Telstra Hits Billing Software Snag
Telstra Hits Billing Software Snag
February 28, 2006: Telstra overdue overhaul of its billing and customer relationship management (CRM) software has been waylaid by a number of software flaws.
The project is due to start soon for a February 2008 completion of the build phase. However, it has drawn concern from inside the Telstra camp that the $500 million Siebel/Comverse software upgrade will be weak in areas such as real-time balances and account top-ups, and will only be able to deliver half of what is needed overall.
The telco is currently in talks with its systems integration partner Accenture and other software vendors to fill holes in Siebel/Comverse’s software.
The billing issues are a severe problem for Telstra’s next-generation network and systems project. According to IDC’s telecommunications and consumers markets research director Landry Fevre, billing is probably the toughest challenge that Telstra is facing over the next three years.
Mobile services require highly flexible and agile billing systems to cope with the rapidly changing market. Telstra says it has developed a “very aggressive” timetable to deal with its software stumbling blocks.
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