Those who follow our blog will know we have given a lot of coverage to SoGEA and the 2025 switch off. SoGEA stands for Single Order Generic Ethernet Access and is Openreach’s replacement for legacy PSTN and broadband using copper wires. The final switch off takes place in 2025 but there are dates you should be aware of before then. These are discussed in Countdown to ‘The Switch Off’ Part 1: What’s the ‘state of play’?
The 2025 switch off will have a vast impact across the telecoms industry. In simple terms, it will enable you to have broadband without a landline. For resellers, this has the potential to accelerate service delivery and reduce complexity, with only one line to install.
On the flip side however, it will give you less time to organise your billing before lines go live. This is why it is so important to have the right billing software in place to ensure a seamless migration process.
The impact of cancelling or switching services
As your billing team cancels services to the end user, the same services must be cancelled with the supplier. You don’t want to be paying for services you’re not billing, after all!
With multiple services, with sometimes hundreds of lines across multiple customers, there’s a lot of opportunities for human error to creep into the equation. A billing admin may forget to cancel the service to the supplier, mistype a DDI or even add the wrong bundles to the wrong services.
For those businesses moving away from WLR, a biller is going to have to remove hundreds, if not thousands of lines from their billing platform. They will then need to re-add the new services. That could be an incredibly time consuming process and one that creates many opportunities for human error!
It is therefore vital to make the transition as seamless, accurate and hands-off as possible. Not only for your customers – but for your team too!
How can your billing software help ensure a smooth migration?
Bulk Update Functionality
It’s surprising how many legacy billing platforms still only allow users to manage their data on a one-by-one basis. By contrast, if your billing platform can bulk-remove a given service and replace it with another, all in just a few clicks, you can take that human error out of the equation. The result is accurate bills through every migration.
This is exactly why we enhanced ZOEY’s batch and bulk update functionalities to cover editing billable services, cost centres, usernames and contract end-dates, alongside the more typical bulk changes (product, add-ons, ratings, bars etc). This batch processing and automation makes for an effortless migration, minimising user error and increasing your efficiency.
Customer Self Service Portal
Self-serve functions are no longer a ‘nice to have’, but a must! Back in December 21, Ofcom amended their General Conditions to require resellers to provide end-users with the ability to check their usage, spend and invoices online. The intention is to protect businesses of all sizes, even those under 10 employees.
Allowing customers to check their own usage and set limits on spend and data, drastically reduces the number of support calls. It also provides customers with greater visibility and control for an improved user experience. For your support team, it frees up their time to work on more complex issues. This allows them to deliver a better level of service and reduce ‘time to resolution’. That time can be used for further training or other internal projects.
While other platforms are still playing catch up, ZOEY has permitted resellers to offer online bill delivery, rich analysis, spend capping, usage and bundle alerting, estate management, and even real-time SIM swaps and call barring through its self-service portal, since its inception.
Training and Support
Billers moving to a new company or adopting a new system have more to manage than just a new interface. Simple changes in everyday billing language can also be incredibly frustrating when getting used to a different billing platform. Quickly getting to grips with a new platform is essential, not only to ensure the invoice accuracy, but to maximise margins and provide the best-possible end-user experience.
From the start, Tekton Billing supports its partners. All our customers have access to ZOEY’s dedicated Training Portal during the migration process. This enables new partners to practice their usual steps using dummy data to work out new workflows and test-out functionality.
Aside from the initial access to the dedicated Training Portal, we provide permanent access to ZOEY’s dedicated Training Academy. This is dual-purpose. It works as a standalone ‘how-to’ platform, but also allows users to search for educational articles on specific areas of interest.
The support offered to new partners means they don’t have to worry about the usual ‘lull’ in productivity when embracing new systems. Employees have the learning resources they need, and decision makers can quickly access reports and educational articles to maximise margins!
Discover how ZOEY can future-proof your billing here
Final Thoughts
This transitionary period, with 5G, SoGEA and other fibre products coming onto the market, is causing massive headaches for some platforms. Now is the perfect time to take an honest look at the platform processes you have in place and see how they can be enhanced.
Here at Tekton Billing, we have performed over 100 reseller migrations in the last couple of years. For each one, we have ensured revenue was either the same or higher than in their previous billing system. In fact, one Tekton partner unearthed a staggering £33K of additional monthly margin on the first month after migrating to ZOEY. This had previously been missed by their old billing system!
So, if you want to be fully prepared for our all-IP future, with bulk update functionality that prevents errors and ensures timely services, as well as tried and tested migration support, get in touch today. Call us on 0203 9723723 to discover why Tekton Billing was voted the best billing vendor twice last year!
