Real-time charging has become a very important part of modern-day telecom operations. To ensure proper real-time charging for all services, it is essential that you employ a 3GPP-compliant online charging system. There are many immediate benefits of an OCS system; however, you should always make an investment after considering the long-term benefits it can offer.
1. Dynamic discounts
Discounts provide an innovative way to improve your relationship with your existing subscribers. A quality OCS system can help you launch innovative discounts dynamically and without any effort. For example, in case a customer has consumed his data pack 5 days before the end of billing cycle and wants a top up of 10 GB, it would be harsh to provide him that data pack for duration of only 5 days. With next-gen OCS, it is possible to have a separate top up plan ongoing with its very own expiration date within any particular billing cycle.
2. Notifications and promotions in real-time
Imagine a young basketball fan watching a regular season match. He gets a notification about playoffs telecast streaming right on his phone at an attractive price. The chance of him buying that service is higher than any other person who is not interested in basketball. This type of tie-up is easily possible by procuring an Online Charging System that comes with API functionalities. By partnering with a competent telecom services provider that has such an OCS, you can sell OTT services conveniently and increase your revenue.
3. Ability to stay relevant with up and coming services
With the expected IoT proliferation and launch of 5G, the telecom market has become extremely competitive. Tracking all services and billing them has become more difficult than ever before. Hence, you should always deploy a versatile OCS that is not only capable to meet the requirements of today but also keep up with up and coming services. For example, new services like IoT require OTA firmware updates to ensure consistent operation of the connected devices. Similarly, there will be many other requirements that you need to keep in mind before making a move to a new telecom billing platform.
4. Better integration of network policies
With network policy integration, it is possible to integrate the OCS with PCRF. As a result of this integration, OCS directly communicates with PCRF and updates it about the status of users. Hence, PCRF is able to enforce different policies as per the billing and charging rules. This integration comes in very handy when customers exceed their allocated data or minutes early in the billing cycle. With PCRF’s status updates, it becomes easy to learn about the expiration of allocated quotas and enforce throttling to prevent customer from overusing high-speed data and incur additional charges.
5. Security updates
The billing solution and OCS deployed by you should be protected with the latest encryption. This is necessary as your OCS contains business-critical customer information that you simply cannot afford to lose. Always choose an OCS provider that takes security very seriously and is willing to provide security updates at regular intervals to keep hackers away.
Conclusion
The evolution of the telecom industry and increased competition between companies has led to the creation of new requirements. Above everything else, there is a need for a versatile OCS that not only meets present requirements but also has the capability to fulfill upcoming requirements. First and foremost, it is important that you procure a 3GPP-compliant OCS to prevent revenue leakage. Also, look out for the above mentioned features in your OCS solution to ensure proper charging and billing at all times. By deploying the right kind of OCS for your business, you will be able to reap long-term rewards without worrying about any type of revenue leakage.