Partnership will help mobile service providers improve the prepaid user experience
CHICAGO ¾ October 19, 2010 ¾ Amdocs (NYSE: DOX), the leading provider of customer experience systems, and Vesta Corporation, a global pioneer in electronic payment solutions, today announced a partnership agreement to help mobile service providers improve the customer experience for prepaid users. Under the agreement, the two companies now offer a unique solution incorporating Vesta’s proprietary top-up service with Amdocs Prepaid – a software solution for service creation and delivery, real-time charging and customer management. The announcement was made at 4G World taking place this week.
Prepaid usage is increasing globally. Research indicates that prepaid subscriptions claimed 72 percent of all global subscriptions in the second quarter of 20091. Prepaid users pose a growing challenge for service providers as, on the one hand, competition for their business is intensifying while on the other, the lack of a contract means they are more likely to churn.
“Today’s prepaid offerings mostly focus on real-time charging and replenishment capabilities. These offerings should evolve to help service providers gain more control over the satisfaction levels and loyalty of the prepaid consumer,” said Rebecca Prudhomme, vice president of product and solutions marketing at Amdocs. “Our partnership with Vesta is just the first step in expanding Amdocs’ offering to help our customers to deliver a more compelling prepaid experience.”
“A prepaid user can decide to change providers at every top-up,” said Matt Hall, vice president of business development at Vesta. “The joint Amdocs and Vesta solution reduces this risk by assuring a good user experience. It does so by enabling service providers to offer end-users extremely convenient top-up channels, coupled with innovative pricing schemes, such as hybrid prepaid postpaid models.”
The joint offering includes the Amdocs Prepaid solution and Vesta’s Mobile Payment Platform. Amdocs Prepaid provides advanced charging capabilities for the creation of sophisticated offers that bundle services (e.g. voice, data, SMS) and prepaid/postpaid payment channels. Amdocs Prepaid is based on Amdocs’ unique Turbo Charging technology which has set the industry record for real-time charging performance, demonstrating the ability to process 276 million calls during peak calling hours, also known as busy hour call attempts (BHCA).
Vesta’s Mobile Payment Platform enables end-users to top-up quickly, securely, and without registering, through a broad selection of direct payment channels (vs. point of sale), including online, over the phone, or by an automatic procedure (when payment is automatically deducted on a given day, when hitting a low balance, or at the balance expiry). Additionally, using proprietary and patented fraud technology, the Vesta platform allows the service provider to decline fewer top-up requests and reduce the risk associated with non cash payments, whereby maximizing top-up revenue.
Amdocs supports today more than 140 million prepaid end-users worldwide. For more information about the Amdocs prepaid solution, please visit http://www.amdocs.com/Billing-Prepaid
Supporting Resources
· Keep up with Amdocs news by visiting the company’s website
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· For more information on the Vesta Mobile Payment Platform, including case studies and whitepapers, visit the company’s website at www.trustvesta.com
About Vesta Corporation
Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with operations in Europe and China, Vesta has been a pioneer and worldwide leader in electronic payment solutions since 1995. Vesta has established long-term, successful relationships with leading international companies including AT&T, Boost Mobile, China Mobile, China Unicom, Cricket Communications, Meteor Mobile Communications, O2, Sprint, T-Mobile, Tele2, Verizon, Vodafone and Yoigo. For more information, visit www.trustvesta.com.
About Amdocs
Amdocs is the market leader in customer experience systems innovation. The company combines business and operational support systems, service delivery platforms, proven services, and deep industry expertise to enable service providers and their customers to do more in the connected world. Amdocs’ offerings help service providers explore new business models, differentiate through personalized customer experiences, and streamline operations. A global company with revenue of $2.86 billion in fiscal 2009, Amdocs has approximately 18,000 employees and serves customers in more than 60 countries worldwide. For more information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.
Amdocs’ Forward-Looking Statement
This press release includes information that constitutes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about Amdocs’ growth and business results in future quarters. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be obtained or that any deviations will not be material. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to, the effects of general economic conditions, Amdocs’ ability to grow in the business segments it serves, adverse effects of market competition, rapid technological shifts that may render the Company’s products and services obsolete, potential loss of a major customer, our ability to develop long-term relationships with our customers, and risks associated with operating businesses in the international market. Amdocs may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, however the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These and other risks are discussed at greater length in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2009, filed on December 7, 2009 and in our quarterly 6-K forms furnished on February 8, May 13 and August 9, 2010.
Claire Hutchison
T: +44 118 920 7674
M: +44 (0)7828 896 037
E: claire.hutchison@ccgrouppr.com
Twitter: @hutchyyy
