XACCT and Portal Join Forces to Bring Usage-Based Billing to ISPs and Internet Telephony Service Providers
February 2, 1999
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE
Companies Form Strategic Partnership to
Combine Comprehensive IP Mediation with
Internet Billing and Customer Care System
XACCT Technologies, Inc., which makes the
XACCTusage(TM) metering and mediation
solution for IP networks, and Portal
Software, Inc., a leading provider of
software for Internet and emerging
next-generation communications services,
today announced that they have entered
into a strategic partnership.
Under the terms of the agreement, XACCT
will integrate XACCTusage with Portal's
Infranet(R) customer management and billing
software.
The basic flat-rate model used today for IP
billing does not work well for emerging
value-added services such as IP telephony,
IP fax, and streaming audio/video. A growing
number of Network Service Providers (NSPs)
now realize that they must bill such services
based on a variety of parameters, not just
on "time-on-line."
Together, XACCTusage and Infranet will
enable NSPs to generate accurate,
usage-based bills based on detailed
information about applications, Quality of
Service (QoS), time of day, and other
parameters.
"We are excited to partner with XACCT," said
Jill Kyte, senior director, strategic alliances,
at Portal. "XACCT's technology for collecting
data and performing mediation in real time
meshes perfectly with Portal's Real Time-No
Limits philosophy.
"This combination will provide a powerful
solution for those emerging companies that
want the flexibility to charge users for
on-line services based on any aspect of
service delivery."
Complementary Solutions
Infranet is the most flexible, scalable,
real-time billing solution available in the
market, enabling service providers to rapidly
deploy innovative services with sophisticated
pricing models.
XACCTusage provides a single mediation
interface between the customer care and
billing application and the IP infrastructure. It
collects and aggregates accurate, detailed
usage data from multiple network elements
and application servers to create XACCT
detail records (XDR(TM)), the IP equivalent
of the Call Detail Records (CDRs) generated
by telephone switches.
The XDRs are used by Portal's Infranet to
generate transaction-based bills.
"The Portal and XACCT products are highly
synergistic. Together, they empower the
service providers to offer differentiated
value-added services, quickly and profitably,"
said Anil Uberoi, vice president of marketing
at XACCT. "With XACCTusage and Portal's
Infranet, customers can introduce new,
innovative services and adjust pricing plans
that meet changing market needs.
End-to-End, Real-Time Capabilities
Portal's Infranet software is designed
specifically for next-generation
communications services and is the only
customer management and billing solution
available with true, end-to-end, real-time
capabilities. XACCTusage complements
Infranet with real-time service metering and
usage data feed.
These capabilities enable IP service providers
to rapidly introduce innovative, value-added
services and flexible pricing plans that they
can adjust within minutes based on market or
competitive demands. Infranet also reduces
customer service costs by enabling
"self-help" customer support features that
provide instant access to service or billing
information via the Web.
Multi-Source, Multi-Layer Architecture
XACCTusage is a flexible, scalable solution
that lets service providers precisely define
the IP session information they wish to
capture.
XACCT's multi-source, multi-layered
approach to data collection enables the
software to collect network usage data from
multiple network elements, including routers,
switches, firewalls and a variety of
application servers, spanning all layers of the
network from the physical layer to the
application layer.
Real-time, policy-based filtering, aggregation
and enhancement of the transaction data
produces accurate, detailed records for
customer bills. Additionally, this information
enables service providers to accurately
assess the costs associated with the
services they offer, based on actual network
resource consumption. The architecture
makes XACCTusage an ideal solution for
multi-vendor, heterogeneous networks.
Automated Service Provisioning
NSPs can also automate end-to-end service
provisioning by using XACCTusage to mediate
between Portal's Infranet and the various
network elements for service activation,
authentication and authorization. This allows
service providers to minimize their service
activation lead-times and start capturing
revenue immediately. |
