News in View: BT admits need to overhaul its billing system

BT has admitted that its antiquated billing systems are not catering for the needs of its customers.

In an exclusive interview with Silicon.com, Paul Wickington, head of customer billing at BT, explained that current systems cater for the company's internal requirements rather than those of customers.

"BT has a huge legacy from history so it's got a number of billing systems," he explained. "These days, what we really want is an integrated billing system which is capable of responding to customers' needs rather than the internal system requirement for billing."

The Telecommunications Managers Association (TMA) estimates poor billing processes are costing UK businesses up to £1bn each year.

Paul Fegan, chairman of the TMA's billing group, said users' needs are becoming increasingly complex. He added billing is hard enough to manage with one - let alone multiple - suppliers.

David Walker, European telecoms manager at Unisys, set out a list of the changes he wants to see. "There needs to be improvement in terms of presentation and in terms of timeliness. And we need flexibility in terms of the model we receive the bill in. We should be moving towards Web-based billing and have the ability to settle bills in days not weeks. And we need to know that when we settle, we are settling accurately," he said.

This week's News in View programme is available in the Corporate Telecoms channel (http://www.silicon.com/a36590 ).