Faq – Telecom billing software system
Frequently Asked Questions about
our Telecom billing software system
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Dynasoft TeleFactura is a suite of Windows and Web applications for managing and billing end-users of voice and data services in the Telecommunications sector.
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We offer one Windows-based programme for billing purposes and one Web-based portal (‘Web Access’) for the benefit of your customers and distributors. Add-ons are geared towards a specific need that you might have. For instance, if a Radius / AAA server is needed, then TeleFactura with the Radius AAA add-on will perform all the tasks the main programme does and also manage a TekRadius or Radius Manager server. Finally, we offer other add-ons like a help desk system with ticketing, ability to perform online payments with major payment systems like Paypal, SagePay,…
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All our products include the Web portal called TeleFactura Web Access as standard. It enables your customers and distributors to manage their account and in the case of distributors also their sub-distributors and access all their relevant financial data online. We also always include free unlimited general support.
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Training, again, is a separate service as this is of high added value since it will enable you to get up-and-running in a day or less. With it, we make one of our support engineers fully available to you for half a day. He will help you install and configure the products bought and go into a lot of details about all aspects of our solutions.
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We regularly integrate bespoke features into TeleFactura for our clients. Let us know what functionality you require and we will endeavour to include it, often free of charge. Some development might involve costing out the work depending on whether the features sought are specific to your needs or if they can benefit the programme as a whole. Depending on the urgency with which a feature is needed by the client, we normally charge for any urgent work. However, often we are able to deliver this work at no extra cost, provided the work is not urgent and can wait to be included in a future release. Rates used are always competitive. Free change requests and development is only available with our support service.
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Normally, Dynasoft TeleFactura requires a permanent connection to the Internet and is activated with an Internet-based licence key. A dongle key can be supplied instead for clients wishing to use the programme without a permanent connection.
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When we originally developed TeleFactura we had to weigh the benefits of each option. We came down on the side of offering a Windows-based application for the main programme because it offers the benefits given below. Please note that, if required, we can help you make all TeleFactura applications easily accessible in the Cloud, anywhere in the world using any Web browser or smart phone with our Cloud Access service. User deployment could not be easier as the steps required to set up this access only take seconds on a Windows server/VPS.
 Confidentiality and data-protection guaranteed: Unlike purely Web-based systems hosted with billing providers, your data is not shared with anyone, located on the ‘cloud’ (*) or hosted by us. With TeleFactura, you can install all our applications on your own network and therefore they would run locally on your network and would not be available to anyone else. A Windows application cannot be hacked via SQL injection,… as it is not normally accessible from the Internet. We provide Web portals for your customers and distributors but these do not offer access to critical information like credit card details,…This set-up also means you will be compliant with certain data-protection laws (such as under the UK’s ICO regulations or EU law) that prevent disseminating customer personal information to third parties. Compliance with these laws can also be achieved with our SaaS service as you can host our Software-as-a-Service applications on your own network. The risk with services that are 100% on the cloud is users can stand to loose a lot when things go wrong. Another concern is spying and snooping from governments and security organisations.
Increased productivity: As TeleFactura’s main application is a Windows client/server one, you will be more productive and navigate between screens faster. Working with purely Web-based interfaces is known to decrease work efficiency as speed of access to data is slower, and users have to move constantly between browser windows to get to the right information. All our Windows applications can be accessed simultaneously by multitple users either from different work stations or via Remote Desktop. All TeleFactura versions work fine also as stand-alone solutions. The Graphical User Interfaces of the applications were kept clean and simple with few bells and whistles like graphical menus and forms to ensure that they load quickly. Furthermore, unlike with hosted services, you will not be dependent on the sometimes fickle nature of internet connections which can sometimes throw the user off. In the case of TeleFactura you would typically access the programme through your local network.
Processing loads are spread across your network: Data retrieval is faster with Windows applications and the screens are more user-friendly than purely Web-based systems. This is especially relevant for Telecom billing where vast amounts of CDR data are handled. Navigating using a Windows interface is easier than with purely Web-based systems and processing loads are distributed across the network and therefore are not solely concentrated on a Web server. Also adding more servers is not usually needed since TeleFactura was designed so that the users’ desktops takes some of the load off from the server.
