Billing Solutions for Hosting

1
Billing Solutions for Hosting

• Douglas Johnson, SWsoft
• Product Marketing Director
• Wednesday, May 9, 2007

2
How Tough Can it Be?

• Customer orders service for 10/month - just use
  a spreadsheet
• Customer joins mid-month
• Customer requests a refund
• Marketing wants to run a promotion 10 off if
  enrolling before 30 days
• Accounting reminds us that we need to charge tax
• Customer pays late finance charge applied

IF (today customer_bill_period) THEN
Create_Invoice Create_Invoice Invoice_Item
Service_Item_Charge_Amt
Calculate_Finance_Charge IF (Overdue_Balance gt
90 days) Determine_Finance_Chrage_Amt
IF (Good_Customer)
Pro_Rate_Invoice()
Pro_Rate_Charge Invoice_Item.Charge_Amt
Invoice (days_of_service / 30)
Calculate_Tax IF (Tax_Zone in Zone_Array)
Determine_Tax_Amount IF (Pro_Rate)?
IF (Apply Credit)
Calculate_Refund IF (Refund_Allowed)
Invoice_Item.Refund_Amt Pro_Rate_Charge
Calculate_Discount IF (Promotion_Code_Valid)
Invoice_Item.Charge_Amt Discount_Amt
Pro_Rate?
3
Billing Challenges

• Deployment of new services
• Have billing issues delayed the launch of a new
  service?
• Flexible pricing and promotions
• Can you respond to market changes in 1 day?
• Integration with multiple systems
• Do you have legacy systems which you want to
  retain or new services which run on unique
  platforms?
• Customized workflow and internal controls
• Do you have internal controls required by
  legislation for you and your customers?
• Online account management
• Can customers manage their account and payments
  online?
• Automated renewals and service messages
• Can you improve customer retention and revenue
  per customer?

4
What is a Business Support System?

• A business support system automates and
  integrates all aspects of service delivery
  through a web-based storefront and management
  control panels.
• Both PEM and HSPcomplete provide a full set of
  bundled functionality.

BSS Features

• Storefront

• Order Processing

• Workflow

• Service Plan Management

• Discounts, Promotions

• E-Commerce

• Reseller Support

• Trouble Ticketing

• Fraud Screening

• API and SDK

5
Billing can be a Central Point for Your Operations

• Your BSS ties together your other support
  systems.
• For each process decide to use BSS functionality
  or build an interface to an external system

Reseller Control Panel
Online Storefront
Customer Control Panel
Plesk
Provisioning System
Virtuozzo
Trouble Ticketing System
Ecommerce
Billing
Marketing
Reseller
CRM
Support
Accounting System
Custom Application
Domain Registrar
In-House System
Payment Gateway
3rd Party Application
6
Overview of PEM.Billing Architecture
PEM.Billing Core
Service Gates (10)
Plug-Ins (30)
PEM Gate
Order Processing
Workflow Engine
OpenSRS API
Taxation Payments
OpenSRS
GoDaddy API
E-Commerce
GoDaddy
Notifications
Authorize.Net API
Authorize.Net
PaymentTech API
Reporting
PaymentTech
Promos Discounts
Manually Provisioned Items Gate
Service Plan Manager
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PEM.Billing Components

• PEM.Billing delivers a solution that can be
  integrated and customized according to service
  provider needs.

Pre-integrated plug-ins available to interface
with external systems
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PEM.Billing Hosting Provider Features

• PEM.Billing supports hosted services

9
Feature Highlight - Multiple Levels of Control
Panels

• Service Provider
• Develop service plans for resellers and end users
• Online marketing of promotions
• View system-wide sales and usage reports

• Resellers
• Multiple levels of sub-resellers
• Customized branding
• Unique service plans

• End Users
• Upgrade from control panel
• Pay bills, view invoices
• Submit trouble tickets

10
Feature Highlight - Workflow Builder

• Configure the workflow to fit the providers
  operations
• Flow can include automatic and manual steps
• Billing Manager is shipped with few pre-defined
  workflows

11
Customized Communications

• Insert customer communications into your workflow
• Re-brand email and customer notifications
• Retain a copy of all customer communications
• Notify via HTML, text, PDF, or SMS (using
  third-party gateways)

Bandwidth usage warning HTML version
Order Accepted
High Bandwidth Usage
Notify Customer (email)
Notify Customer (email)
Manual Process Complete
Automated Process Complete
12
Feature Highlight Web Store

• Customize your web store
• Look and feel
• Ordering sequence

13
Feature Highlight Ancillary Services

• PEM Billing Manager can be expanded to bill
  services not traditionally offered by hosting
  providers

14
Feature Highlight Robust Reporting

• Drill down reports for service providers and
  resellers

15
Feature Highlight Payment Gateways
Billing Manger Core
Authorize.Net
Authorize.Net API
PaymentTech
PaymentTech API

• Real-time Payment Processing
• Modes of operation pre-authorization only,
  authorization and capture
• SDK (future) delivers rapid integration
• Rapidly add new payment gateways and connect to
  external systems
• Reconciliation support
• Verify cash billed against cash in account
• Direct Debit and GIRO Support
• Supports integration with bank systems for direct
  debit, GIRO

16
Feature Highlight Fraud Screening
Fraud Screening Complete
Order Placed
Score Too High?
No
Calculate Fraud Score
Yes
Reject Order?
Approve?
Yes
Manual Approval
No
No
Yes
Reject Order

• Score based fraud system
• Over 20 fraud plug-ins Black IP, Black email,
  excessive order amount, originating country,
  phone numbers, black credit cards, etc.
• Configure scores and workflow
• Create new filters
• Integrate or design your own fraud filters using
  the SDK (future)

17
Competitive Marketplace for Billing Solutions

• SWsoft Billing Manger delivers a pre-packaged
  solution that can be integrated and modified
  according to service provider needs.

Solutions priced at or below 300/server and
install without customization Solutions which
must be customized by a professional services
team over a 6 month deployment schedule
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Roadmap - PEM
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Questions and Answers

• Conclusions
• Billing its not as easy as it looks
• Billing you can spend time billing customers or
  getting new customers
• Billing should not be the deciding factor in
  whether or not you can launch new services or
  respond to competive pressures in the marketplace