SAP Enables New Approach to Billing for Telecommunications Industry

WALLDORF, Germany, Jan. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today launched the SAP® Billing for Telecommunications package, an integrated solution designed to cover the widespread demands and service portfolios of communications service providers (CSPs) globally. With this package, individual SAP offerings for rating, charging, invoicing and financial management are combined for the first time on a flexible billing platform, offered in conjunction with analytics and a broad-based value management program. Building on the acquisitions of software companies Highdeal and Sybase, this solution marks a new step in enabling CSPs to launch and monetize next-generation service offerings.

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Competitive Edge Through Next-Generation Services

Today's CSPs need to offer a wide array of innovative services — such as cloud services, app stores or mobile entertainment — in order to increase revenue from consumers and business customers. In addition, they must be able to support industry realities such as fixed mobile convergence and the ability to bundle these services for customers in a flexible manner. The challenge lies with legacy billing systems that were not designed to support multi-sided revenue share models or the real-time demands of prepaid fixed mobile convergence.

SAP customer MTS Allstream, one of Canada's leading communication solutions companies with over two million customers, recently deployed the SAP® Convergent Invoicing package, one of several solutions components within SAP Billing for Telecommunications. MTS Allstream can now generate single invoices for customers with services previously invoiced separately from multiple billing systems for wireless, Internet and television services.

"With SAP Convergent Invoicing, we transformed our billing environment to deliver a single, easy-to-understand bill to our customers — faster and cheaper than many other telecommunications companies in North America," said Doug Pelland, director, Solution Management, MTS Allstream Inc.

The architecture of SAP Billing for Telecommunications facilitates the rapid deployment of next-generation offerings that span services, networks (fixed and mobile) and payment methods (prepaid and postpaid), and supports both customer and partner processes in the same system. SAP provides the necessary foundation to help CSPs transition toward taking a new approach to billing and new ways of doing business. The open and modular architecture within the software allows CSPs to define a tailored road map that delivers value with each implementation step.

With SAP Billing for Telecommunications, CSPs can scale the hardware platform underlying the SAP® Convergent Charging application while still maintaining service continuity. The software also enables them to aggregate input from SAP or non-SAP charging systems and to discount at the converged invoice level. It also supports advanced collection management strategies such as "champion-challenger," whereby the existing approach to collections (the "champion") is vetted against an alternative and possibly more lucrative approach (the "challenger").

Combining the Power of Flexible Billing and Analytics

With the launch of SAP Billing for Telecommunications, SAP combines the power of flexible billing with the rest of the SAP® for Telecommunications solution portfolio, including world-class analytic capabilities and the company's broad-based value management program to create an entirely new way of thinking about billing. Hundreds of service providers rely on business intelligence (BI) technology from SAP to gain insight into back-office processes, financial performance, network operations and customer demands.

"CSPs are migrating to next-generation services in the telecommunications market," said Larry Goldman, head of Telecom Software Research, Analysys Mason. "Rapidly supporting the roll out of these services and managing the complexity inherent in the billing process to support them is a growing challenge for CSPs. With this launch, SAP has identified this need and is well-positioned to support the rapid deployment of new service monetization by offering a strong solution addressing the entire spectrum of billing, invoicing and charging such services. Combined with its broad experience and extensive portfolio, this launch solidifies SAP as a strong partner for the communications industry."

Furthermore, SAP recently made significant strides with in-memory computing by bringing to market SAP® High-Performance Analytic Appliance software, which opens up access to real-time data. Taken together, SAP offers one of the market's most comprehensive software packages for billing and analytics to deliver measurable business value for CSPs, by enabling both operational efficiencies and sustainable growth.

"SAP Billing for Telecommunications, together with the recently launched SAP HANA and analytic applications, marks a serious commitment by SAP to totally revitalize the way billing is conducted in the telecommunications industry," said Jens Amail, senior vice president, Telecommunications, SAP. "We have gone beyond the traditional parameters of existing billing solutions to create something that adds real business value for communications service providers — addressing operational challenges today and enabling new business models in the digital economy."

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software(*), offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 105,000 customers in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol "SAP." For more information, visit www.sap.com.

(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, and related applications.

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