Wednesday, February 18, 2009

IVVR Billing

Billing an IVVR service the regular conservative way is easy (as long as you can get an agreement with mobile carriers), you launch a service on a mobile number and get a revenue share from the generated calls to the service. Revenue sharing is a simple solution but it is not an option in certain markets (like in markets with unlimited calls plans) and usually can be problematic in terms of ROI from the service.

This post is about the other billing options we have in IVVR which in part are less common and not even recognized.

Premium lines – this option is the second most obvious and common way to launch IVVR services. It is based on a premium line with a fixed revenue model. According to local regulatory issues, users are charged per minute. The service operator gets its revenue share form the accumulated calls generated by the service. This option is a good option where available as long as the prices for a premium call suit the content price and that the service operator gets a significant portion of the revenue generated. First services to use IVVR premium lines are of course adult services that already used this billing option in the IVR based services.

RB (Reverse Billing SMS) – this option is a very functional one where there is no revenue sharing agreement with the operators but there is access to reverse billing. Depends on the service, a RB SMS can be sent during the call per any configured event or at the end of the call to sum all the costs for the session. This option is very easy to integrate as the billing solution but can only be supported by few good IVVR platforms (at least easily), still requires to reach an agreement with a local cross-carrier SMS provider, and most importantly, depending on the market but you usually get only between 50-70% of the payment.

Credit card – in the case of IVVR, there is an audio-visual feedback which means a user can be prompted to enter the credit card information and billed by the credit card company. This option is best suited in services that require a big payment which is not supported by RB SMS or in cases where the service operator wants to get a larger share of the payment. The credit card billing can be used by integrating the IVVR service with an online credit card payment system.

Subscription – this option can be used when the service operator wants to generate a stable revenue stream or to provide an “all you can eat content” service. The subscription can be based on direct billing through the mobile operator’s bill, credit card, and RB SMS. The IVVR platform filters every caller (by the caller ID) unless the caller is a subscriber to the service. This option can only support the number associated with the subscriber (unless it generates a personal ID and PIN code) and of course doesn’t support unidentified numbers.

A good IVVR platform can support many kinds of payment calculations. The billing can be based on any billable event such as: per event, per content item, per call duration, per a sum that was inserted by the user (like in donation applications), and more.

Services that can benefit from the billing opportunities of the IVVR platform include the usual media portals with premium content, Voting applications, Trivia games, Gambling applications, Shopping services, and we even have a donation service where people donate to a specific cause using their credit card number (so they decide how much they want to donate).

When it used wisely by services professionals, an IVVR platform can be the best mobile medium for billable events and it requires no installation and no unusual skills from the caller. An IVVR service that is backed up by a payment method or that is used as a payment method, is fast, intuitive, and can generate revenues in many ways to best fit the needs of the service and match all relevant regulatory requirements.

Contact us if you are interested in launching any of these services:
Ugunduzi – IVVR Services

Thursday, February 5, 2009