One of China’s fastest growing ISPs,
Shanghai-Online, has installed the Infranet real-time customer management
and billing software from Portal Software.
Shanghai-Online’s commitment makes it Portal’s first customer in China.
Shanghai-Online is operated by Shanghai Information Industry Co Ltd, a
member of the China Telecom group. With 174 online resources sites, and
more than 300 database and application services, it is the largest urban
information network in China.
Shanghai-Online supports more than 100,000
customers, has been adding 6,000 new accounts every month, and has
developed some 700 different pricing plans to meet the needs and budgets
of the widest possible range of users.
“Three features of Infranet particularly impressed us: the sophisticated
rating engine technology, the advanced real-time billing functionality
and the open architecture,” said a spokesman for Shanghai-Online.
Portal’s Infranet offers real-time service provision upon account
activation, rapid deployment of new services and pricing plans, online
account information so customers can track their spending and verify
account and credit status. Infranet’s scalability provides a vital
requirement in the fast-growing Internet environment, and integrates well
with older back-office applications that may be retained even after the
billing system is upgraded.
“Real-time billing is key to gaining an edge in the highly competitive
ISP business,” said Robert Lau, vice president Asia Pacific at Portal
Software (Asia Pacific) Ltd. “Traditional, batch-based telephone billing
systems are far too inflexible to keep up with the rapid rate of change
in the Internet market. We believe any company operating in the Internet
space must be able to bring new services to market quickly, modify
pricing plans and launch promotions in real-time. Customers must be
offered a wide range of payment options as well as track their spending
from day to day, rather than wait for a monthly bill.”
Since the implementation of Infranet at Shanghai-Online, the number of
service calls has dropped sharply, reducing the overall cost of customer
service. Now Shanghai Online customers can go online and review their
Internet usage any time of the day or night. In case of doubt, they can
call the service center, which can access a detailed usage breakdown
immediately.
“Real-time billing is the core of good customer management,” continued
the spokesman for Shanghai-Online. “Without it, many of our services
would simply be impractical and our goal of improving service quality
would be like building castles in the air.”
Enthused by the flexibility and reliability of Infranet, Shanghai-Online
is now considering the viability of new business models, including
card-based services and online payment by credit card. Infranet will also
provide the back-office foundation for next-generation services such as
broadband Internet applications, high-speed user log-in and IP networking.
