1. Know Your Business Requirements.
What type of services will you be providing? (voice, SMS, data, IoT, cloud, etc.)
Will you need to support this service as prepaid, postpaid, or hybrid subscriptions?
How many current subscribers do you have, and how many do you plan to ramp up to?
Business Model: B2C, B2B or Wholesale?
2. Billing Capabilities
Make sure the solution can support:
Convergent Billing: Consolidate multiple and different services (mobile + broadband) into one.
Real Time Charging & Rating: Charge on the fly (prepaid services).
Mediation: Collect + process information from many different network elements.
Discounts + Promotions: Provide the ability to configure offers + loyalty programs.
3. Scalability and Performance
Cloud-native or cloud-enabled architecture.
The capability to process transactions per second.
Modular design to allow you to grow capabilities as required by your business.
Evidence of proven large deployments (reference vendor case studies).
4. Integration and Interoperability
Make sure any providers support/integrate with:
CRM, ERP, OSS, payment gateways.
APIs (TmForum Open APIs, etc.)
Third-party analytics or customer self-service portals.
5. Regulatory Compliance & Security
Compliance with regional telecom regulations (e.g., GDPR, CDR retention).
Security standards (e.g., ISO 27001, PCI DSS).
Tax calculation and reporting functionality by jurisdiction.
6. User Experience & Support
Ease UI for use in the configuration.
Self-care/fulfilment portals for customers.
Vendor support 24/7, SLAs and list on-site or off-site assistance.
7. Vendor Reputation & Roadmap
Customer references and case studies.
Number of years working in the telecom space.
Vendor’s financial stability.
Product release roadmap.
8. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Licensing model (e.g., subscription versus perpetual).
Customization & implementation costs.
Training and onboarding costs.
Maintenance, support and future upgrades.
9. Try Before You Buy
Ask to see a demo or proof-of-concept.
Run performance and integration tests against sample data.
Consider doing a small pilot of a small spectrum of your user base.
10. Future Ready
Choose a solution that will support:
5G and network slicing.
Management of IOT devices.
Analytics and billing views based on AI/ML.
Digital channels (apps, ChatBot, self-care portals).
(Image can be added something like Ref – https://flyaps.com/blog/telecom-billing-solutions/)