No need to have network administrating skills to install and use: It’s possible to install TeleFactura on a basic installation of Windows. No extensive network or database administration skills are required to install TeleFactura as it installs straight from our download link in seconds. No complicated IIS or database work is needed. The Web applications we do provide do not offer access to critical data (such as credit card details) and so can be secured more easily. TeleFactura supports enterprise-grade MySQL or MS SQL server but also uses MS Access by default and so is very easy to install and use.
No permanent connection to the Internet needed: Our main applications are Windows client/server and stand-alone programs that offer the benefit of not needing a permanent connection to the Internet if you own a licence and use a dongle key. You can run TeleFactura on a laptop on the move for instance without the need for an Internet connection. However, if you need to access the system on the Internet at all times, we can provide a Windows Virtual Private Server for a reasonable monthly fee.
Customisation and software updates: You are in complete control of when and what updates you wish to apply to the system. If a bug fix is released, we can deliver it to the customer concerned much more quickly than if we have to include it as part of a major system upgrade typically associated with services that are 100% Web and SaaS-based. We also are able to deliver customised versions of the software with features you might have paid for and you don’t want other users to benefit from.
No downtime: Install the system on your local network or host it with us and avoid any risks of downtime.
Interoperability and Portability guaranteed: Because you have full access to your data at all times with no locked-in clauses and because this data is located in a single database and not in disparate files, it takes little effort to transfer this data to another solution.
Software-plus-Service: We are the only vendor offering the ability to host a Telecom billing software system both locally on your network and on the Internet at the same time: simply configure your database so data gets replicated between the two database systems.
Integrated help: TeleFactura has a built-in user manual and guide which are easily accessible from within the applications for greater flexibility and ease-of-use.
Windows applications are cheaper to run and maintain: You only pay for the licences of our software not the bandwidth or processing loads heavier users than yourself might use or the Web servers that are needed by Web-only hosted solutions. Furthermore, our solution is installed in seconds, just like any other Windows programme and it only takes a few minutes to configure it.
The data and services that matter to your customers and distributors are Web-based thanks to our suite of Web portals: We offer a Web-based portal for your customers and distributors so they can manage and access all their data and financials online. The core Windows billing application is normally only accessed by a handful of authorised staff in an organisation anyway. We have a Windows CRM version of our telecom billing software, called TeleFactura Admin, which was designed for users who only perform day-to-day entry of data (add/modify customer accounts,…) and who do not do any billing work. It is a CRM-type client application that runs locally on a member of staff’s computer. Access to TeleFactura via this Admin programme is faster than through a purely Web-based application.
However your wish to access it, we can provide the best solution that fits your needs. More on this here.
(*) although we can provide a hosted solution where we make a Windows server available for a small fee.
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Yes, we do. Investing in our products does not have to represent a heavy burden. This is because:
We offer the most competitive package in the industry: get unlimited billing and support for only GBP79 (USD99 – EUR89) a month.
Lifetime licences are available. We offer payment terms where the cost of your investment can be spread over 3 months.
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We often get asked from existing and new customers alike to integrate features or other systems. We always endeavour to include feature requests from existing clients and often do this free of charge if we feel this might benefit our programmes as a whole. We estimate that two thirds of current development is precisely done on this basis. Likewise, we often do the same with prospective clients, i.e. we are ready to integrate feature requests from new clients if we feel this is beneficial to the programmes and to make buying our products that more attractive to new clients. The same goes for integrating products from third party developers. However, the only framework within which this can be done is if the prospective client buys into our line of solutions. We would then plough some of the money from that sale back into TeleFactura and develop this new feature, often at no extra cost.
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We can provide APIs but we do so on a discretionary basis.
