.
Although their actions (and probably their vast personal and professional network) define their right of existence, I’m not sure about their new name. I can understand the move to drop the name GBA, although it still is a very strong brand name in my perception, billing on itself is probably setting the scope to narrow. Also the integration within the TM Forum calls for a different name. And while the Billing and Customer Experience Initiative doesn’t really sound that catchy it does align with my perception of the challenges and opportunities in charging and billing.
The bill is traditionally an important part in the communication towards the customer. Yet we still only send a bill once a month and then leave it at that, while one can easily image that service usage and perceived service value can be increased by more direct feedback in relation to the service and the billing relationship. As an example: lack of transparency in the tariff function can unnecessarily be a prohibitive factor in using a service, especially if the service is complex or consumed abroad. But also customer usually will be quite happy to see when he or she can consume or just has consumed a service with a discount or even for free, this is completely different effect then when you see the aggregated discount at the bill at the end of the month!
So for me, charging, billing and settlement is about more then just the monetisation of a service, the usage to cash process. And the term revenue is an operator focused term, and focussing on the operator instead of the customer is not going to keep us in the game when competing with the internet domain…
Al together I hope they (or we actually, due the participation through my employer) can increase the quality of the billing stack in the Enhanced Telecom Operations Map!
Evolutionary Innovation and Service Monetisation
Tsahi Levent-Levi posted an article on VoiP Survivor about the AMS and its (lack of) relation with the IMS. Furthermore he talks about the innovative nature of the AMS, expressing his hope that the AMS will not be based on stitching and patching of existing protocols. Finally he comments that: “There are those who believe that IMS is a network designed to make money, while AMS is a network designed to provide services to users”. I hope he doesn’t mean that I form part of the former group, although I’m afraid that …
AMS may possibly bring something new and fresh, I really like the focus on the service/application. Especially the idea of cooperation between end-user devices, the Jini vision comes alive again. As for the comparison between AMS and IMS, since AMS is still in its infancy it is indeed hard to compare the two. But they do overlap! And I think that therefore alone they should be compared, over and over and over. Too much money and time has been invested in SIP, XCAP and such that the overlap can not be ignored.
Also I have my fingers crossed that it stays really free of too much vendor influences. A completely academic standardisation probably wouldn’t be the best of ideas either, since a standard is for a big part meant for industrial use. A balance in this is required, in order for a standard to be successfully adopted.
As for the charging and billing stuff, it is perhaps not the sexiest thing to talk about. But if companies are investing in the development of new technology, and are putting large amounts of money in the day-to-day management and operations of services that are using that technology, someone will need to pay for that. The IP backbone and operator networks don’t run and power themselves. And phones and such still don’t grow of trees.
I’m not saying here that business models might not change, think for instance of sponsorship and such. I also think that a customer is certainly willing to pay for what he perceives as value (instead of distance times duration)!
Furthermore if technologies/networks/services are to be monetized, you should see charging, billing and settlement as an opportunity to further increase the customer experience! For instance: a customer is surely wont mind hearing that he/she received something for free, where he/she normally pays for. So why let him/her know at the end of the month on the bill, instead of immediately after or even during service usage!
To end my ramble on charging/billing: there are too many examples of projects where the order handling, provisioning, billing and other non-service customer-facing processes came last, but hugely impacted on the success of a product! Operators usually get more media attention when they screw up with their bills then when they run a cool new services.
Concluding: I applaud and follow with great anticipation any developments that push the state-of-the-art in new (multimedia) services! Be it research or industry standardisation. I however don’t expect a big-bang of mind-blowing unseen services and a customer value that has yet to be seen before.
Frens Jan Rumph