Tricolor (National Satellite Company NJSC) is a multi-platform operator that provides a range of digital services and services, including access to watching TV via satellite and via the Internet. The total base of the operator in the third quarter of 2020 reached 12,206 million households.
Tasks
The company needed a new billing system that could solve the following tasks:
- support new business lines;
- provide quick and flexible setting of new tariffs and offers for customers;
- increase productivity;
- make financial statements more convenient and transparent.
Background and motivation
Until 2016, Tricolor used a billing solution from another developer. However, the business developed rapidly, including through new directions.
The company was aimed at the development of multi-screen non-linear TV viewing. As part of this strategy, it launched several products, such as the Manage the Air service with pause, rewind and TV archive functions, and its own online cinema.
The operator wanted to increase the speed of providing new services, including through the optimization of internal billing processes. In order to choose a new solution, in 2016 the company initiated a tender, inviting major Russian and global suppliers of billing systems to it. The shortlisted suppliers received test tasks that helped evaluate their products in practice.
Solution
In a tender that lasted for about six months, the operator chose the SAP Hybris Billing solution. “According to the results of test tasks issued by suppliers, the SAP team and products turned out to be the most effective,” explains Tricolor.
This solution includes several subsystems and functions. The product catalog allows you to accumulate all tariffs and price offers for customers in one place. Tarificator processes billing data at high speed or, in other words, counts money. In addition, Hybris Billing has a subsystem based on SAP ERP, an enterprise resource planning software. It is integrated with accounting systems and provides reporting.
implementation
For the project, a team was formed from Tricolor employees, SAP Services CIS experts and partner companies. After a survey and analysis of the IT infrastructure and processes, work began in two directions at once. It was necessary not only to launch and configure the system, but also to ensure the migration of the subscriber base to the new platform.
By itself, replacing a billing solution is a complex and large-scale task, the operator admits. This system stores all financial information, data on clients and settlements, tariffs and offers developed over the years. The need to transfer a multimillion-dollar subscriber base further complicates the task.
“In preparation for the migration, we have assembled a large test bench that is equal in performance to a real industrial system. All processes were honed on it for a long time and in detail, ”they say in Tricolor.
Specialists created a so-called intermediate migration layer, into which information was loaded from the existing system. Then, in the intermediate layer, the data was verified and verified and, if necessary, enriched with information from other sources. Only after that they were transferred to the new system.
In the process of preparation, the team also worked out the mechanisms for uploading information, tested the performance and stability of the system. Before the start of industrial migration, we held a final rehearsal – we measured the speed of the processes and made sure that the data was safe.
The migration itself, which took about two years to prepare for, took only two days. Tricolor’s transition to SAP Hybris Billing was completed in February 2019.
The results
According to representatives of the operator, the key result of the new billing solution is an increase in the speed of setting up new tariffs and offers for customers. Whereas the process used to take weeks, now it takes one to two days.
New services, including access to TV via the Internet and video surveillance, have been organically integrated into the new billing system, Tricolor adds.
In addition, the stability and performance of the system has increased, and the preparation of financial statements has been simplified.
Plans and prospects
In the future, Tricolor plans to use SAP Hybris Billing to support new lines of business. The system has proven to be a flexible tool that can support the operator’s ideas and quickly implement them.
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