BellSouth Implements New System Affording Comprehensive, Single View of Customers Product Packaging and Customer Billing Relationships Systems Co-produced with AMS

BellSouth and American Management Systems (AMS) in late May announced the deployment of a new, modular system designed to allow a single view of BellSouth customers across all product lines. As the industry enters an age where cellular, PCS, paging, Internet, local and long distance telephony will be bundled on one bill, one major challenge facing telecommunications firms is the implementation of systems and processes that permit robust and rapid packaging and discounting. Should the AMS/BellSouth customer-based marketing tools deliver as advertised, this system would be one of the most advanced of its kind implemented by an RBOC.

The system consists of five modules, says Fred Hamff, vice president, AVP Billing, BellSouth. "We need to have a converged bill, but that alone is not enough," he says. "You only get minimal benefits from the customer receiving a single bill. The real benefit lies in offering discounts, and being able to vary products within a certain package. "The modules, which, he explains, are designed to "rapidly define, price, negotiate, bill and track product and service packages" include:

Package Manager-Designed to allow BellSouth to combine services on a single bill, and manipulate the allocation of costs back to the various service departments. A consumer could order a package of services including Internet, cellular, local and long distance from BellSouth, for example, and receive free Internet access with the package. There are costs associated with providing that access, however, and Package Manager lets BellSouth allocate the revenue stream across products to reflect those costs. This means the manager of Internet services will receive some credit from the sale even if the Internet line item on the customer's bill reads $0. 00.

Discounting Module-Allows a long-term view of a customer, which in turn allows discounts based on time periods such as a year's usage, for example. It also does the computations for special features and plans, such as converting minutes of use to frequent flier miles. This module also sends salespeople periodic messages to help them manage the account.

Customer Billing Relationship Module-Allows BellSouth to "look at the account holistically, " Hamff says. For example, if a large bank had accounts in all nine BellSouth states, the bills could be tied together. This view goes not only across services but also across billing systems; if Headquarters is buying access from CABS while the rest of the account is processed by CRIS, the services can still be viewed as parts of a whole. Package Tracker-Allows marketing to receive real-time feeds concerning packaging efforts. In the past, Hamff says, marketing inspectors and analysts "would wait for a month to find out if a package was working...now that data is available the next day."

Bill Day Processor-The "guts" of the system, which applies the packages and discounts to actual usage on the day the bill is processed. "Say my family meets a threshold that allows us to enjoy discounts." says Hamff. "The only way to understand if you met the thresholds and actually get those discounts is on billing day." This module does that by linking to the other four modules and processing their commands.

The project took nine months to complete, following a three- to four-month requirements definition period, and was completed on time without major changes. Interestingly, the Marketing department rather than the IT staff designed the basic requirements for the project. (Editor's note: IT projects designed primarily by Marketing staff sometimes contain unrealistic hardware and software requirements.) Hamff said that here, in helping the Marketing staff develop advanced yet realistic requirements, where AMS was perhaps most helpful. The product may eventually be co-marketed by BellSouth and AMS, with AMS holding the relevant licenses and BellSouth receiving royalties. Therefore, if AMS is to sell the product it must first receive BellSouth's blessing-which may be long in coming. "We didn't develop this thing to sell it, we did it to better compete, " Hamff says. "I would be a fool not to [delay the outside sale of the product by AMS]."

BellSouth is currently offering video services in a trial within one of its regions. Cellular service is being bundled with local bills in a trial as well, while Internet access has been available for more than a year. The FCC will determine when BellSouth will be allowed into long distance service.

AMS sees U.S. RBOCs and foreign PPTs as encompassing the market for this product, says Kathleen McLean, AMS vice president. AMS has had a standing relationship with BellSouth since 1992.