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Every business is unique. No two companies need and use technology the same way. Multiple companies operating within the same industry can, theoretically, select the same software solution or technology platform from the exact same vendor and deploy it with contrasting motivations and objectives.

In engagements with two prominent telecommunications customers, Aria has been able to successfully implement its cloud billing platform to deliver the vastly different, and often contradictory, business and strategic objectives of each.

In the first case, a very large provider of B2B telecommunication services for enterprise, retail, and business customers wanted to reduce what had become an expansive and complex maze of products, services, and payment structures. With a customer roster of large, multi-faceted users with many lines of business, it was common for the same customer to have multiple payment terms for the different products and services consumed. Rather than managing more than 50 contract variations supported by more than 80 different sets of payment terms, the operator partnered with Aria to consolidate, standardize, and introduce a higher degree of automation.

At the opposite end of the complexity spectrum, a B2C retail provider of mobile and broadband services operating in one of the most fiercely competitive telecommunications markets in the world sought to increase revenue generated per user and enhance subscriber loyalty by introducing hyper-personalized subscriber experiences. This particular CSP wanted to dramatically expand the range of products and service options available to subscribers, offering them the freedom to build their own mobile plans and select from a wide range of billing options. The company also wanted to empower customers to formulate and manage plans on their own, to avoid accruing incremental support and service-related costs.

The circumstances and business objectives could not have been more distinct. One CSP customer with fewer but larger customers was eager to reduce complexity and consolidate. The other saw the expansion of offerings and payment options as an avenue to increasing revenue and gaining a competitive advantage. Aria’s agile cloud billing solution was up to the task in both scenarios.

After developing a successful proof of concept for the enterprise CSP, Aria implemented its cloud-based billing system and moved the operator to a digital stack. In doing so, the customer has been able to successfully simplify product offerings and billing models. The agility of Aria also enabled the CSP to implement and utilize the platform alongside its two homegrown legacy systems, which remain necessary for securing and managing larger contracts. The company is now expanding Aria into other business segments.

For the consumer focused CSP, the implementation of Aria was part of a broader and highly successful digital transformation across the business. With Aria as a prominent part of the CSP’s new best-of-breed, cloud-native BSS infrastructure, subscribers are now building their own plans and choosing from any number of pricing packages, all without having to engage a service representative. Tangentially, the ability of in-house teams to manage the Aria platform has enabled the CSP to reduce dependency on external systems integrators.

Successful BSS technology providers are those whose platforms and solutions can flex to accommodate a variety of requirements, no matter how distinct they may be. Aria demonstrated how the flexibility of its cloud-based billing platform could meet each customer’s unique billing and subscriber management needs.

Ready to see Aria Billing Cloud in action? Book a demo.

Ruth Bennett

Director of Content and Digital Marketing, Aria Systems. Ruth leads Aria’s content strategy and oversees the distribution of content via various digital channels. Ruth has 8 years of experience in the billing and monetization space, and previously spent several years in the publishing and education industries.

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The average consumer is probably not familiar with the term “conversational commerce”. But chances are most, if not all, have experienced it in some way if they have recently engaged with a brand.

Located at the intersection of technology, e-commerce, and customer service, conversational commerce enables brands and consumers to engage in ongoing and increased dialogue enhanced by AI and natural language models. Consumers experience conversational commerce through messaging apps and chatbots within websites and mobile applications when they buy products and services, send and receive money, and resolve issues.

For a textbook case study of conversational commerce in action, look no further than the stunning ubiquity of WeChat. More than one billion users in China and throughout the Asia-Pacific region spend an average of four hours a day within the platform ordering food, arranging rideshares, paying for products, and sharing information. All this activity occurs within a messaging-driven ecosystem powered by AI.

This level of advanced and all-encompassing conversational commerce has yet to take hold in the United States. Laws governing anti-competitive behavior may prevent the emergence of a singular powerhouse service like WeChat. However, aspects of conversational commerce have certainly begun to permeate consumer and brand interactions, particularly in the customer service context.

