Frost & Sullivan Recognizes MetraTech for its Complex Relationship Billing Solution

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its ongoing research within the global billing marketplace, Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan recognizes MetraTech with the 2013 Stratecast Global Technology Innovation in Complex Relationship Billing Award. MetraTech's solution for the global communications service provider (CSP) market and other industries with similar complex business-to-business (B2B) relationship billing needs is not easily matched by other suppliers.

Click here for the full multimedia experience of this release - http://bit.ly/1mMNizW

In the CSP marketplace, what was once billing for network access services alone is evolving into billing for service offerings that include network access combined with the wares from a complex ecosystem of content and other partners. This level of interaction has spawned a new wave of billing and settlement needs as the communications industry expands its B2B relationships between service providers and partners. In addition, multiple industries now see an upswing in business services as a B2B arrangement with unique contract-defined requirements.

"Billing must now address the details of contract relationships between CSPs, an ecosystem of partners and for a growing number of enterprises. It must also include tracking of each usage event against the contracted terms of an agreement," said Karl Whitelock, director global OSS BSS strategy at Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan. "This type of approach is becoming increasingly relevant for the cloud services segment addressed by traditional network operators and a rising group of new market entrants offering data center services."

MetraTech provides all of the essential billing functions such as rating & charging, other core billing and partner compensation management, via its MetraNet Agreements-Based Billing™ and Settlement platform. The platform accomplishes this by implementing and monetizing individualized agreements and new business models across customers, suppliers, and channels on-the-fly. MetraNet is industry and business model agnostic which has enabled MetraTech to successfully support market leaders across industries.

Built on an extensible metadata-driven architecture, the business models MetraNet automates are open and may be modified, extended or laid aside. By leveraging a flexible and configurable data model, customers can introduce services and pricing plans that can respond to market demands in a very short order and conform billing to their unique business requirements. MetraNet supports billing and multi-party settlement that includes commissioning, revenue sharing, and other B2B compensation schemes, all on the same platform. This type of solution enables partnerships with third parties to be handled with accuracy, transparency, and control.

Whitelock further noted that "enterprise customers can contract the specific terms of a services agreement, see how usage by service compares with contracted terms, react by establishing a usage insight plan of action (which could be as simple as adjusting usage patterns from peak to off-peak), and when necessary, renegotiate bundle agreement terms to avoid overage charges. This means that the billing platform can meet the needs of business rather than the business conforming to the capabilities of the billing system."

Stratecast expects that MetraTech will continue to grow strongly, both in revenues earned and in number of customers, as the global CSP community realizes the capabilities that the company offers. Based on these factors, Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan presents the 2013 Stratecast Global Technology Innovation in Complex Relationship Billing Award to MetraTech. The award recognizes demonstrated uniqueness in developing a technology, which significantly impacts both the functionality and the customer value of new products and applications. It also lauds the relevance of the innovation to the industry.

Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About MetraTech

MetraTech Corp. simplifies and enables global commerce innovation, while helping businesses respond to an ever-changing customer and partner relationship landscape. We empower businesses to embrace change through a unique agreements-based billing, commerce and settlement solution that models and supports fluid, personalized, multi-party agreements for customers, partners and suppliers. We automate business processes and business models to address rapidly changing or complex business strategies. Our products are deployed globally, and our customers use MetraTech to innovatively create and securely collect revenue, provide settlement to partners and manage their customer lifecycle in 36 languages, 28 currencies and 150 countries. Customers include Achilles, Arkadin, Bell, Cetip, The City of Chicago, Concur, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), GRU Sao Paulo International Airport, FlexITy, GXS, InterCall, LifeLock, mBlox, Microsoft, PGi, TeliaSonera, TELUS, and TELMORE. The company is headquartered in Boston, with offices in London, Paris and Rio de Janeiro. MetraTech is a venture-backed, privately held company whose investors include Accel Partners and Vesbridge Partners. For more information, please visit www.metratech.com/company

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants.

Our "Growth Partnership" supports clients by addressing these opportunities and incorporating two key elements driving visionary innovation: The Integrated Value Proposition and The Partnership Infrastructure.

• The Integrated Value Proposition provides support to our clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation.
• The Partnership Infrastructure is entirely unique as it constructs the foundation upon which visionary innovation becomes possible. This includes our 360 degree research, comprehensive industry coverage, career best practices as well as our global footprint of more than 40 offices.

For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies?

Contact Us:     Start the discussion

Join Us:           Join our community

Subscribe:       Newsletter on "the next big thing"

Register:        Gain access to visionary innovation

Contact:
Mireya Espinoza
P: 210. 247.3870
F: 210.348.1003
E: [email protected]

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan