Revenue assurance company Azure Solutions has provided a convergent-billing and margin-management solution based on its Azure Inter-Party Management product for Applied Satellite Technology (AST), a leading supplier of satellite-communications systems and airtime. AST sells satellite airtime for all the major satellite networks, offering both data and voice services to clients ranging from large corporate bodies and governments to individual users. It required a system to enable it to bill customers for both pre- and post-paid services and to settle with individual satellite providers periodically. The billing platform generates approximately 6,000 bills per month, produces invoices for retail customers and AST resellers and works out the cost per call, producing statements detailing the costs payable to the individual satellite carriers. This enables AST to manage more effectively its margins and cashflow.  Each service provided by AST has its own set of complex tariffing and rating rules, therefore multiple EDR (event data records) feeds needed to be translated into the standard Azure Inter-Party Management format within one convergent billing system. Azure Inter-Party Management, the first part of Azure’s next-generation revenue-assurance portfolio, provides real-time rating, billing and partner management.  Azure Inter-Party Management allows AST’s customers and satellite providers to view their data and business online, and by providing online self-care AST is able to interact and settle with them more effectively.
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