We know that brands are already deploying chat and other messaging solutions to address and, ideally, resolve incoming customer inquiries. However, the initial response from consumers has been somewhat cautious. Surveys suggest that most American consumers today prefer to speak with human agents instead of machines.

However, studies also reveal that more than half of American consumers are optimistic that AI will advance customer service experiences as technology and natural language capabilities improve, resulting in greater comfort and less frustration. Brands should take note of these sentiments and begin orchestrating internal systems to introduce AI-powered conversational commerce capabilities that will lead to higher-quality interactions with customers.

It starts with reengineering back-office systems to ensure that enterprise data sources, especially billing data, are readily accessible to the natural language AI models and applications that use it.

Billing data has a critical role to play as a driver of enhanced customer support in the conversational commerce dynamic. In the telecommunications industry, for example, 40% of incoming customer inquiries are related to the monthly bill. Any surprising charge or slightest deviation from what is expected typically compels a reaction. Management of these inquiries by human call center agents can be expensive. In some cases, just one customer service inquiry in a month can render that subscriber unprofitable to the company.

By connecting real-time billing data to chatbots, co-pilots, and other natural language applications deployed as the first line of customer service engagement, brands can quickly and efficiently answer questions and provide explanations that satisfy inquiries, all without the need for human intervention. Enterprises can reduce the quantity of call center agents needed and allow those who remain to manage the more complex and pressing issues.

Additionally, as these conversations are taking place, insights from billing data can be utilized by either machines or humans to upsell and cross-sell products and services based on that customer’s profile.

Aspects of WeChat’s success offer a glimpse into the AI-driven, conversation-first interactions that will become second nature for consumers and brands in the future. Integrating real-time billing data will enrich these interactions. As the quality of information improves, consumers will gain greater comfort with messaging platforms and the instinct to immediately request a human agent will fade.

To see how enterprises can use Aria’s data service to enrich and enhance customer interactions using real-time billing data, book a demo.

Akil Chomoko

VP Product Marketing, Aria Systems. Akil leads solution marketing at Aria, building go-to-market strategies and programs in key target industries. Akil has over 20 years of experience in the telecoms industry, serving most recently in senior product marketing and management positions at MDS Global, AsiaInfo and CSG (Intec & Volubill).

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Utilities and telco provider to implement Aria and Salesforce’s joint solution for enhanced customer management and billing across multiple lines of business

San Francisco, CA – April 17, 2024 – Aria Systems, the leader in empowering enterprises to accelerate subscription and usage-based revenue growth, announces that Centric Infrastructure Group, LLC (Centric), a Texas-based natural gas distributor and fiber optic telecommunications service provider, has chosen Aria Billing Cloud for convergent billing across all lines of business after a rigorous evaluation process. Integrated with Salesforce Communications Cloud within the AI-Optimized Concept-to-Care solution, Aria will enable Centric to deliver unparalleled customer experiences and engagement.

This collaboration showcases a prime example of Aria-Salesforce implementation transcending telecommunications, highlighting the versatility and experience of the partnered solution in serving diverse industries, including energy and utilities. Aria’s strategic SI partner Prodapt, an industry leader in Order-to-Cash transformations, will be leading the implementation.  

“Centric is dedicated to delivering unmatched customer experiences through the integration of Salesforce and Aria. Our commitment to seamless interactions is reshaping customer engagement,” stated Ross Buttermore, CFO of Centric. “Additionally, we anticipate that the agility of Aria’s cloud platform will facilitate scalability and enable us to explore additional services and products to meet the needs of consumers and businesses.”

“Centric is a forward-thinking, innovative business that has successfully leveraged its trusted name and legacy in the utilities market to expand into telecommunications and deliver even greater value to its customers,” said Tom Dibble, President & CEO, Aria Systems. “As the latest addition to our fast-growing portfolio of telco customers, Centric is also the first multi-industry enterprise to adopt our joint solution with Salesforce.”

Centric joins a roster of esteemed service providers leveraging the advanced billing capabilities offered by the joint Aria-Salesforce solution, alongside ENet, EXA, Liberty Latin America, M1, REV, Telstra, and numerous others.

