There is a lot of attention, suddenly, about ‘Pay Now’ and the end of billing as we know it. As others have mentioned, the arguments have been around for years. The merger of prepaid and post paid, balance management, the need to choose when and how to pay have all been discussed – at length.
As Teresa Cottam and others have said, the problem lies in old fashioned thinking. Indeed, just the other day, someone who was buried in the banking system for a long time, managed to free himself and is now busy disrupting the sector said that in his opinion the real legacy lies in Marketing, not IT. Interesting point, says Alex Leslie of Disruptive Views.
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sic example of how embedded the old world thinking is in telecoms (do you still use the word ‘telecoms’ asked the disruptor, with a smile) raised its head at last week’s Billing and Revenue Management session at the ETIS Gathering.
A ‘telecoms’ company in a country poised between Europe and Asia has launched a TV service. The process was being described – once a programme or service is requested, the customer’s balance is checked and the programme is released. This may take up to an hour, generally a lot less.
“Why,” asked a billing manager from a telco further West. Because, if the funds are not immediately available, sometimes it can take up to an hour for availability of funds to be confirmed.
“So, you offer this service to prepaid customers?” asked the Western billing guy.
“Er, yes, of course,” replied the speaker.
“Hmmm, I have never heard of this before.”
A billing director from Central Europe smiled quietly to himself at the embedded thinking.
It seems that in countries where there are high levels of ‘prepaid’ customers, innovation is easier somehow. Why should everyone not have access to the same range of products (and services) as their post paid counterparts? If they have the money and they want the service, give them the service.
It is clear that the disruptor is right. In markets where the status quo reins (post paid subscribers, monthly pdfs of bills, predictable and comfortable and completely unfocused on the customer) the protection of that status quo is paramount. Where it is not, then it seems easier for companies to innovate.
And innovate they must (despite what Moody’s says). Legacy marketing must get beyond selling data, must get beyond the thinking that everything must be subscription, everything tidy and monthly – and they must change very quickly now.
The author of this blog is Alex Leslie, publisher of Disruptive Views
This article first appeared on Disruptive Views — see:
http://disruptiveviews.com/pay-now-billing-and-legacy-marketing/
