The billing system not only keeps the customer’s balance and account but also is deeply integrated into a business. It provides traffic control, manages the procedure for providing access to services, provides the client with a report on expenses in different sections – for a month, for a year, or from the time of the last payment.
Today we’ll talk about how to manage the process of accepting money and what you need to pay attention to when choosing a billing system to avoid problems and possible losses.
Why a Billing System is Important for My Business
Billing systems can be very useful for your Saas business that conducts electronic business operations. This can make the billing process easier, which will help you increase your company’s revenue.
At the same time, you should choose the right billing system carefully, because different products have both pros and cons. If you choose a billing system that is not very suitable for your business, you can lose time and money.
What Features Should The Right Billing System Have
Under its purpose, the billing system contains data the disclosure, loss or distortion of which could cause you irreparable damage or your customers. Therefore, the billing system should provide:
- protection against access to data by unauthorized users
- protection against intentional distortion or access to data by dishonest employees of the operator using low-level tools
- logging of all “important” user actions performed using standard billing system tools. Moreover, “important” are all actions related to entering or changing data, as well as viewing certain types of data, for example, credit card numbers
- built-in data integrity control
- archiving and data recovery tools.
What Approaches for Choosing a Billing System
The first approach is that you develop the billing system yourself. The undoubted advantage of this method is the ability to achieve full compliance with your needs and deep integration with other information systems and technical means of the network.
Unfortunately, world statistics show that the costs of such a solution (taking into account subsequent maintenance and modification) are 2.5 to 5 times higher than the costs of purchasing and implementing a replicated solution.
The second approach requires the purchase of an integrated business operational support system from a single supplier. Alas, there are certain problems in this case. In its further development, the company becomes a hostage to the “main” provider of the information system, as the opportunity to use the best-in-class solutions is lost. Even in the case of local problems, the entire information system will have to be changed.
The third approach is to use the business component method to build an enterprise information system. This method is based on three main principles:
From our point of view, this method allows you to optimally combine the low cost of replicated systems and the need to meet the unique requirements of individual operators through custom components.
At the same time, the functions of the “assembly” can be performed by both its information technology division and the company, the system integrator.
Should My Billing System Have an Integrator?
Choose not only billing but also an integrator. Developed companies usually choose a new billing system to replace the old one. The transfer of long-term information, integration, restructuring of business processes and training will take months, and during this time, millions of customers should not notice the difference in service.
The transition to a new system on their own is fraught with a failure to meet deadlines, panic and a series of mistakes. Put this burden and responsibility for the project on the shoulders of the integrator.
If he already had an experience of such a transition, there is nothing else to do but adapt the already-debugged work scheme to your business. Thorough preparation for implementation is also a kind of billing platform, without which even an advanced program with a wide range of functions would be unsuitable for work.
What are the Fees For a Billing System
For a billing system, fees come in several categories, all of which could have a large impact on your bottom line:
Conclusion
The choice of billing is an important stage in the life of any operator because this system will be a crucial part of the whole business. Therefore, the analysis of possible options should be approached responsibly.
A variety of different aspects (not only cost) will affect your success with the chosen system, especially if your business scales over time.