Choosing a VoIP Billing Solution - Bundled or Stand-alone

Choosing a VoIP Billing Solution - Bundled or Stand-alone

If you are planning on launching VoIP services, you will inedvitably be faced with the question 'How will I bill for the services we provide?'

Billing for VoIP services can be a daunting task as there are a wide variety of additional features (included minutes, call forwarding, voicemail, IVR, ring groups, callback, etc) that must be accounted for on top of the standard origination/termination services.

Assuming you don't have Development staff in-house to build a custom system, you will have to evaluate a variety of systems on the market. A simple search for 'voip billing software' will return many pages of options.

There are two main models when it comes to selecting your billing system; Bundled or Stand-alone.

Bundled refers to a billing system produced by the same company as your switch/PBX. The billing component is typically sold as an add-on module to your switch and runs on the same server. Stand-alone refers to a software package that is produced by a third party development house and is not tied to any specific switch or PBX. These packages make use of generic APIs (Application Programming Interface) to integrate with your switch and other systems.

Both models have their strengths and weaknesses. In this article, we will attempt to highlight the important ones. Cost - In most cases, the bundled model is more cost-effective as the billing component is simply sold as an additional module on top switch licensing. In the stand-alone model, your billing system would be a separate software license from a different company. Performance - In the bundled scenario, the billing component is likely installed on the same server as your switch software. Although this would provide improved performance during authentication and authorization, it will severely limit scalability as your switching and billing tasks are now being performed by the same server. VoIP billing has many resource-intensive operations (call rating, reporting, etc) which would negatively impact your switch performance while they are running. You may notice decreased call quality while you perform simple billing operations or run reports. Integration - In the bundled scenario, the switch and billing system are produced by the same company and often are part of the same codebase. This makes deployment of a bundled solution considerably easier as the switch and billing were 'made for each other'. In a stand-alone scenario, the billing software manufacturer must write integration routines for each switch they work with.

Customization - It is very common in this industry to require customizations to your billing system. This is often done to facilitate data transfer to/from external systems or simply to enforce business rules that might be specific to your company. Manufacturers of stand-alone billing applications deal with customization on a regular basis. Every switch or PBX they must integrate with is effectively a new customization. Customization is just a part of daily life.

Manufacturers of bundled systems are less likely to engage in customization as it is not part of their daily requirement. Their billing code was written to operate with one switch (theirs) and there is little requirement to integrate with external systems. Maintenance - Each configuration has its own strengths and weaknesses when dealing with system maintenance and upgrades. In the bundled scenario, you may only have to perform a single set of maintenance and upgrade routines in order to keep your entire system up to date and running smoothly. The downside is that you can't perform maintenance indepedently should the need arise. Suppose you needed to take your billing system offline temporarily to apply a fix to it. This might also require taking your switch offline since both components reside on the same server and are likely part of the same codebase being upgraded.

In a stand-alone scenario, the opposite is true. You would have different maintenance and upgraded tasks for each component. This leads to additional work but is also provides the ability to perform maintenance on one component without affecting the other. Which one is right for you would depend on the skill set available and the level of service you need to provide to your customers. Security - Each scenario also has its own security pros and cons. Most billing systems require opening additional ports in order to allow customs to log in, view invoices, make payments and perform self-service. In a bundled scenario, this would mean having to run additional services (web server, etc) as well as open additional ports to the same server running your switch/PBX software. In a stand-alone scenario, each component runs on their own server and can be secured differently. Although this means you need to perform the additional work of securing two servers, it also gives you the ability to expose only the services required by each component. i.e., you would not have to expose a web service on the same server as your switch.

Summary - Based on the points we have highlighted in this article, I feel a bundled solution is a better option for start-ups and smaller scale deployments. It offers lower capital cost and ease of integration.

For deployments requiring more scalability, customization and abstraction of components (billing, switching) , purchasing independent stand-alone system would be the better of the two options.

If we can offer one piece of advice, it would be to sit down and document your billing requirements beforehand and share those requirements with any vendors you speak to. This will help you to evaluate the available billing vendors more affectively. It will also allow the prospective vendors to address your specific concerns and guide their demo and communications accordingly. s