Invoice Management Software for a Mobile Operator with 5M Clients
Customer
The Customer is a member of a European telecommunication holding. With almost 5 mln subscribers, the company provides mobile communication and Internet access based on the fiber-optic technology.
Challenge
Due to a vast customer database, the Customer faced problems with internal document workflow. The Customer created and maintained all documents in separate platforms, which led to significant waste of time and resources. That is why the Customer turned to ScienceSoft, an experienced provider of StreamServe-based solutions, to unify the company’s document workflow.
The project was divided into several steps. After successfully implementing a debtor management solution, the Customer decided to optimize its invoice management system.
Solution
To maintain its invoice workflow, the Customer was running about 21 concurrent projects that substantially increased the server load and decreased its performance. Also, input files that came for processing had the outdated .data format, which led to costly maintenance of the entire system.
To address these issues, our StreamServe-certified developers brought together the functions of all the invoice-related projects in one, optimizing the number of scripts and the quality of code. To increase productivity of the entire system, the developers created a new project that would process input files in XML format as well as contain a mechanism for converting the legacy .data format into XML.
The new project uses the StreamServe StoryTeller tool that allows creating a reusable document design, handling business data as well as issuing dynamic invoices using XPath and scripting. The team also integrated StoryTeller with a digital signature that meets the legislation requirements of the Customer’s origin country. The solution’s functionality also allows adding marketing materials to invoices, which can potentially upscale the Customer’s sales.
With the new invoice management solution, the Customer can create invoices with IBAN alphanumeric characters to identify bank accounts and facilitate processing of transactions. Due to an omnichannel delivery system, the solution enables distributing invoices via email or sending them for print to in-house or external printers.
Results
ScienceSoft delivered a tailored StreamServe-based invoice management solution for the 5-million subscriber telecom provider. While the old system needed a whole day to process 1,000 invoices, a new solution can complete the same operation in just 20 minutes. Also, the Customer decreased the time needed to run monthly billing campaigns from 10 to 3 days.
The solution allows preparing and sending 350,000 documents for external printing in 40 minutes. With it, the Customer optimized its invoice workflow through decreasing maintenance costs by approximately 100 times.
Technologies and Tools
OpenText Communications Center Enterprise (former OpenText StreamServe), including Control Center, XML, XMLIN, XMLOUT, StreamIN, StoryTeller, xPath, StoryTeller, Sheet Layout, generic input and output connectors, JavaFilter, Windows shell scripting.
