e-Bill Presentment and Payment at Mobile Telecommunications Company

A major mobile telecommunications company, wanted to present bills to customers and receive payments -- over the Internet.

Stream chose IBM Content Manager OnDemand to become the repository to store customer bills in the native system print format, index them by individual customer number, and automatically transform and deliver them over the Web.

OnDemand was chosen due to the speed of the document capture, indexing, and Web transformation process. The system stores and indexes bills at rate that exceeds two million subscribers per month.

When the system retrieves a bill, it automatically transforms it to PDF, eliminating what would have been time consuming and costly development costs in creating entirely new Internet delivery software.

Customers access bills from the OnDemand repository (the repository will eventually store ten years on line) without intervention by a customer service representative. Viewing the bill, customers get immediate answers to questions about balances, charges, due dates and more.

Implementation was painless because the OnDemand repository converts to an electronic bill presentment and payment system by simply adding a payment, email subscription and dispute resolution module.

The concept of maintaining the
original print format facilitates long term storage of bills and makes the legacy to Web process both easy to implement and simple to maintain. Revision control that resides in the OnDemand software insures that any change in future bill formats will be recognized, and the correctly formatted bill will be available regardless of when the bill was originally produced.

Also important is the ability of the system to capture, index and transform bills from heterogeneous legacy systems. This means that any bill, created on any legacy system, can be stored and delivered to customers regardless of the operating system or application software.

Benefits

The mobile company aims to provide the best customer care in order to retain customers and maintain market share. With the system, the client could enable:

•Internet customer self-service for bills

•On-line dispute resolution -- customers can enter billing queries and have disputes reconciled without human intervention

•On-line viewing significantly reduces bill reprinting. However, since exact replicas of the bills are stored in the repository reprints are instantly available if needed

•Revenues have increased substantially due to faster collection of overdue accounts. (The ability to ask customers who log on to Their Website when payment can be expected has reduced days outstanding)

•Targeted marketing of new products and services is enabled since new messages can be posted with each bill

•Electronic Bills Presentment and Payment is an integral part of billing and CRM systems and can be the connector of two previously separate applications

The mobile company changed the way the company delivers bills and receives payments. The unique ability to store bills for long time periods and enable fast and efficient customer self-service is a major ingredient of long-term success of this e-business initiative.

DB2 Content Manager WebLink

http://www-3.ibm.com/software/data/cm