These are the highlights from BillingViews' global survey on The Greatest Barriers to Next-Gen Billing. The BillingViews IT Strategy Council was surveyed in 2010 and 2011, at a 12 month interval. Results suggest a shift in sentiment where panelists increasingly perceive management as the greatest barrier rather than more passive factors such as budget constraints and legacy systems.

1. Our Global Surveyon Next-Gen Billing Sentiment Shifts Among IT Strategists: Is Management the Real Barrier? October 2011 Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

2. What is BillingViews? BillingViews is the global home for billing expertise and intelligence in the communications and media industries. www.billingviews.com Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

4. Contributor to ConnectedPlanet.com

6. Ghost writer and strategist for leading BSS providers

7. Former Editor-in-Chief of Billing World MagazineCopyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

9. 30% Mobile

10. 9% Next-Gen MSP

11. Largest groups of respondents from Western and Central EuropeCopyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

13. What is the greatest barrier to next-generation billing?

14. We provided multiple choice responses:

15. A: Legacy Systems

16. B: Poor Understanding of Business Benefits (on the part of the business)

17. C: Budget

18. D: Lack of Management Support

19. E: Technology Not Good Enough

20. We collected data at a 12 month interval:

21. Q1 2010

22. Q2 2011Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

24. Increase in responses to 12.5% specifically citing a “lack of management support”

25. Nearly 30% identify “poor understanding of business benefits” as the greatest barrier

26. 12.5% specifically cited the relationship between legacy inertia and lack of budget

27. Very few respondents identifying available technology as a barrierCopyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

29. The difference between the 2010 and 2011 results equal 12.5%; the same percentage of panelists who identified “lack of management support” as the greatest barrier

30. This suggests that sentiment is shifting away from passive factors – legacy inertia and budget constraints – to a more active belief that management is the barrierCopyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

32. We combined “lack of management support” with “poor understanding of business benefits” as “management factors”; these are more active barriers

33. An increasing number of panelists identify “management factors” – or active decisions made by management, rather than inherent or passive business factors – as the greatest barrier to next-generation billingCopyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

34. Panelists’ Comments Comments from the panelists themselves suggested the ongoing shift in sentiment from passive to active factors: Comment: “It is hard to get the budget to solve the problem because a big migration to a next generation platform might take two years and telecommunications is used to looking at returns on investment in a matter of months.” Analysis: IT and Business Management talk past each other because they prioritize their needs on incompatible time horizons. Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

35. Panelists’ Comments Comments from the panelists themselves suggested the ongoing shift in sentiment from passive to active factors: Comment: “The business probably does not understand the business potential of the new systems anyway.” Analysis: This panelist blames business management for its inability or failure to understand how improved IT systems can improve business capabilities. Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

36. Panelists’ Comments Comments from the panelists themselves suggested the ongoing shift in sentiment from passive to active factors: Comment: “The thing that makes me laugh is that it is IT that ends up selling business agility to the business.” Analysis: This panelist similarly blames business management for an inability to recognize, understand, and request IT capabilities that can improve the business. Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

37. Panelists’ Comments Comments from the panelists themselves suggested the ongoing shift in sentiment from passive to active factors: Comment: “If we could get the business benefits clear we could convince senior management and build the business case to support a budget big enough to deal with the problems presented by the legacy systems.” Analysis: This panelists places the blame with IT for failing to communicate business benefits clearly, but also identifies the lack of senior management support as the ultimate barrier to IT’s ability to address legacy limitations with next-gen billing capabilities. Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.

38. For the Complete Survey Please visit: www.billingviews.com Copyright 2011. BillingViews. All Rights Reserved.