Baghdad - MENA Herald: Zain Group, a leading mobile telecom innovator with operations in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, and Huawei, a global ICT solutions provider, announce the launch of the first fully convergent billing system in Iraq.
In the highly competitive and challenging telecom environment Zain Iraq operates in, focusing on the needs of the customer and providing superior service quality is a priority. Customers demand choices in price plans; what payment options are available to them such as prepaid or postpaid; and the ability to choose a product based on their lifestyle. Customers are also keen to have various options open to them with respect to how they combine and share their data and voice offerings with their family, friends or at work.
Zain Iraq successfully commissioned and installed a state-of-the-art converged billing and charging platform that replaces legacy infrastructure with a modern, unified charging, billing and CRM solution. This system is capable of effectively handling all services and customer types, bringing a fluidity to services including voice and data, billing options, and customer segment offerings. The time-to-market from concept to product launch has also been dramatically reduced.
Commenting on the introduction of Zain’s first fully convergent billing system in Iraq, Dr Haidar Radi, Zain Iraq Chief Operating Officer said, “Zain listened and responded to the requirements of its customer base by delivering a cutting edge convergent billing solution in partnership with Huawei. Today’s launch marks a milestone in the telecom industry in Iraq, as Zain’s customers now have the freedom to handle and receive their mobile services in a multitude of different ways.”
Huawei’s Next Generation BSS Solution over the years have won the ‘Solution Excellence Award’ and ‘Best Real-Time Charging Platforms Award’, developments that will help Zain Iraq provide its customers with the best services in a short period. Zain customers will also be able to experience much better services than ever before, enjoying real-time interactions.
Mohamad Sharara, President of Zain Global Account at Huawei Middle East said, “We are proud of our partnership with Zain, as we continue to launch new products and services in the region that redefine the telecommunications industry and provide customers with ease-of-access to new and existing services. We are particularly proud of today’s launch due to the challenging environment that exists in Iraq. We worked closely with the Zain Iraq team to deploy Huawei’s solution, which brings places the operator ahead of the competition with respect to digital services.”
This is the first complete end to end Business Support Systems (BSS) implementation for Zain Iraq and other Zain operations. The solution includes full convergent rating, charging and billing, a new enterprise bus (ESB) that enables and facilitates interactions between diverse software components. These are all integrated together with a new Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) and other IT support systems that helps Zain understand and service the customer in the best way possible.
The implementation of the Convergent Billing System was undertaken in multiple stages. The first phase enabled prepaid customers to recharge their balance online, and purchase rich Zain Iraq services through multiple channels. The second phase moved post-paid customer rating to the same platform, with both prepaid and post-paid customers benefitting from being able to be serviced quickly by the same offering. This year the final stage of the project went live, with full customer service in all Huawei business support systems.