“Our goal is to help service providers streamline complex processes so they can better serve their customers,” said David Fan, Vice President and General Manager of Communications Cloud at Salesforce. “Through our joint solution with Aria, we’re empowering enterprises across various markets to leverage real-time data, CRM and AI insights to deliver personalized customer experiences and drive innovation across their businesses.”

Salesforce, Communications Cloud and others are among the trademarks of Salesforce, inc.

About Aria Systems:
Aria enables enterprises to automate complex usage and subscription billing in an agile market environment. Aria Billing Cloud is top-rated by leading research firms, and innovative enterprises including Adobe, Comcast, Experian, Subaru, and Telstra depend on Aria to accelerate ideation, become customer centric, and grow recurring revenues. For more information, visit: www.ariasystems.com.

About Centric Infrastructure Group, LLC:
Centric Infrastructure Group, LLC (Centric), headquartered in Texas, is a premier provider of natural gas distribution and fiber optic telecommunications services. Positioned as a leader in infrastructure innovation, Centric seamlessly integrates gas and fiber solutions to enhance both residential and commercial development. Its distinctive dual-service model sets Centric apart from competitors, delivering unmatched reliability, performance, and customer satisfaction.

Media Contact:
Greg Kalish | gkalish@ariasystems.com | +1 516-665-3292

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Leading European media and publishing company commits to multiyear contract expansion to add additional lines of business following the successful consolidation of all digital and print customer accounts to Aria

San Francisco, CA – April 10, 2024 – Aria Systems, the leader in empowering enterprises to accelerate subscription and usage-based revenue growth, today announced that DPG Media Group has extended its contract with Aria for another three years, following the successful on-boarding of its two million subscribers to Aria Billing Cloud. DPG Media, a leading European media and publishing company with revenues of nearly $2 billion, can now support all print and digital subscribers from across its 58 newspaper titles in the Netherlands and Belgium in a centralized environment, while pursuing incremental revenue opportunities through the launch of new services and pricing models.

“The proven capability of Aria’s cloud billing platform to handle large volumes of subscriptions has allowed us to consolidate all accounts into a single system where we can move faster to better service our customers with new product and pricing offers,” said Leslie Jacobs, IT Director Business Applications, DPG Media. “Throughout the implementation process, Aria’s professional services team demonstrated a deep understanding of the media and publishing industry, working seamlessly alongside our team to overcome challenges, navigate hurdles, and ultimately complete a successful migration.”  

With the full implementation now complete, DPG Media joins Berlingske Media, Jysk Fynske Medier (JFM), Oxford University Press, Polaris Media, and Stampen Media within Aria’s expansive media and publishing portfolio. DPG Media had previously used multiple on-premises systems that were unable to unify all customers into a single view. With two million subscriber accounts across digital and print environments now fully live on the Aria platform, DPG Media can more easily introduce creative new services and pricing models that will accelerate revenue growth.

“For digitizing media and publishing companies, like DPG Media, a modern and agile billing and subscriber management platform that can handle subscription complexity in great numbers is a critical necessity,” said Tom Dibble, President and CEO, Aria Systems. “The successful onboarding of DPG Media’s print and digital subscribers to Aria, followed by the extension of our relationship with DPG Media, demonstrates the power and scale of our cloud platform.”

About Aria Systems:
Aria enables enterprises to automate complex usage and subscription billing in an agile market environment. Aria Billing Cloud is top-rated by leading research firms, and innovative enterprises including Adobe, Comcast, Experian, Subaru, and Telstra depend on Aria to accelerate ideation, become customer centric, and grow recurring revenues. For more information, visit: www.ariasystems.com.

About DPG Media: 
At DPG Media, the largest media company in the Netherlands and the leading media group in Belgium, dedicated media professionals produce independent and trusted local content. We inform, inspire, and entertain millions of people through our newspapers, magazines, radio, television, websites, apps, and podcasts. We believe that trustworthy and passionately created media can enrich life and contribute to a strong and connected society.

