On November 19, 2004North West Telecom held a BoD meeting to address installation of the unified billing system (BS) based on Amdocs’ platform at the Company as a top priority for its development.

Amdocs Billing Suite, as the software product for BS installation, was chosen at the tender in which 20 Russian and foreign suppliers participated. The tender committee consisting of representatives of Svyazinvest’s super regional telecom operators and Rostelecom spent 18 months on selecting the supplier that holds extensive experience and resources to execute such a project and which presented the most feasible billing solution. The software solution proposed by Amdocs is operated by many companies; it has been tested for reliability and licensed by the Russian Telecommunications Ministry for use at telecom companies with a customer base of up to 33 mln.

The billing system is a software system that makes it possible to conduct billing operations (i.e. collect and process data on telecom services provided) and computerize operations of subscriber departments, monitor payments and raise invoices.

The implementation of the unified BS at Svyazinvest’s subsidiaries, as part of the billing transition program, will make it possible to make use of the unified technology for provision of telecom services, which, in turn, will make operators’ settlement system more transparent and reduce traffic costs. In addition, regional telecom operators will be able to make use of the unified tariff structure and also provide new telecom services all across Russia.

Phasing in the Amdocs BS will allow North West Telecom:

·       to improve the transparency of its major customer-related transactions, thereby allowing it to boost revenues considerably;

·       to eliminate the possibility of customer billing errors thanks to top-notch and highly reliable software;

·       to introduce unified customer service standards in order to speedily meet their needs;

·       to secure rapid roll-out and high quality technical support of new telecom services within the North West Federal District;

·       to form a unified customer base, which makes it possible to provide multi-branch corporate clients (e.g. Sberbank) with unified technical solutions;

·       to raise its competitiveness by providing customers with a much wider range of telecom options than today;

·       to make a more accurate and complete record of the telecom operators’ revenue earnings;

·       to switch to a unified technical policy within Svyazinvest;

·       to speed up launch of the unified business management system, thereby lowering installation costs;

·       to secure return of investment in the Oracle project by:

·       providing accurate and timely data for the company’s financial system;

·       substantially reducing the number of interfaces based on different billing platforms; 

Commenting on the decision adopted by the board of directors, general director of North West Telecom Vladimir Akulich said that the installation of the billing software Amdocs Billing Suite will enable his company to raise the efficiency of its operations, which directly rely on flexibility in collecting and processing information. Billing solutions from Amdocs will allow the telecom operator to obtain statistical data and use it for framing long-term network expansion plans. Prompt receipt of statistical data will raise the operating efficiency of the telecom operator’s departments, for example those involved in marketing, economics, planning and accounting.