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We have had this remark a few times. TeleFactura and how it looks and feels is only the reflection of how complex telecom billing can be with its multitude of CDR formats, types of rates, billing scenarios, etc. The hundreds of features TeleFactura boasts make it truly universal so you will be able to fine tune it to exactly match your market needs. As software developers, we have to strike a balance between offering 100% flexibility which most clients expect and loading the interfaces with too much text to explain what each option does. TeleFactura is now a large application. To give an idea of its size: it has a third the equivalent number of lines of code that Nasa developed for its entire Mars Curiosity rover programme for instance. We provide manuals, guides and videos. Users can take out our our training and support services and rely on the extensive expertise and commercial presence on all four continents that we have accumulated over the past 17 years. Therefore, we strongly believe our clients are given all the help possible so they can use our products successfully. Also, not all users of TeleFactura use all the options that are available. TeleFactura was designed so that a lot of settings have default values which never have to be modified if they’re not needed. We offer a solution that has functionality for many different markets: voice, data, services, computer support, customer management, etc…, which means you can let your business grow and feel secure knowing you already have the solution that will cover most of your current as well as future needs. All this means, we are able to make available a product that does not need any changes in its source code to accommodate new price lists, CDR formats,… All the configuration settings are available on the user interface and not in multiple and disparate configuration files. It must be said that even for us, software developers, we find some billing scenarios our clients use to be a challenge to implement in software. Finally, there is little in the application that cannot be clarified during a training session, by looking up the issue in the documentation or via e-mail and phone with our support team.
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Few companies offer software development as part of their support services, but we do. This covers most small change requests that you might have a need for and even the free development of bigger features. In both cases, when we decide to include free development work we look at whether these features might benefit our programmes and our other users. We decided to offer this so as to make it easier, quicker and hassle-free for our clients to integrate any changes and features they feel are important to them. For instance if you need a small change in one of our invoice templates (e.g., move the user’s address to accommodate a type of envelope that you use, etc…), we usually are able to do this free of charge and deliver changes in a matter of hours depending on the size of the change.
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Telecom billing is a very specialised area and a small market compared to say the market for text editors. To offer ‘cheap’ software licences or free integration is not something that can be done easily. This is due to the fact that the space for economies of scale is small because the market is relatively small. Also in the day-to-day relations with our customers, we have found that in the case of software integration and development, the work involved is often what can be called dedicated development, the cost of which cannot easily be spread across our other customers. On the other hand, many products out there that cater for wider markets (like certain business CRMs,…) appear to be cheap, i.e. only a few tens of USD. This is due to the fact that their markets are not specialised and potentially can include all business sectors. As soon as one is looking to add specialised development or obtain software licences for a product for which only a few thousands customers exist world-wide (like Telecom billing), costs rise inevitably.
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Most things in the applications and everything in the add-ons are customisable to your own corporate look and feel. We make things available to our users like the Crystal Reports files for the reports and invoices, the language caption files, Web pages HTML source code for the Web Access. The applications’ configuration screen holds settings for things like logo, font, background colour,… for the invoice templates. The design of our applications is clean and simple so they load quickly and so you can easily implement your own corporate image with your own logos, borders, banners,…
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Unless you are a software development company, we have found that any endeavour that is likely to side-track your activity can have harmful effects on your core activity: How do I recruit the right staff? How do I avoid projects from going over-budget? Where do I find the expertise and maintain it? All these questions are important considerations you need to assess before making what is inevitably going to be a big investment in time and resources for your company. Furthermore, because we sell to businesses world-wide, we are able to leverage economies-of-scale a lot better than if we only had one company to serve. This is why we offer the market’s most competitive billing system. More on this subject here.
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Installation services only cover the installation of the different software products that make up our solution. The work involved with configuring and setting up all of a client’s data from customers to FTP accounts to replicate CDR data locally can take from a few minutes to dozens of hours and so to include this work with our standard installation services would not be practical. We typically would provide a quotation for this type of support work using our published rates.
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We are fully committed to our clients and ultimately, to ensuring our systems deliver for our clients. Telecom billing can be potentially fairly complex. We are confident that thanks to its hundreds of functionality and features our system can be configured so that your market needs are matched as closely as possible. You don’t have to commit to buying our system until everything has been configured and set up correctly. As part of our training and installation services, we will closely work with you and help you set up all the data and configure our system so your needs are closely matched. These initial tasks cover things like importing rate cards, setting up CDR formats and building customer accounts and even incorporating minor tweaks to our system if needed. Training is done via remote access on your server or one of ours, over the phone or Skype. Full training on all aspects of Telecom billing is also provided during your training session. You can then commit to buying your licence once everything is ready.
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Our solution has been in the market for over 17 years and therefore has been extensively and successfully tested with numerous CDR and SMDR formats from numerous Data and Telecom providers the world over. Here is a non-exhaustive list of operators whose CDRs our Telecom billing software system is known to work with:
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