SaaS applications generally require interoperability with other SaaS applications, web services, and legacy systems. In the case of SaaS-based billing, often the customer builds the consumer-facing application and the billing vendor is asked to provide an application programming interface (API) to achieve interoperability with the customer's application.

Having a robust API is essential. An open application strategy facilitates deeper customer usage and enables new revenue streams. Integration is critical for customers of SaaS vendors, and developing a sound API strategy is a first step toward achieving that goal.

Equally important in our view is how the vendor handles customization requests from customers. Some schools of thought say that SaaS vendors should just say NO to customization requests. Single instance, multi-tenant - have only one version of the code in production. Unfortunately, in our 20+ years of experience as a billing vendor, we’ve met very few customers that fit the "out-of-the-box" billing application and don’t want something changed. Different verticals and different business processes often drive customers to ask for customizations, and they’ll even be willing to pay for them.

So as a customer-centric SaaS vendor, how do you respond to these customization requests? At BillWise, we architected our SaaS application to enable us to offer customization to customers efficiently and effectively without any excess development or support burden. We honor customization requests from our customers and add on-going support for those customizations under our SLA. Customers seem to appreciate our flexibility because they get exactly what they want in terms of functionality, with the added bonus of on-going support.

In the SaaS world where interoperability and integration drive a "custom" approach to business solutions why accept a no customization policy from your billing vendor that makes you change your business to their model.

In my daily reading, I noticed that one of the large cable billing vendors announced two multi-year contract renewals with existing customers today. In the cable billing market it is rare that any vendor announces a new contract, so contract renewals are about the only news you hear other than product news.

Besides reminding us that cable billing is a very mature market, this announcement reinforces how rare it is that a customer switches billing systems. Unless there is a very compelling event that necessitates switching billing systems, businesses tend to stay with what they know, warts and all. As a buyer of billing services it is important to keep this in mind as you select your billing vendor. It is a decision you will probably live with for a very long time.

So why do businesses stay with the same billing system? Among many possible reasons, a few stand out. First, billing generally serves as the hub around which many other business applications are integrated. Second, disrupting customer billing introduces potential financial and customer service risks that can have devastating consequences to the health of the business. Third, people are busy with their day jobs and undertaking a billing conversion requires a major commitment of time and resources.

Some years back, we had a large carrier customer who went on an acquisition spree over several years. To accommodate a steady flow of billing conversions, we set up a dedicated conversion team to plan and execute the billing conversions. We got very good at doing conversions but there were challenges in the beginning and even when the conversions went smoothly it still represented a major investment of time and resources that could have been deployed for other purposes. In a nutshell, even under the best of circumstances, there really has to be a very compelling reason to switch billing vendors to justify the cost and disruption to the business.

So how do you decide if there is a compelling reason or not to switch? Generally, assuming the viability of the billing vendor is not in question, there has to be clearly defendable evidence that revenue gains or cost savings warrant the expense and disruption caused by acquiring a new billing system and associated conversion. Funny thing, inertia often holds back businesses from pulling the trigger on a new system even with overwhelming evidence supporting the need for a new system, or lack of planning causes a business to leap blindly into a new system and conversion only to have it become an expensive disaster. While we have been fortunate, billing conversions that go smoothly and deliver the intended benefits are not as common as one would expect.

While we talk to many potential customers that represent "green field" new billing system opportunities, companies that have outgrown their existing billing solution also contact us. These are never easy situations because of all the baggage associated with the existing solution, and generally require extra time and resources beyond the norm. If you are in this situation, it is best to work with a new billing vendor that has the expertise and experience to guide you through this process as painlessly as possible. Better yet, try not to ever get into this situation. Thinking through the long-term ramifications of selecting one billing system over another is a critically important exercise. When a business is just starting out or just launching a new subscription program it is easy to address immediate needs and worry about the long term later. Ironically, if the business or subscription program fails shortsighted decision-making doesn't matter, but if the business is successful having the wrong billing solution can negatively impact the business during a critical growth phase.

BendBroadband, the cable operator serving Central Oregon and one of BillWise's customers, last month launched the nation's fastest wireless data network. It was the first U.S. deployment of the HSPA+ (high speed packet access plus) wireless broadband network standard, upgradable to LTE (long term evolution).

This new high-speed wireless internet service enables BendBroadband to attract new customers by extending service coverage beyond its existing cable footprint. The company also plans to introduce three new wireless services for residential and business consumers: high-speed internet access, mobile broadband, and telephone service.

BillWise is proud to be a technology partner to BendBroadband to enable this innovative, best-of-breed broadband service capability. Previously, using the same broadband billing platform from BillWise, BendBroadband was one of the first cable operators to launch metered bandwidth for wired network residential and business class internet service.

Bandwidth metering and wireless internet service are two of the hottest technology trends for 2010 for cable operators, internet service providers, universities, and large enterprises as they look to expand markets, capture new customers, and open up new revenue streams. BillWise's market leading, field-proven broadband billing solutions enable these companies to cost effectively and rapidly roll out these new services today. Click here to learn more about BillWise's broadband billing solutions.

For more information, click here for BendBroadband's press release, or click here to view Gadgetsteria's blog post.

At BillWise, we strongly encourage and seek out partnering opportunities. Over the past 20 years we have integrated our billing solutions with hundreds of 3rd party products and services in order to deliver a whole solution to our customers. Additionally, we have worked with both large and small system integrators and independent consultants to identify customers who could benefit from our solutions and help deploy them as part of their customer engagements.

Our market-leading Private Label Billing Program is a unique partnering opportunity we've designed for companies looking to offer subscription billing and recurring payment solutions to their target market either on a standalone basis or packaged with their existing software solutions. Across a range of markets, more and more vertically-oriented software companies and consultants are looking for online subscription billing and recurring payment capabilities as their clients add recurring revenue models to their businesses.

Our partners benefit from the Private Label Billing Program by offering a robust, field-proven end-to-end subscription billing solution managed behind the scenes by BillWise's billing experts. This enables our partners to generate new recurring revenue streams, extend their market, and expand their customer base without the investment or time required to build and maintain their own billing application. BillWise has over $30 million invested in R&D around our billing solutions and many years of experience handling high-volume subscription billing and recurring payment challenges across a variety of industries. Our partners and their customers gain from our investment and expertise.

What makes our Private Label Billing Program different from other billing system resale opportunities is how we architected these capabilities into our platform.

•  All screens and reports can be branded according to the partner's requirements based on business model and resale strategy.

•  Our n-tier account hierarchy structure enables partners to choose how to structure and control billing capabilities for their customers. This might be as simple as letting the partner's resale agents sell partner provided subscription services or as complex as enabling the partner's resale agents to integrate the resale agent's own products and services with the partner's offerings and handle the end-to-end ordering, billing, and payment processes using BillWise's solution.

•  Robust, well documented Web Services APIs for all core billing platform services.

•  We can even support creating a dedicated multi-tenant environment for a given partner to use as the platform for offering Private Label Billing.

Billwise's goal is to build a strong collaborative relationship that offers our partners significant opportunities to grow their businesses. Our goal is to work with exceptional resellers to deliver unequaled value to customers around the world. As a Private Label Partner, we'll work with you and your team to make sure you have to expertise to succeed reselling our subscription billing and payment solutions.

If you are interested in learning more about BillWise, our solutions, and our winning business proposition for Private Label Billing, contact us and let's start the conversation!