Cloud-based computing has been particularly rewarding for the IT sector. Its ability to cut down on TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) has been the biggest driver for its mass employment by different companies. But there are other benefits of cloud platform as well, especially for the highly-competitive telecom industry.
An OCS system is at the heart of telecom billing. While selecting an OCS for your business, it is essential that you dissect its functionality logically before making an investment. Cloud-based OCS can be a good selection as it has been proven to succeed in telecom billing environment. And, if you want to know why, then below are eight compelling reasons:
1. A move to digitalization
Everyone knows that complete digitalization is the key to long-term success in today’s dynamically changing business environment. In telecom, digitalization means complete availability of resources and real time charging of services. These requirements are met by cloud-native OCS systems.
2. Monetization of next-gen technologies
Next-gen technologies require low-latency platforms for efficient and accurate monetization of services. Moreover, charging of interactive multimedia offerings like online games and virtual reality cannot be done with an obsolete charging system. A cloud-based OCS system – built from the ground up to meet these needs – is required to make the task of monetization of new technologies simple.
3. Provides geographical redundancy
OCS contains vital customer information like name, email, address etc. Also, it contains the charges incurred by subscribers within any given billing cycle. An on-site charging system can lose all this pertinent information because of natural calamities or human-inflicted disasters. If such an event occurs, you won’t have any way to bring all this important information back. It would mean huge losses and if you are a small-scale MVNO, then it may even result in shut down of the entire operation. On the other hand, a cloud-based OCS system that replicates the same information on servers at different datacenters is protected by redundancy. Failure at one site does not influence the sanctity of data at another location. This provides added peace of mind to an MNO or MVNO using the cloud platform.
4. Scalability without purchasing new hardware
When you have a cloud-based OCS, you do not have to worry about purchasing new hardware for scaling your operation. The processing power can be enhanced by the cloud services provider by allocating more computing resources to your OCS. You are only required to pay a slightly increased fee for your subscription, which can be easily recouped by an increase in your earnings through new subscribers.
5. Fault tolerance and self-healing capabilities
A cutting-edge OCS system based in the cloud comes with high fault tolerance. It means that even after developing a fault, the OCS does not lose its capability to perform its functions. With its self-healing capabilities, it diagnoses the problem, finds the fault and fixes the issue without user intervention.
6. Analytics for understanding customer preferences and campaign management
Understanding customer preferences is vital for creating successful market campaigns and business strategies. Most cloud-native OCS systems allow for analytics capability, which can be used to derive valuable insights from data generated in day-to-day charging activities. For example, you can learn about your customers’ habit of purchasing top ups at certain times during a month. This insight can be used to create custom made plans that prevent the need for making such inconvenient purchases. Customers understand such gestures and show their gratitude by staying with you for a long time.
7. Convergent Billing
Convergent charging and billing is required to maintain transparency between customers and subscribers. Unlike traditional charging systems that had separate points at which customers were charged, an online charging system serves as the single point for charging all transactions. This allows you to create fully-convergent bills with charges for every service mentioned on a single invoice. The bills come with complete bifurcation of charges, which allows customers to view every usage detail. Not only this evokes customers’ trust, it also makes it easy for your customer service department to settle disputes.
8. Security
Without a shadow of a doubt, security is probably the most important aspect of an OCS system. A high-quality cloud-based OCS comes with encryption at the start, PCI DSS security for securing online monetary transactions via cards and offers VPN to all major carriers for MVNO use cases.
Summary
The future of the telecom industry is very unpredictable. What works today may not work tomorrow and might become completely obsolete in the future. Therefore, spending too much on an in-house telecom solution doesn’t make good business sense. It is a much better option to employ a flexible solution like a cloud-based OCS system to manage the unforeseen requirements. A cloud-based OCS allows for complete digital transformation, prevents information loss due to disasters and ensures complete security of your and your customers’ data.