Media Contact:
Greg Kalish | gkalish@ariasystems.com | +1 516-665-3292

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For recurring revenue and subscription businesses, expanding into new geographic markets can unlock opportunities to access additional customers and fresh sources of revenue. With global economic optimism on the rise, more enterprises are looking outside their existing footprint for growth opportunities in the year ahead.

Moving across borders poses challenges for the whole business, particularly when it comes to billing. In each new region, companies must account for regulatory issues, comply with countrywide and local tax requirements, and consider softer, cultural sensitivities related to how companies typically invoice, correspond with, and collect payment from subscribers.

Enterprises planning an international expansion should review the following billing and subscription management considerations:

New entity versus extension of the mothership

The first order of business for any globally expanding subscription company is to determine how to organize themselves in the new market. Creating a new legal entity in each market is one option. Operating as an extension of the centrally located business is another. Some countries, like China, require all entering companies to form a standalone entity. But elsewhere, this decision will have implications for how subscribers are invoiced, and the back-office technology required. Establishing a separate legal entity will require a unique set of books, the management of disparate product catalogs, and likely a separate billing and revenue management platform. Where the choice is in their hands, companies should analyze the pros and cons of how they intend to operate, keeping these critical billing considerations in mind.

The intricate and complex nuances of taxation

Taxation rates vary greatly from one country, state, province, and county to the next. In addition to understanding the different tax rates in the locations in which they intend to operate, companies must also familiarize themselves with, and adhere to, rules and regulations regarding how and when taxes are applied, when during the buying process taxes are levied and collected, and more. In the U.S., tax is often applied after the purchase. In other countries, like Australia and most of Europe, Value Added Tax must be incorporated into the total price. In some jurisdictions, every aspect of tax must be itemized in granular detail on a receipt or invoice. There are even requirements that dictate with extreme specificity how taxes must be presented on invoices. For globally expanding enterprises, having basic knowledge of various tax rates and percentages is just not enough.

Complying with labyrinthian data regulations

Data protection is a hot-button issue across all industries and geographies. From GDPR in Europe to CCPA in California, governments and regulators continue to introduce a complex maze of laws governing the management of personal data. Data residency requirements are vast and diverse. For subscription companies, the implications are significant. A cloud company moving into a new region, for example, may be required by law to establish a data storage facility physically located in that country where billing, customer, transaction, and payment data can be housed and securely stored, never to be sent across borders. An American company moving into the DACH region will face incredibly detailed and strictly enforced requirements. Penalties for non-compliance are so severe that they could threaten or derail expansion success.

Billing notifications, free trials, cancellations, and more

As subscriptions have exploded in popularity over the past decade, the rules and regulations governing subscription management have grown in both number and complexity. With consumer complaints and crackdowns against illegal or unethical subscription management behaviors on the rise, globally expanding enterprises must familiarize themselves with the correct practices for engaging and managing subscribers. In the European Union, for example, SEPA requires companies to notify customers at least 14 days before charging or debiting for a product or service every month. Unique rules that apply to a range of subscription-related activities such as opting in and out of services, free trials that convert to paid subscriptions, renewal notifications, and subscription cancellations, continue to evolve and change.

While all this may seem daunting and onerous, subscription companies need not be deterred. Challenges can be overcome by working with locally based accounting and legal professionals and procuring a billing system that has the flexibility and agility to scale and expand as the organization moves into new markets.

Are you planning a geographical expansion for your business? Aria can help. Contact us to learn more.

Brendan O'Brien

Chief Innovation Officer & Co-Founder at Aria Systems. Brendan leads the product direction and drives the launch of new products. He introduced the world to cloud billing, and innovated database-driven, enterprise-grade web applications – before the concept of “cloud” was even on the horizon. Brendan is at the forefront of the recurring revenue revolution that is empowering enterprises — and specifically enabling information systems and new business models to secure predictive revenue streams while improving business processes.

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In late February, the global telecommunications ecosystem once again descended upon Barcelona for the annual Mobile World Congress industry conference. To no-one’s surprise, AI was once again the dominant theme, with widespread discussion among exhibitors and attendees alike, and too many AI-powered solutions to count.

