VoIP Software: Complete Traffic Management
Voice traffic pulled out by hand into an Excel sheet, with customers going from 400 to 2,000.
Telco and digital services
Software for telecoms and digital services
Cost calculation and billing of VoIP traffic for an operator that grew from 400 to about 2,000 customers. We build for pay-as-you-go and subscription services: VoIP, virtual servers, e-invoicing.
Projects in this sector
VPS/VDC subscription management: a purchasing platform
Every renewal, every new instance and every cancellation went through a person.
Electronic invoice management: all in one panel
No customer of the service could see the state of their own invoices, so every question became a support ticket.
What software does a telco operator or a subscription service need?
Software that handles on its own what today goes through a person. For a telco it collects the traffic of up to five providers and calculates its cost; for a VPS provider it handles renewals, cancellations and expiry notices; with an e-invoicing panel customers see the state of their own invoices without opening a ticket.
Recurring problems in this sector
- Traffic that grows faster than anyone can count itFor a telecoms operator the voice-traffic count was an Excel sheet filled in by hand, with a series of formulas. It held while customers were 400; when they became about 2,000, with credit to deduct from each one according to traffic, it was no longer enough.
- More providers, more feeds to put togetherAn operator buys traffic from several suppliers, and each one delivers it in its own way.
- A wrong rate found months laterThe price list has to be correctable backwards, even by years, and every price applied up to that point has to be checked again.
- Renewals, activations and cancellations that go through a personAt a virtual server provider all renewals, new instances and cancellations went through someone in the company.
- Customers who open a ticket to find out where an invoice standsThe customers of an e-invoicing service send their invoices through its APIs. Without a panel of their own, to find out the state of an invoice or a subscription they had to ask support.
- Spam calls and numbers that are not in the customer recordsThe traffic also carries spam calls and numbers that match no registered customer.
What we built
For a telecoms operator, software that collects call feeds directly from the VoIP providers, up to five where before one came in, and calculates their monthly cost on the customer’s price list. The price list can be corrected backwards too, and the prices already applied are checked again. The software handles top-ups, flags customers below the traffic threshold, spam calls and numbers missing from the customer records, and prepares reports on usage and revenue. With about 2,000 customers, the operator reached peaks of more than 500,000 calls a month, with an average length of 90 seconds.
It is written in PHP with Symfony, Redis, MySQL, RabbitMQ, Angular and Bash, and for security and privacy reasons it is installed in a private space of the customer’s. Four months, with a PM, a backend developer and a frontend developer.
For a provider of virtual servers and data centres, VPS and VDC, several pieces that work together: the public site, the shop, the buyer’s control panel and a system that integrates the management software already in use. Whoever signs up buys their VPS and from there manages it on their own, subscription included. The system creates, updates, renews and removes instances, handles provisioning and sends expiry notices and payment reminders; the integration system keeps the data aligned across Navision, Plesk and Lenovo ThinkAgile. Twelve months, with two backend developers and one frontend developer.
For a service that offers APIs for e-invoicing, a panel in React connected to those APIs. Its customers see their outgoing and incoming invoices and their subscriptions there, and each of them finds only the functions their role allows. Three months, with two people.
The systems the software has to talk to
The providers the traffic comes from, the price lists, the customer records, invoicing: in this sector the new software sits among systems that are already there. For the virtual server provider they were the Navision management system, the Plesk panel and the Lenovo ThinkAgile infrastructure; for the e-invoicing service its own APIs, which in turn talk to the Italian Revenue Agency.
What to ask a supplier
Before choosing who will write the software, it is worth asking:
- How many providers can the software read, and what happens when you add one?
- If a rate has been wrong for months, how is it corrected, and what happens to the prices already applied?
- Where does it run: on your servers or on the supplier’s?
- Which systems does it integrate with, and who keeps the data aligned when one of them changes?
- What do your customers see, and what stays with your office?
- Who owns the code at the end of the work?
After a first call, free of charge, we come to your site to see which operations still go through a person and which systems the new software has to talk to.
The scope is split into phases with a date each, and we start from the step that weighs the most.
Frequently asked questions
Can the cost of VoIP traffic be calculated automatically?
Yes, with the customer’s price list inside the software. The one written for the operator reads the call feeds from the providers and calculates each month’s cost; if a rate was wrong, the price list is corrected backwards.
Does the software hold up if customers grow suddenly?
The operator’s software was born when customers had gone from 400 to about 2,000. It collects the feeds of all the providers, up to five, and keeps the count for each customer.
Can customers manage renewals and cancellations on their own?
Yes. For the VPS provider whoever buys a VPS activates, updates and cancels it from their own panel, and the system sends expiry notices and payment reminders on its own.
Does the new software connect to the management systems we have?
Yes, and it is the part that needs the most care. For the VPS provider an integration system keeps Navision, Plesk and Lenovo ThinkAgile aligned.
How do you stop every question about an invoice from becoming a ticket?
By giving customers a panel where they can look for themselves. For an e-invoicing service we wrote it in React on top of its APIs: each customer sees their own outgoing and incoming invoices and subscriptions, with only the functions their role allows.
Where does the software run?
Wherever the customer needs it. The operator’s software sits in a private space of the company’s, and that was a security and privacy choice.
Tell us about the project you have in mind.