Billing 2.0: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities Alice Harris Director, Billing CenturyLink...

Billing 2.0: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities

Alice HarrisDirector, BillingCenturyLinkOSS/BSS Summit, London, September 2011

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Not to be distributed or reproduced by anyone other than CenturyLink entities.Copyright © 2011 CenturyLink All Rights Reserved

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Billing 1.0 – The Good Old Days

All we needed was a customer, a typewriter, and a pencil

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About CenturyLink

CenturyLink is the third largest telecommunications company in the United States.

We provide broadband, voice and wireless servicesto customers ranging fromrural American consumers tothe Fortune 500 companies

We have a 210,000 route milefiber network that spans theU.S. from coast to coast

15.1 Million access lines

5.4 Million broadband customers (as of 6/30/11)


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Billing at CenturyLink

• CenturyLink produces over 150M invoices per year• ≈10% is electronic in various formats – web, CD, DVD,

etc.

• We provide different invoices and delivery methods for different customer types• Consumer invoice

• Color with personalization• Enterprise invoice

• Bill Analyzer tool to review invoices and allow invoice data analysis by invoice, across invoices, by product, charge type, etc.

• Reduces need & desire for printed invoice


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Billing 2.0The Challenge

• Complete, accurate, timely are table stakes• Historical criteria for a good billing experience

- Google search of “telecom invoice expense management” yielded 644,000 results

– It you’re not complete, accurate and timely, someone will help you with it

• To provide differentiation a company must do more in its “monthly appointment”

• Why is your billing experience better?• In what way does it enhance your offering?• What extras do your customers receive that others don’t?


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Billing 2.0The Challenge – Competing Interests

• Invoice Innovation• Enhance the customer

experience- We are no longer utilities- One size does not fit all

• Keep costs low• Protect revenue

• Product Innovation• How do we bill for emerging technologies like cloud? • How do we anticipate other technologies that are still being designed?

The Cost of Print & Mail


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Billing 2.0Qwest Consumer Invoice Innovation – A Case Study

• Background• From 2007 to 2009, Qwest collapsed most Consumer

invoice styles to one common invoice• The project also installed new formatting software

• Successes • Reduction in bill inquiry calls • All consumer customers had the same look and feel for the bill• What the customer received and what the CSR saw were the same

• Challenges• Presentation still looked like a “utility bill” to a large extent• Didn’t reinforce brand and product attributes

• In late 2009, Consumer Channel wanted to build on recent improvements in the invoice


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Research showed…

Customers will continue to want paper bills• 57% of respondents in a 2007 Zoomerang study “consider mail the preferred

method of delivery for “must-read” documents such as bills and statements” Customers pay attention to invoices

• Open rate on invoices is 95% while direct mail is only 7%• Document review on an invoice averages between 1 and 3 minutes with 85% of

people reviewing twice• One Adobe study saw bill offer revenue increases of up to 31%; bill offer response

rate and time improvements of 36 and 34% respectively Invoice marketing helps perfect the customer experience

• One on one messaging tells our customers we know them• We offer distinctive individualized products and services based on what they

already useInvoice marketing is less expensive

• Already mailing the invoice; decrease production and postage charges on stand alone marketing that might not get read

As a result of this analysis, Qwest decided to move to a transpromotional invoice

Billing 2.0The Qwest Consumer Invoice – A Case Study


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Personalized marketing offers on the right

• Customer data used to provide specific offers

• Transactional invoice items on the left of the statement• Bill amounts by

category

TRANSACTIONS + PROMOTIONS = TRANSPROMO


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• Transpromotional bill debuted in former Qwest consumer markets in May 2010

• Initial results were very promising- Similar to what is seen in research when color is added to an invoice

– More response, faster

• More importantly, results have held true for over a year- Color modernized the bill; compelling offers made it a better sales tool

– Revenue improvement, bill inquiry call decrease- Shortly after deployment, marketing on the bill became the #1 stimulated

call reason in former Qwest consumer markets- Revenue from the bill paid for increased bill production costs very quickly



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• Accenture research• 2008 study of 100 North American and European carriers and 100

large enterprise customers• 10% of enterprise customers studied reported having terminated a

contract with their carrier because of poor billing performance

• Convergys research• 2010 North America — Corporate Telecommunications Survey

• More than 50 percent of enterprise decision-makers say that "accurate billing that is easy to understand" is their most important consideration when partnering with a service provider

Billing 2.0Mission Critical in the Enterprise Space


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• Anticipating customer needs in the enterprise space is also more challenging

• Ease of understanding, ability to control costs while providing departmental and other detailed information

• Analysis of data is critical - View the data in the way the customer views their business- Allow customer to make ad hoc changes and control presentation of data- Enable manipulation of invoiced data

• Provide billing solutions that fit the product being purchased

• Solving your customer’s invoice needs can also help your bottom line

• Moving to an automated online bill analysis tool for former Qwest enterprise customers eliminated the need to print almost one half million invoice pages monthly

Billing 2.0Mission Critical in the Enterprise Space


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• Begin with the end in mind• Voice of the Customer

- What do they need in both existing and new markets you wish to enter?

• Industry and technology research- SWOT analysis on what is in

the marketplace- Key purchases in customer facing

applications can make a large, visible difference in your customer experience

• Capabilities analysis and budget requirements

- Can you really afford to build a “world hunger” solution?

• Planning, execution, governance

Billing 2.0Final Thoughts for Meeting the Challenge

What the Customer Sees

THE INVOICE(in all its forms)

Discount

Rating

Usage


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QUESTIONS/COMMENTS


Billing 2.0: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities Alice Harris Director, Billing CenturyLink...

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