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World Billing Awards 2005 winners announced
The winners of IIR's prestigious World Billing Awards 2005 were announced on Wednesday 6th at the sumptuous Billing Systems Gala Dinner. The dinner, which took place on board the luxurious Silver Sturgeon as it plied the waters of the Thames past London's riverside landmarks, saw the annual gathering of all the movers and shakers of the Billing industry. The highlight of the Billing calendar, the awards acknowledge best billing practice and raise awareness of the significance of the billing process to the communications industry.
This year is the ninth year that these much sought after honours have been awarded and there were two new award categories added in order to reflect the ongoing evolution of service provider billing requirements and solutions. The awards are an integral part of the Billing Systems Exhibition and Conference, which takes place in London annually. For more information visit www.iir-billingsystems.com
The winners for 2005 in each category were:
1. Overall - Best Contribution to Billing
For the organisation which has had the largest impact on the BSS/OSS landscape over the past year.
LHS
2. Best Billing, Charging & Partner Management for a Non-Voice Service (NEW)
Awarded for suitability, innovation and profitability for inter-business processes, relationships and architecture for non-voice services.
Swisscom Eurospot / MetraTech
3. Most Innovative Billing Product
Awarded to acknowledge innovation and functionality in both product offering and approach to market.
MetraTech
4. Best Billing Implementation
Presented for efficient implementation of all (or part) of a system to deliver new or improved billing, charging, &/or customer care functionality.
Empresas Publicas de Medellin / Open Systems International
5. Best Revenue Assurance/Management Project (NEW)
Awarded to recognise effectiveness of a proactive or reactive project to enhance data quality and business processes that improve profits, revenues and/or cash flows.
Joint winners:
KPN / Azure
and
MTC Vodafone Kuwait / Connectiva
6. Best CRM/Customer Care Offered
Awarded for effective and differentiated CRM together with an indefinable 'feel good' association with the branded offering to both customers and partners/suppliers.
Isis Telecom
7. Most Helpful System Integrator
Rewarding helpfulness and effectiveness in one or more of the processes of systems selection, specifications &/or implementation.
"The Judging Panel decided that no nominations would be carried forward. The panel felt that there was a rising level of frustration amongst service providers with SI-led projects, and that the most effective action that the panel could take to raise the profile of this issue within the broader telecoms community would be to decline to shortlist anyone as finalists in this category."
Quotes from the winners:
"LHS would like to thank the all those involved for the Overall Best Contribution to Billing award. LHS could not have won this award without fantastic customers and great partners. The BSCS solution has been around as long as GSM and has helped our customers maximise their revenue throughout the years. Now LHS is reinventing billing once again with its revolutionary 1x product line that gives real convergence in the telecommunications world." Arnaud Lassalle, Vice President Marketing & Communications, LHS
"On behalf of Empresas Municipales de Medellin and Open Systems we thank Billing Systems for this important recognition. Empresas Publicas, EPM, gave Open Systems the opportunity to implement it's product Openflex IS in one of the more complex multi-service environments in the world. Working together, as real partners, we had the ability to overcome this challenge and show today a real example of convergence. Today Openflex is part of EPM's platform and bills more than 28 kinds of services including Telco services (Telephony, Internet, CATV and Value Added) as well as utilities services (Gas, Water and Electricity)." Hernando Parrott, Business Development Vice President, Open Intl Systems
"We're very happy with the successful cooperation between KPN and Azure Solutions in the Revenue Assurance area and with the recognition that the award signifies." Jens Groenhof, Revenue Assurance Manager, KPN
"MTC Vodafone Kuwait is happy to share this winner's award for Best Revenue Assurance/Management Project working with Connectiva Systems. We hope that our success will prompt other fellow operators to take up the challenges of revenue assurance seriously." Venkatesh Jandhyala, Revenue Assurance Manager, MTC Vodafone Kuwait
"We are thrilled to share this award with MTC Vodafone for the Best Revenue Assurance/Management project. This implementation has set the standard in deploying true end-to-end revenue management solutions. We look forward to continuing to build on the successes experienced during the MTC Vodfone project." Mark Trudeau, CEO, Connectiva
"MetraTech is pleased to accept this award on behalf of Swisscom Eurospot. We would like to thank Eurospot for providing us with the opportunity to provide them with a solution for their visionary approach to partner management and hotspot commissioning." Scott Swartz, President and CEO, MetraTech
"Following the adage that old tools don't solve new problems MetraTech built its metadata-driven platform with a fundamentally different approach. We would like to thank the judges for recognising MetraTech as the most innovative billing solution." Scott Swartz, President and CEO, MetraTech
Judges quotes:
"This year's awards went to an interesting combination of new players with innovative products and implementations, but also to 'born again' players who have convinced us that they could re-invent themselves." Pascal Coutier, CTO, Logan-Orviss International
"We had some great nominations, great companies, great vision and really good implementations. We saw things that were theoretical a couple of years ago become a reality this year! We hope to see more developments next year, especially in the CRM and SI categories." Olga Botero, Director of Customer Services, Orbitel
"The nominations that stood out were the ones where it was clear that real business benefits were being achieved. We must never lose sight of the need to create tangible revenue or cost savings from our projects." Tony Kramer, Principal Consultant, Cartesian
"This year's nominees represented some very real, pragmatic solutions to very real service provider problems. Bravo!" Barbara Lancaster, President LTC Consulting
"This year I was, if anything, more impressed than in previous years with the amount and depth of discussion that led to the choices of the judging panel." Alex Leslie, CEO, Global Billing Association
"The positioning of the billing industry has this year evolved from billing to 'financial transaction management'. This isn't a new idea, but this time the 're-brand' of billing is both credible and justified, and both the solutions and the project implementations that were presented to us by the finalists were clear evidence of an increased clarity of thinking in addressing service provider needs. The judging panel engaged in a good deal of debate and discussion in choosing the winners - we are looking forward to seeing more excellent examples of industry best practice next year." Hugh Roberts, Consultant Director, BSS/OSS Events, IIR Telecoms
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