With the dust having settled on this year’s show, we take a moment to reflect on our experiences in Barcelona and our time in the Salesforce Garden, where we showcased our AI-Optimized Concept-to-Care solution, co-developed with Salesforce:

Don’t tell me about your AI… Show me!

At last year’s MWC, Generative AI was a major focus of discussion and debate. However, few exhibitors had any actual AI-powered solutions to show. Communications Services Providers (CSPs), vendors, and solution providers were all in the nascent stages of exploring the new technology and attempting to understand how it could positively impact their respective businesses. Fast forward to 2024 and a dramatic shift from talking about AI and its possibilities to showcasing real-world AI solutions had taken place. Within the Salesforce Garden, for example, visitors were taken through each phase of the customer lifecycle and shown solutions that use AI to improve each step of the journey, from marketing and sales to fulfillment and customer service. All in all, the remarkable progress of AI development in a relatively short period was clearly evident at this year’s show.

Four days with Aria in the Salesforce Garden

As a strategic Salesforce Industries partner, we were onsite within the Salesforce Garden, demonstrating how AI can be deployed by CSPs to enhance the customer experience and upsell additional services. Visitors saw how Salesforce’s Billing Inquiry Manager, a solution built on Einstein 1, can access Aria’s rich billing capabilities and data via Aria Billing Studio, enabling customer service representatives to respond to incoming inquiries with greater speed and efficiency. The demo, which featured a fictional mobile customer upset about unexpected surcharges to their monthly invoice, revealed how AI can use billing data to quickly identify the cause of the surcharges – international calling, in this case – and suggest a new and upgraded calling plan that would avert similar future charges. Demo participants witnessed how providing personalized, proactive customer billing support via the combined AI-powered solution expedited the resolution of the issue, ultimately saving time and money, while also generating new revenue.

Ongoing concerns about trust and security

The ubiquitous topic of AI was accompanied by questions related to security and privacy. Visitors to the Salesforce Garden, and those who experienced the Aria demonstration, sought assurances that billing data sent to AI systems would remain anonymized and would not be vulnerable to pillaging by hackers or other nefarious actors. Aria’s long history of protecting customer data, and the fact that the joint Aria-Salesforce solution uses grounding and data masking to prevent AI systems from ‘learning’ and retaining customer data, helped to assuage concerns. The prevalence of these questions, however, demonstrates the level of hesitation among some regarding the speed with which AI is being introduced within solutions that require access to sensitive personal data. It is a concern that all solution and service providers must be prepared to address as they move ahead in pursuing AI strategies.

Never too early to look ahead

Given the speed with which AI has advanced just this past year, one can only imagine what next year’s MWC will bring. We can assume that by the time we reconvene in Barcelona in 2025, any prospective buyer of an AI-powered solution will expect to hear about actual deployments, see real-world results, and understand the extent to which humans are required to remain in the loop to preserve quality, trust, and control, even as AI improves. Companies wanting to be taken seriously in their AI pursuits will need to meet these expectations with confidence, while also being able to demonstrate the return on investment of their solutions if they are to remain relevant in the fast-moving AI-dominated world.  

To learn more about the Aria and Salesforce AI-Optimized Concept-to-Care solution, and how Aria Billing Studio enables Salesforce and Aria partners to deploy our solution at speed, request a demo.

Akil Chomoko

VP Product Marketing, Aria Systems. Akil leads solution marketing at Aria, building go-to-market strategies and programs in key target industries. Akil has over 20 years of experience in the telecoms industry, serving most recently in senior product marketing and management positions at MDS Global, AsiaInfo and CSG (Intec & Volubill).

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The dominant theme of Mobile World Congress 2024 was AI, with much discussion about which applications and use cases would generate the most value for CSPs. In this TM Forum interview, Aria Systems’ Brendan O’Brien and Jared Olkkola explain why customer care is the low hanging fruit of telecoms AI, and why billing data is of critical value in customer service and AI.

Watch this video to learn how CSPs can use AI to enhance the customer experience, upsell additional services and dramatically reduce the cost to serve:

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