David Werdiger looks back at the long-term trend that has resulted in the booming cloud and subscription economy, and how our values have evolved. In the past, ownership was valued, but now it is trumped by utility. [Billing Bureau and Linked In]
David Werdiger provides three important ways to be more effective in pricing subscription services to the market: comparing to alternatives, ensuring you have permission to change, and understanding your cost structure [Billing Bureau and Linked In].
This analysis discusses how and why pricing structure often flows through the supply chain. The way pay TV companies charge doesn’t suit what customers may need; rather it’s because no-one wants to take any pricing risk! [Billing Bureau]
The subscription economy is changing the way we buy things. This article on a subscription service for disposable razors talks about what’s really going on and how disruptive services like this are to traditional FMCG marketers. [Billing Bureau]
Discusses the problem of bill shock in the telecommunications industry, how it can hurt service providers, and what they can do to prevent it or at least reduce it. [Billing Bureau]
David Werdiger likes challenging trends when it comes to call rates, observing simple trends in the number of calls people make, and reflects on why people do not think as much about the cost of the calls, so they make more of them. “I like nothing more than mining through the millions of CDRs that we collect and process on behalf of our Partners (actually, I do like more than that, but some things are…
David Werdiger predicts there is not going to be major changes when it comes to mid-sized service providers in telco market, not because there is no interest in buying smaller companies, but because there are no sellers. This is because typical little fish turns over anything from a few thousand to a few million per month, and they have established niche or vertical markets using a variety of methods. “Not a month goes by without…
David Werdiger talks about commission for mobile phone sales, how it is justified and how it is unfair that mobile phone dealers who gain recurring commissions on bills going to their customers are now in the spotlight of shame. Why do people not accept that an agent who sold you something cannot get an income stream as compensation? “Lately the finger has been pointed at the mobile phone dealers who gain recurring commissions on bills going…
David Werdiger discusses telco billing systems, and how difficult they are to get right. “Yes, telco billing systems are one of those things that you don’t notice … until something goes wrong! Telco billing is hard. Damn hard. All those CDRs, all those rate plans, all that processing. On the billing scale of complexity, telco is right up the top. We run billing environments with some of the wildest schemes anyone could think of, all in the…
David Werdiger wonders why fixed-wire service providers don’t also offer mobiles. “Firstly, the provisioning systems needed to be real-time rather than batch. You couldn’t just send over a file of phone numbers to a wholesale carrier to get them churned and placed on the white list. You had to have a system that connected (via a secure VPN) to a carrier system (which may or may not have existed). These things take many months to implement, from…