billing solutions for hosting douglas johnson, swsoft product marketing director wednesday, may 9,...
TRANSCRIPT
Billing Solutions for HostingDouglas Johnson, SWsoft
Product Marketing Director
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers2
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;}
Pro_Rate_Charge{
Invoice_Item.Charge_Amt = Invoice * (days_of_service / 30);
}
Pro_Rate_Invoice();
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?}
Calculate_Tax{
IF (Tax_Zone in Zone_Array) Determine_Tax_Amount; IF (Pro_Rate)?; IF (Apply Credit);
}
Calculate_Finance_Charge{
IF (Overdue_Balance > 90 days) Determine_Finance_Chrage_Amt; IF (Good_Customer);
}
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers3
• 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?
Billing Challenges
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers4
• 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.
• Storefront
• Order Processing
• Workflow
• Service Plan Management
• Discounts, Promotions
• E-Commerce
• Reseller Support
• Trouble Ticketing
• Fraud Screening
BSS Features
• API and SDK
What is a Business Support System?
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers5
• Your BSS ties together your other support systems.• For each process decide to use BSS functionality or build an
interface to an external system
SOAP
SOAP
SO
AP
SO
AP
Core Services
Billing Manager
Eco
mm
erc
e
Bill
ing
Ma
rke
ting
Re
selle
r
CR
M
Su
pp
ort
In-House System
Custom Application
Virtuozzo
Plesk
3rd Party Application
CustomerControl Panel
Domain Registrar
AccountingSystem
Trouble Ticketing System
ProvisioningSystem
Payment Gateway
ResellerControl Panel
OnlineStorefront
Billing can be a Central Point for Your Operations
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers6
PEM.Billing Core Service Gates (~10) Plug-Ins (~30)
Order Processing
Workflow Engine
Taxation & Payments
Notifications
Reporting
Promos & Discounts
Service Plan Manager
E-Commerce
PEM Gate
OpenSRS
GoDaddy
Payment Gate
Manually Provisioned Items Gate
Authorize.Net
PaymentTech
Domain RegistrationGate
OpenSRS API
GoDaddy API
PaymentTech API
Authorize.Net API
Overview of PEM.Billing Architecture
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers7
System Included withPEM.Billing
Extended by API and Service Gates
Customizable storefront
Fraud screening system
Centralized account management system
Trouble ticketing system
Resource usage accounting
Reporting
Workflow
Tax computations
Payment gateways *
Domain registration with name spinning *
Network and resource provisioning *
Accounting system
• 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
PEM.Billing Components
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers8
• PEM.Billing supports hosted services:
Multiple Service Offerings• Domain Registration• Shared Hosting Plans• Virtual Private Servers• Dedicated Servers
• Application Hosting• DSL and Cable • VoIP and IM• Provider defined plans
• Disk space• Mailboxes• Bandwidth• Domains
Resource Based Billing• Applications• Services• Provider defined resources
Open Interfaces• Payment gateways• Domain registrars• Control panels
• Internal systems• Third party systems• Provider defined interfaces
PEM.Billing Hosting Provider Features
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers9
• 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
Feature Highlight - Multiple Levels of Control Panels
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers10
• Configure the workflow to fit the provider’s operations• Flow can include automatic and manual steps• Billing Manager is shipped with few pre-defined workflows
FraudScreening
Success
Charge Credit Card
Mark OrderAs Fraud
Put OrderOn Hold
Provision Services
Order Placed
Yes
No
Feature Highlight - Workflow Builder
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers11
• 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)
Order Accepted
Manual ProcessComplete
NotifyCustomer
(email)
High Bandwidth
Usage
Automated ProcessComplete
NotifyCustomer
(email)
Bandwidth usage warning – HTML version
Customized Communications
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers12
• Customize your web store Look and feel Ordering sequence
Add Hosting Plan
Add Resources
Collect Payment Data
Add Domain Name
Feature Highlight – Web Store
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers13
• PEM Billing Manager can be expanded to bill services not traditionally offered by hosting providers
Feature Highlight – Ancillary Services
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers14
• Drill down reports for service providers and resellers
Feature Highlight – Robust Reporting
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers15
• 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
Payment GateAuthorize.Net
PaymentTechPaymentTech
API
Authorize.Net API
Billing Manger Core
Feature Highlight – Payment Gateways
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers16
• 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)
CalculateFraud Score
Order PlacedFraud Screening
Complete
RejectOrder
ManualApproval
NoScore TooHigh?
RejectOrder?
Yes
No
Yes
Approve?
No
Yes
Feature Highlight – Fraud Screening
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers17
Business Concern Small Solutions* Custom Solutions† PEM.Billing Advantage
Rapidly launch new services to keep pace with market needs.
X Inflexible, difficult to add new services.
X Complex, long lead times and development schedules.
Resource based billing provides rapid deployment of new service plans with different resources.
Storefront integration provides instant awareness of price changes and new plans.
Integrate with multiple delivery systems.
X Inflexible, difficult to integrate.
APIs usually exist, but can be difficult to integrate.
Open API allows integration with new application servers for new service delivery.
Provide online account management to reduce service costs.
Some functions are automated.
Depends upon installation.
Delivers full management of accounts including different roles and permissions.
Scale to accommodate new customers.
X Limited by hardware, requires upgrade.
Supported Distributed processes enable the addition of hardware nodes to support nearly unlimited accounts.
• 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
Competitive Marketplace for Billing Solutions
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers18
Roadmap - PEM
4.1.6
May June July Aug Sep
4.1.7 4.2.1 4.2.2
• Reseller capabilities• Resell based on fixed margin, not resource consumption• Use provider’s merchant account to charge reseller’s
customer• Apply finance charge to reseller for CC processing• Credit limit for resellers
• Subscription management• Improved synchronization logic• Install new resources into customer subscriptions
• Domain management – support bulk availability request
PEM.BILLING 4.1.6 Top Features
• SDK for creating domains and payment gateway plug-ins• System
• Customize menus per reseller• Rich text editor to modify notifications and css/html• Enforce password change on regular basis
• Operations• Archive orders on completion• Add internal domain transfer procedure
• Service Plans• Promotions and refund improvements
PEM.BILLING 4.1.7 Top Features
• Windows Support• Windows 2003 Server• MS SQL for database
• Key administrator support• Direct provisioning of Plesk service plans• OPEN FUSION support
• Single sign on support
PEM.BILLING 4.2.1-2 Top Features
.BILLING
May 2007 Billing Solutions for Hosting Providers19
Questions and Answers
Conclusions:• Billing – it’s 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