Based on the idea that time equals money, usage-based billing software allows companies to charge customers based on how much time they spend using the company’s goods or services. Usage-based billing gives businesses another opportunity to increase revenue while helping customers avoid unnecessary costs associated with paying flat-rate bills.
As you consider whether or not this type of billing software could benefit your business, there are five prudent considerations you should be aware of before making a final decision.
Usage-based billing software is a piece of software that manages the flow of products and finances in a business. It is sometimes also referred to as invoicing software or accounting software. These tools are used by businesses to track income, and expenses, and manage financials more efficiently.
Here's the list of 5 prudent considerations when choosing a usage-based billing software.
With a usage-based billing plan, you'll be able to control the number of minutes, messages, or gigabytes that you use and still have an affordable per-minute rate. Usage-based billing is becoming the preferred business model because it's both flexible and economical. Plus, it makes calculating bills much easier than with traditional one-time payments.
With cloud usage based billing providers like NEON telecom billing software, consumption billing becomes so much more achievable and convenient. Usage billing means you only pay for what you use and when.
Whether your company has just started out or is already established, it may benefit from transitioning to usage based billing as soon as possible in order to get ahead of the curve on this emerging trend. Usage-based billing can also lead to a better bottom line for your company by reducing overages and getting rid of unwanted surprises at tax time.
One consideration when looking for a usage-based billing software is its scalability. Having the capacity to expand your business without replacing hardware and reengineering applications are important considerations for staying competitive. Look for usage-based billing providers that offer flexible deployment models such as IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.
These providers will allow you to buy capacity on demand rather than invest in excess capacity which may go unused. Another way to maximize usage of existing infrastructure is through the adoption of cloud usage based billing.
Cloud usage-based billing offers a pay-as-you-go approach where customers can purchase computing power from vendors by the hour or day (depending on what they need). With this type of pricing model, there’s no need to buy costly equipment upfront because everything scales according to needs.
Usage-based providers should also provide ways for customers to integrate their current technology into their system through consumption billing or usage billing.
A strong security solution is essential to protect both your customers and your billing software. This can be a daunting task, which is why some software providers will sell you a comprehensive security package along with their billing software at an additional cost.
The usage based billing software needs to be capable of adapting to the market regulations or standards for the protection of your customer's data and low regulatory risk. It's important to ask the right questions about the various protections that are available before making a purchase decision.
Some of these protections include encryption for sensitive data, VPN for external access (both inbound and outbound), password protection, firewalls for malware protection, and intrusion detection systems.
Your customer portal provides customers with a way to monitor and pay their usage bills. You can also see who is consuming what, what device they are using, and how much data they are using.
Plus, you can offer a variety of payment options like credit card payments or set up automatic recurring payments to manage costs. All these features combined provide the end user with an efficient way to stay on top of their account while you keep your business running smoothly.
What's more, Internationalization is important when it comes to purchasing usage-based billing system. If you want your service to reach an international audience, then the software should be in their native language.
Just imagine if users couldn't read or understand how to purchase content because it was in English. There would be so many lost opportunities for the business owner. Internationalizing a billing system will make it easier for customers across the world to understand and enjoy your service.
It also allows you to find niche markets that may not speak English as their first language. As technology continues to advance, having multilingual support will become more necessary than ever before.
NEON SOFT makes starting and managing your usage-based business easier than ever before. NEON provides Billing, Invoicing, Settlement, Netting and other functionalities to manage all financial aspects of the telecom business.
Manage an ever-increasing number of interconnection partners, reducing costs through automation and through the reduction of errors in a traditionally error-prone process.
It also integrates with more backends than any other product of its kind, which means that you’ll never have to worry about conversion rates again. With all these benefits in mind, the only question left to ask yourself is what are you waiting for? Get started today with a free demo!