TravelSIM, a popular mobile brand for Australians traveling abroad, was slow to implement new product offerings and was suffering from escalating development costs for existing billing platform built in-house. As soon as the legacy billing platform was swapped out for PortaBilling solution, TravelSIM not only took back full control over business operations and product creation, but also kept a tight lid on operational costs with no fees to pay per subscriber. Leveraging the PortaBilling solution, TravelSIM was able to launch new offerings on a leading MNO network in the record time of just 2 months.
Customer Profile
- MVNO primarily providing telecom services for Australians traveling overseas.
- Over 400k active subscribers.
- Started operations in 2006.
Business Goals
- Accelerate time-to-market for new services.
- Decrease operational and fixed costs.
- Improve customer lifetime value.
TravelSIM Challenges
Since its inception, TravelSIM was running business operations based on a platform developed inhouse. Although the solution performance was aligned with the business needs in the early stages, it became a bottleneck when business requirements became more demanding in order to remain competitive. The company experienced the following challenges:
- Long development cycles, resulting in slow business response rates and delayed promotions of new offers.
- Escalating development costs resulted in decreasing profitability.
- Lack of deep customer insight functions necessary to build loyalty programs and increase customer lifetime value.
PortaOne’s Solution
Prior to system integration and customization tasks, PortaOne carried out a 3-week business analysis consultancy service as part of the professional services which TravelSIM contracted in preparation for the installation. The resulting report explicitly identified all key features and integration points required for the implementation and precisely matched TravelSIM business requirements with PortaBilling functional capabilities. It included a detailed project plan and scope of work documents, which provided the focus and common understanding necessary to streamline the delivery phase and accelerate time-to-market.
The TravelSIM/PortaOne project was implemented in just 2 months, allowing TravelSIM to go live with new product offerings and minimal interruption to TravelSIM services. In just 6 months after the start several thousand customers were already served by the new solution.
“We were obviously frustrated that we couldn’t go to market quicker, couldn’t design our new plans or do a promotion on the fly.”
says Jamien Zimmermann, the founder and CEO of TravelSIM.
“It was taking 2 months to put a simple promotion on the field. With PortaBilling everything was really native and out-of-the box. And on top of that we had a feeling that we were back in control”.
PortaOne Solution’s Benefits
Generally, TravelSIM benefited from implementing the PortaOne billing platform in three key areas:
Accelerated time to market
With the up-and-running PortaBilling solution, TravelSIM is able to configure, launch and change new offerings on a daily basis independently of PortaOne or the host MNO and with minor interruption to TravelSIM services. Having achieved a desired speed to market which is an essential quality for a MVNO, the company now aims to expand its niche to Small Business.
Reduced costs
With PortaOne’s lifelong unlimited license TravelSIM can now creatively test and launch new communication services or promotions at no additional fees per feature or per subscriber. Furthermore, with the highly flexible functional capabilities of the PortaOne Billing platform, TravelSIM was able to cut back the amount of in-house developments, resulting in operational savings. To round it off, PortaOne professional services team customized features to substantially reduce the risks of financial losses from offline charging by subscribers roaming on satellite networks.
Improved customer lifetime value
TravelSIM saw the business opportunity of encouraging subscribers to use their roaming sim-cards in home country as well. With PortaBilling, TravelSIM is able to create differentiated promotions and bundles comprising VoIP and mobile broadband to encourage subscribers to continue using the same SIM card in Australia.
About PortaOne Inc.
PortaOne develops BSS, billing and call switching solutions for communication service providers since 1997. We are a selected vendor for more than 470 CSP companies in 90 countries. We provide our solutions for middle and small size CSPs, helping our clients to be first at the market with new product offers while keeping the TCO under total control. We appreciate our clients’ time and investments providing the best value for money. Visit PortaOne website to find out how we can help you to succeed.
Contact us:
For calls and faxes from Canada and the USA: + 1 866 747 8647
For calls outside Canada and the USA: +1 604 628 2508
