Smile simplifies TCP Code implementation

28/11/2012 | Category: Uncategorised

Inomial today announces the release of Smile 5.4, the latest version of its billing, rating and assurance application for telcos, ISPs and utilities. Developed in response to the TCP code changes, this major update introduces TCP compliance, extensive API updates and new spend management tools.

Smile 5.4 introduces value pools to help you track the included value that customers consume each month. If a customer uses a predeﬁned amount of their value pool, Smile automatically sends them an alert. You can customise the format and frequency of the alerts, allowing you to tailor notiﬁcations to each customer’s needs.

Spend limits restrict the amount a customer can spend on a usage type. By applying an action after the spend limit is reached, Smile helps reduce consumer bill shock. For example, a customer can no longer make overseas calls after they reach an international calls spend limit of $100. If a customer needs a higher spend limit, just increase the limit for that customer.

Smile 5.4 also includes more than 20 new APIs. Use the new APIs to access spend management tools over a SOAP interface and seamlessly integrate these tools with your existing applications. Enhancements to the helpdesk, workﬂow and ordering systems are also included in this release, including the ability to start a workﬂow by raising a ticket.

Smile documentation is now online

26/10/2012 | Category: Uncategorised

Our new Document Repository (docs.inomial.com) contains the new Smile 5.4 Developer Guide, documentation for CDR formats and the existing Smile manual. We’ll add a User Guide towards the end of the year and a Configuration Guide in 2013.

To access the Document Repository, email docs@inomial.com for a username and password. Please share your feedback with us, and let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Smile 5.3.10 released

11/10/2012 | Category: Release Notes, Uncategorised

Smile 5.3.10 has been released. This is a maintenance release that includes key improvements and bug fixes.

Enhancements

The Debit Allocations stationery table now shows allocated transactions for itemised credits.
The Invoice Item table for Invoice stationery now contains an optional description column.
The Hint field of the Payment Log now displays full cheque numbers.
Credit control functionality now includes the ability to batch statements.
Usage data display for Flow Control subscriptions has been optimised.

Noteworthy bug fixes

Added additional security restrictions when downloading SOAP activity statement batches.
Fixed a problem where some browsers did not display the Next Page button when adding an invoice item.
Deprecated stationery is now hidden for all accounts.
Manual document dispatches are now logged in the dispatch log.

Minor bug fixes and changes to custom code are not included in this summary.

Recent enhancements

08/10/2012 | Category: Inomial News, Release Notes

We’ve been working hard to make Smile the best rating and billing system in the business. Here’s some of the features we’ve added to Smile 5.3 over the past year:

New importer for Optus Wholesale Gateway CDRs
New integrations with Telstra InfoTranz and iSeek prepaid gowireless
New features for the SOAP API, including self-serve prepaid purchasing, rated activity for invoices and improved error messages
New prepaid features, including prepaid types and time-of-day restrictions
Improvements to transaction searches, aged debtor reports and usage alert groups
Usability updates for the helpdesk, commissions and Flow Control functionality

Automating spend management alerts with Smile 5.4

26/09/2012 | Category: Blog, Inomial News

Avoiding bill shock and sending spend management alerts are key components of the new TCP code. To help you comply with the code, Smile 5.4 contains new tools to help you monitor and manage customer spend.

Under the code, customers must be notified when they consume 50%, 85% and 100% of their included usage. Smile 5.4 automatically sends usage alerts to customers when they reach these thresholds. Customers can also configure additional, custom alerts at other thresholds to help them take control of their monthly spend.

Smile 5.4 lets you monitor:

the physical value of included usage, such as included download limits
the monetary value of included usage
the amount that a customer spends on a particular usage type, such as premium SMS or international calls

Smile 5.4 is in beta and will be released in the coming months. Contact Inomial for more information about how Smile 5.4 can help you meet your new compliance requirements.

Are all billing cycles created equal?

11/09/2012 | Category: Blog

A billing cycle dictates when invoices are sent and when they are due, and impacts your cash flow and the utilisation of network resources. Smile supports monthly and anniversary billing cycles, but what’s the difference between the two?

If you use a monthly billing cycle, the invoices for all customers are generated on the same day each month. This is a good option for smaller businesses, because you only need to process the billing run once a month. However, a monthly billing cycle means that all invoices have the same due date, causing a monthly peak in your cash flow.

Monthly billing cycles may also cause contention issues, as all customers are unshaped at the same time each month. In general, we do not recommend monthly billing for companies with more than 5,000 end users or ISPs with included usage plans.

In contrast, if you use anniversary billing, a customer’s invoice is generated a month after they first sign up. The invoice due dates are spread over a month, streamlining cash flow and network usage. Anniversary billing is more labour-intensive because you should process the billing run at least once a week, but it uses less system resources – monthly billing for 5,000 customers uses the same amount of system resources as anniversary billing for 150,000 customers!

Want more information? Contact Inomial about designing a billing solution that’s right for you.

Inomial brings a Smile to Internode’s new mobile offering

22/08/2012 | Category: Customer News

Inomial recently partnered with Internode, one of Australia’s largest telecommunications carriers, to implement Smile as a revenue system for Internode’s new NodeMobile voice offering. Developed by Inomial, Smile helps telcos and ISPs manage their revenue and collections.

Inomial and Internode have created a solution that Internode founder Simon Hackett describes as an “awesome product”. Inomial’s agile development team extended Smile to meet Internode’s requirements, providing a smooth integration into existing systems. Smile’s flexible configuration supports usage alerts, spend limits and other features to help businesses comply with the TCP code.

NodeMobile debuted in the Australian market on August 14, 2012, and is a post-paid, social media-friendly mobile offering to existing Internode customers. NodeMobile plans include generous included value for voice, data and text, and reduce the risk of bill shock by offering usage alerts for voice and data allowances.

A best-in-class rating engine, flexible configuration, responsive development team and TCP compliance. Now that’s something to Smile about.

Understanding the Cloud

29/08/2011 | Category: Inomial News

I was recently invited by Ballarat ICT to give a talk about “understanding the cloud”. I don’t often speak at this kind of thing and it was great fun to flex my Keynote skills, and some of the research I did for the talk was quite interesting.

Among other things, I made the point that consolidating and sharing IT resources is not at all new; we’ve been doing it since the dawn of the CPU. It’s great shock value to quote Larry Ellison – that cloud computing as a technological term is “gibberish” – but he has a point. It’s not new, and as an industry, we’ve been doing it for a long time.

But given the ubiquity of the internet, of clients capable of connecting to it, and of servers capable of securely isolating their resources, it’s clear to me that “cloud computing” is going to be an increasingly common aspect of modern IT departments. Using remote, shared IT resources is always going to have reliability and economic advantages over dedicated, local IT resources.

Of course, cloud computing is no IT panacea – there are plenty of examples of cloud services suffering outages – but I believe that any given cloud service provider is going to be far more reliable and economical than any in-house IT system of similar complexity. The reason you hear about Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Salesforce outages is not because they’re particularly common, but simply because they are big, and therefore newsworthy. In-house IT outages happen every day, but you don’t hear about them because they’re not interesting.

The days of the server room are limited. Long live the data centre!

Mark speaks in Ballarat

ZettaGrid Cloud Launch

08/07/2011 | Category: Customer News

From Communications Day, July 6th: “Australian cloud services provider ZettaGrid has launched its VMware vCloud Connector beta programme to assist customers in managing a hybrid cloud environment.”

NewSat Business Results