Brain blog post for wavelo by eric newcomer
Telephones have changed a lot in the last 50 years, but telecommunication billing systems less so.
Telecom customers now expect modern IT systems that provide the same positive experience they get when shopping on retail sites, booking travel and entertainment options, or doing their banking online.
Yet many telecommunication companies lag behind the industry and still use legacy billing systems that are inflexible, difficult to change, and incur high costs.
Such systems have their roots in a previous era of computing technology, and cannot easily offer what customers want – and certainly not for a reasonable price.
Legacy billing companies may slap new labels on their old gen applications, but this doesn’t help the telecom companies or their customers very much. They need to consider the business benefits of moving to a modern billing system, one that supports the kind of personal treatment and AI assisted interactions customers prefer.
Should You Buy a New Car?
Consider the analogy of buying a new car. This is an age-old dilemma, of course, and not always easy to decide. The usual answer is when the old car costs more to repair than it’s worth.
But modern automobile technology is advancing very quickly now, and producing paradigm changes. Leaving gasoline behind for a modern EV is a common reason these days. And so is buying a new car for the new and constantly improving safety and self-driving capabilities.
The point is – technology is not standing still, in fact it’s evolving more quickly than ever. Years ago my grandfather planned to buy a new car every three to four years because that was the life expectancy of the technology. Today it seems like every few months there’s an automotive technology advance that draws a clear line between last year’s model and a new one.
The same is true for computer technology. Not too long ago cloud native technology reinvented computer hardware infrastructure, engineering mainframe level capabilities of scale and reliability at a PC price point.
Elastic scale, consumption based pricing, and the associated microservices architecture pattern enabled constant improvement and innovation at the system software as well as application level.
Only a few years ago, the software development lifecycle assumed an application was complete when it was delivered into production. After that, it was in maintenance mode and only changed when necessary to fix a bug or add a minor feature.
Now we realize that applications are never done and constantly change to make fundamental improvements. Microservices enable this by dividing the application into self-contained units of work that can change independently of each other, and automatically scale up and down for elastic capacity and continuity of business.
Web and mobile app users now expect such improvements in computer hardware and software to ensure their applications are always on, always responsive, and continuously improving. They expect a very high degree of personalization and service.
During the past two years the industry has also seen an explosion of new capabilities in the gen AI area. Customers are now also expecting smarter, more personalized interactions with more historical context
In terms of automobiles, AI systems are improving constantly to offer guided parking, hands free navigation, improved directions, and information about the health of mechanical systems.
In some cases this can be annoying, such as the car’s insistence on the driver taking a break at a certain time even though the driver may not be ready for one.
Telecom Billing Systems
For the telecom industry, legacy billing systems are analogous to older automobile technology. They work but they are expensive to maintain and run and are missing compelling modern capabilities, such as those needed to effectively power web and mobile applications.
In fact, since telecom billing systems were originally developed, both telephone technology and computer technology have considerably changed.
Cloud native computing infrastructure, for example, consisting of thousands of redundant machines, is a better way to handle the unpredictability of web and mobile applications.
More and more functions are moving to mobile devices, even as many have previously moved to the web.
They are typically inflexible and difficult to change monoliths, with AI and other new features bolted on top.
A modern telecommunications system needs a modern billing system, such as Wavelo, that works well in modern cloud native architectures, such as microservices, auto scaling, high levels of reliability and resilience, and easy to adapt to new capabilities that modern customers expect..
Most legacy telecom billing systems are outdated, complex platforms built on older technologies that hinder innovation, slow product launches, and increase operational costs for telcos.
These systems struggle to integrate with modern technologies and support dynamic customer needs, leading to inefficiencies, poor customer experience, and a drag on business growth. Moving to modern, agile, and often cloud-based billing systems is crucial for telcos to streamline operations, reduce costs, and stay competitive in the evolving market.
One of the most difficult projects an organization can take on is replacing an existing application, especially one that’s working, with a new application that does more or less the same thing.
Unless, of course, there’s some kind of urgency to the project. Such as cost pressure, competitive pressure, or just wanting to improve the technology and pace of change.
A case in point is in the telecom industry, which has been dominated for years but the incumbents. Established vendors such as Amdocs, Netcracker, and CSG have no incentive to upgrade their systems. In fact it’s the opposite.
Re-engineering is expensive and risky, and in many cases would disrupt existing customers, causing them to look for alternatives rather than spend the money to migrate.
With Wavelo, however, customers can migrate incrementally, minimizing the risk of change. You could even consider the “strangler pattern” in which an architectural approach to migrating from monolith to microservices enables a safer path to modernization. The Wavelo platform is designed to support such incremental, low risk migration.
The Intellyx Take
Modern systems can’t be pasted on to old systems. This doesn’t work with automobiles and it doesn’t work with telecom billing systems. To get the benefits of modern technology you have to engineer for it.
(They also don’t do AI natively, don’t do personalization, and don’t support AI initiatives.)
Many new technologies are incompatible with older technologies. It’s like comparing coax cables to fibre optic, or copper pair landlines to 5G or LEO satellite technology. New infrastructure, pricing, and service models are required.
In terms of IT systems, clearly Google reinvented IT when it originally developed cloud computing about twenty years ago.
For the telecom industry, this sea change means engineering a modern solution yourself or going with a modern billing system such as the one Wavelo provides. And with Wavelo, you can also avoid the risk of a “big bang” project and incrementally modernize your billing systems at your own pace
Copyright © Intellyx BV. Wavelo is an Intellyx customer. Intellyx retains final editorial control of this article. No AI was used to write this article. Image generated by Google Gemini.
