London, 16 November, 2006 – Intec, a global provider of business and operations support systems (BSS/OSS) for fixed, mobile and next-generation networks, has announced the immediate availability of the latest version of its Intec Convergent Billing system, Singl.eView v6.01, a world class convergent rating, billing and customer care solution. This new release delivers a number of substantial enhancements, including new revenue accounting and reporting functionality, deep integration of Customer Management and Billing processes, improved workflow automation, and enhanced management and control capabilities. In particular, Intec has focused on enhancing 'out-of-the-box' operational process automation, to drive increased efficiency and control across a customers’ organisation.
“Intec Convergent Billing v6.01 continues a tradition of offering exceptional business value to our users, with substantial new functionality that we have designed in partnership with our global customer base,” said Intec COO, Gary Bunney. “Customer demand today goes beyond a fully convergent billing system, with carriers asking us for a complete revenue management and accounting capability that allows them to meet regulatory and best-practice financial requirements. We’re delivering that to new customers today with this release.”
Highlights of the release include:
- Enhanced revenue accounting and reporting capabilities, including accrual accounting support, automated application of accounting policies and revenue recognition rules, and accounting period recognition and control mechanisms, as well as a financial dashboard and reporting framework
- Productised integration of Customer Management and Billing processes, combining the best practices of both disciplines in a unified platform, using a single database structure and single installation process – thus realising the true potential of integrated customer management
- Improved workflow automation and management controls for enhanced operational efficiency, security controls and workforce productivity
- A focus on automation of scheduled tasks and the introduction of graphical control tools for scheduling and controlling functions
Revenue Accounting and Reporting Functionality - Revenue accounting and reporting capabilities represent a significant component of the Intec Convergent Billing v6.01 enhancements. Efficiency, accuracy and auditability are greatly improved through the automation of revenue recognition. Increased business control is provided through automated accounting policy support; and regulatory compliance is eased through the configuration of financial business rules within the product. Intec Convergent Billing’s financial dashboard and reporting framework offer a near-real-time view of the business, providing detailed insight into revenue lifecycle processes for increased management visibility and richer business intelligence.
Front Office Operational Enhancements - Intec Convergent Billing v6.01 provides a number of enhancements offering ‘out of-the-box’ Customer Service Representative (CSR) functionality. These enhancements provide improved workflow, increased process automation and ‘drag and drop’ ordering capability, increasing overall CSR efficiency and customer care process optimization, further reducing call centre costs at a time when operators’ margins are being squeezed ever more tightly.
Back Office Operational Enhancements - At the back office, additional attention has been paid to the automation of operational tasks including the use of an intuitive graphical interface to provide support for the planning and monitoring of scheduled tasks, such as billing cycles. Complex schedules and task dependencies can be set up and managed easily, thus reducing the amount of time staff need to spend on monitoring activities.
Other Enhancements - Several other enhancements are introduced with the release of Intec Convergent Billing v6.01, including:
- The introduction of a Wizard Builder tool for easier product catalogue management
- Enhanced support for real-time environments, with a real-time system monitor for Intec Convergent Billing Commerce Engine, providing support for the monitoring of pre-defined operational metrics as well as failover supervision
- ‘Transparent Application Failover’ functionality, which allows Intec Convergent Billing Commerce Engine instances to automatically failover to a backup Oracle server in the case of a main database server failure, effectively reducing the number of backup servers needed.
- New time granularity options for business-rule processing. This allows business processes such as subscriber 'cooling-off' periods to be resolved on either a date-only or time-of-day-sensitive basis as required.
Intec Convergent Billing v6.01 is available immediately.