Business Intelligence - Service Providers: Offer Agents Robust Back-Office Systems

Jim Lazeroff, Director of Marketing of software company Info Directions Inc., wants to remind service providers of the importance of giving agents access to robust, reliable billing and administrative systems. Agents who can back up their telecom services with strong back-office systems help boost income for everyone. TAG spoke with Lazeroff in May.

TAG: They say even a small back office can affect a business model for the better – can you elaborate?

Jim Lazeroff: It’s important to remember that the core competency of the agent channel is sales, so anything that’s available to help them focus on that activity will enhance their success. Today, the concept of the back office has expanded to include a wide range of tools that can help agents develop a solid operations infrastructure that supports their sales efforts. An agent’s success can really depend on how well service providers are able to extend their back office capabilities into the channel to help automate processes, provide detailed reports, and proactively manage customers.

TAG: For a certain sized agent, a back office can free them up to bring in more revenue. But does it make sense for smaller companies?

JL: It certainly can. Agents need to concentrate on actions that bring in revenue, so the back office should be as simple to manage as possible. Because smaller companies have fewer resources at their disposal, it may be even more critical for them to make sure back office activities are handled as efficiently as possible. With a quality back-office system there is the ability to eliminate repetitive operations, exploit sales opportunities and manage orders by exception – so only orders that require additional information get hands-on attention. Everything else is automated.

Smaller companies have a great advantage today in hosted solutions, which allow organizations to access the same kinds of tools that large enterprises have on-site, but in a “pay-as-you-grow” model that makes it easier to implement and more affordable to operate.

TAG: How does modularity in platform design and flexibility in pricing structures affect back-office implementation, if at all?

JL: This is, perhaps, the most critical element of the back-office decision. In selecting a back-office solution, there is usually a great deal of flexibility in fine-tuning some of the functionality, but the base structure, the architecture, of the system is not going to change. Looking at the underlying technology of a back-office system is paramount; because that’s something you will have to live with.

Find out whether the system can leverage the latest technologies, and whether it’s open and easy to integrate with third parties. One thing to look for in the due diligence process is whether you feel that the system will conform to your business or whether it seems as if your business will have to conform to the system. If you get the feeling it’s the latter, you should keep looking for another solution.

For on-site solutions, find out if there is an option for rolling out the system in an incremental manner, expanding capabilities as you grow. In essence, you’re using the return on investment to fund additional enhancements. In a hosted environment, make sure that the application is flexible and secure over the Internet, giving you total access to your data at all times.

It’s also important that the solution be able to scale with you as you grow. Many organizations start out with simple back-office systems that they rapidly outgrow. These companies often find they end up paying twice as much as it would have cost to invest in a more robust system in the first place.

TAG: Tell me a bit about how Microsoft .NET figures into platforms and the benefits it brings.

JL: When Info Directions first began developing on .NET, we knew we had a unique opportunity to be first to market with a leading edge OSS/BSS solution with the speed, reliability and scalability to accommodate next-generation service providers and their complex offerings. But on a broader basis, it’s important to note that Microsoft’s .NET technology is the realization of numerous technology developments: the Internet, distributed computing, XML standardization, Web services, etc.

For developers, that means .NET provides powerful tools that make application and interface development faster and more reliable. It also makes everything the application does a service and makes these services available to external applications, so integration is simpler. Finally, .NET provides the ability to create a Web-client graphical user interface that is intuitive and provides access to customer data without the performance limitations inherent in traditional browser-based solutions.

Ultimately, .NET provides the ability to create applications that not only do their critical operational tasks well, but allows both functionality and information to be shared and extended on a broad basis without incurring significantly more cost.

TAG: Is having a back-office platform becoming a differentiator in the agent world?

JL: Yes, it’s not enough today to just have great products – service providers need to give their sales channels an effective way of doing business. That’s what a flexible, easy-to-use and feature-rich back office can do. Service providers need to give agents tools that help them run their businesses efficiently so they can focus on securing new sales. And for service providers, having ready access to data from their agent representatives is also important for their own operations. Sales channels that are able to move and share data from the back office have a distinct advantage in the market, so the back office can be a valuable recruiting tool for service providers.

From the agent side, it’s important for them to be “back-office wise” in choosing the service providers they plan to represent. If the supplier cannot support the agent’s sales, care, billing and information-sharing goals, it will not be a helpful business partner – even if it offers the best price, or seems to have the simplest road to start-up.

TAG: Is it integral to the evolution of the master agent model?

JL: Absolutely, because control over the back office is what allows a master agent’s network to grow. Master agents need to be able to share information across the channel, monitor sales forecasts, run reports and supervise service issues. If that foundation is not in place, the master agent will have a hard time providing support to the subagents and everyone suffers. That’s why we developed a streamlined CRM [customer relationship management] and sales application called E-Finity that gives agents an easy-to-use interface for managing these activities. For service providers, having a back-office solution that facilitates agent-master transactions and interactions is critical.

TAG: What are the innovations to watch for in platforms?

JL: We continue to see an increasing use of Web services and a more ubiquitous use of programming languages. In fact, the recent announcement that Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have settled all pending litigation between their organizations and entered into a long-term technical collaboration agreement is a significant step along the path to interoperability that can be leveraged by Internet-based applications. We’ve been seeing that trend develop in the last few years, which is another reason we began working with .NET. So, we’re expecting to see a lot more technologies that make it easier to integrate products built on different platforms. These “best-in-breed” solutions will have a lower cost and be faster to market with new features. For service providers, having a back office system with an open platform that allows them to leverage those benefits will be critical.

TAG: What does the next 12 months hold for Info Directions?

JL: Well, we hope the next 12 months are as incredible as the last 12 months have been. The feedback on CostGuard.NET is really positive among clients, prospects and industry observers. In addition, the integration between our Lexys Point of Sale product and our .NET-based wireless OSS/BSS, CostGuard XG, is enhancing our reach into the convergent market.

Our goal as an organization is to remain a leader in innovation. For the next 12 months, we plan to continue offering our clients technology that helps them expand their business, enhance customer service and improve productivity. We make a significant investment in research and development every year and will be launching a number of new modules. We’re adding capabilities that bring more automation and efficiency to service providers and leverage the open architecture of our .NET-based products. At the end of the day, delivering return on investment is exactly what service providers and agents need from back office operations; and that’s what Info Directions is focused on providing.

TAG: Other thoughts?

JL: It’s important to recognize that VoIP [Voice over IP] has really arrived and the transition from separate voice and data silos to one network is happening. Because of this, however, VoIP will not remain a free ride, and it will become just as complicated to manage, bill for, and care for a VoIP service as any other voice service. We’ve been serving VoIP customers for more than five years, and handling voice rating, billing, taxation and service bundling for even longer. We’re excited because our .NET product is ideally suited to support VoIP providers at startup and throughout their lifecycles. We see this as a great growth area where we can enable both providers and agents to capitalize on new VoIP, integrated voice and triple-play opportunities.