The cost is chump change, if it does what one needs it to do. I've had the luxury recently of being reminded what it cost me when I leave my typical executuve duties to do accounting, and what it cost me in salary when I learned it was more cost effective for the book keeper to come back, and justify the salary. (In this case my wife, I should say doing without the salary to have her back). And billing is just one small component and time loss, then there is all the technical stuff, and bandwdith management, and management and documentation of multiple sites of a large network.
The issue is whether the product will do what is says it will do. Or does what the buyer needs it to do. When it does, its priceless. The problem is that most products don't do what the buyer is expecting. I can't count how many accounting, provisioning, and CRM packages we either looked at or bought, but at the end of the day still ended up using quickbooks and notepad in Windows. None of them have ever managed to deliver what we need. The problem with billing/provisioning solutions is they have to fit into the way you do business. If there is jsut one core conflict with the way it operates and the way you need to operate, it could prevent its use. Maybe I'm to harsh? The problem is there are to many definitions of a WISP. "WISP Billing" can mean so many different things. Often it the definition of a HotSpot billing, other times its automatic CC billing. But you might get the best full feature product in the world, and handles CC billing on !st of month awesomely, but if 70% of your billing is paper invoicing to businesses 10 days in advance of the month, the software has to handle that to, or its worthless. Thats what we ran into with Logisense Engage IP, it was a fantastic package, but it was really designed for auto CC billing, not paper invoicing. There is a reason there are probably 30-50+ ISP billing packages. Its not because everyone wants a pece of the market. Its because people needed a product just a little different to meet their vision, and before yuo know it it becomes a commercial product. And CRM? A joke, everyone I see is jsut another cookie cutter replica of a standard contact manager like Goldmine, Act, or what ever. Whats really needed is "Complete Relationship Management". The realtionship are much more complicated than just Customer to ISP. Everyone that gets a peice of the action (cash) for something needs to get tracked, and there relationships to customers and resellers need to be tracked. I'd say the same for bandwdith management. The missing link is to handle bandwdith mangement multiple levels deep, to consider all the hops downline and upline. The only way for that to happen is to have agents that run on other hardware that interact with a central system. Otherwise, its not bandwidth mangement, its DOS and Abuse management. DOS and Abuse management is a necessary capabilty, it can be in a form as simple as a rate limiter, at bit cap, a session limiter, or a P2P limiter or a full blown DOS prevention device.. But a true bandwdith manager is how to manage and control the legitimate traffic between your subscribers in the most fair way and efficient way to meet SLA and commitments. That on its own is a very comlicated task, as soon as you as MESH and Redundancy into the mix. The industry's need is so far past static configurations of last generation BW managers. Its a problem, that needs a solution. As for PowerCode, is it good? I don't have a comment, we have not evaluated it yet. (Maybe in the early months, but not recently) But I'm sure we will at some point. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ross Cornett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 2:50 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] Billing suggestings ouch!!! ...and we are still getting less than a dinner for 2 a month for unlimited internet... this is sick gentlemen. When will we see the light....? Ross ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Nash" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 1:44 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] Billing suggestings Look at www.powercode.com. It's pricy for WISPs, but you have to look at where you are in your business and where you're going. We bought in at the 750-customer level, and it was $5800. The bandwidth manager is an ImageStream router with their software loaded on it (they're partnering). There is a charge per month for software maintenance (I think we're paying like $150 per month) and if you want tech support there's a per-incident charge or a monthly support package for another $150. This software, along with the BMU, should allow us to manage remote pops as well (disconnected from our main network). Even in other towns, or smaller WISPs that we purchase or partner with. With this, we should be able to provide great back-end sales, billing, and support while the local tech or partner works on the network. I partnered with a competitor to leverage our assets to move quicker with growth. Mark Nash UnwiredOnline.Net 350 Holly Street Junction City, OR 97448 http://www.uwol.net 541-998-5555 541-998-5599 fax ----- Original Message ----- From: Brian Rohrbacher To: WISPA General List Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 11:38 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] Billing suggestings what is the cost like on that? Mark Nash wrote: We have just signed on with PowerCode. We like the interface, and it is much more than billing. It's got a bandwidth manager, auto-account shut-off for nonpayment, CRM, lead-tracking, commission-tracking. So far so good, we billed with it this month and that's all we've done. I know that there are other WISPs that have used them in the past, and I received varying degrees of opinions when I asked about them previously. I'll let you know how it goes. They are a WISPA vendor member now, as I understand it. Mark Nash UnwiredOnline.Net 350 Holly Street Junction City, OR 97448 http://www.uwol.net 541-998-5555 541-998-5599 fax ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ross Cornett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 8:24 AM Subject: [WISPA] Billing suggestings Hey guys, I am in a pickle here with my client tracking database. We had a propriatary softward made for us and it is not a great scenario for us. This software stored data in an access database and primarily was client contact, reminding renewals for mailing bills...etc... What are you all using that might be a good transition for me... Thanks in advance... Ross Cornett HofNet Communications, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ross Cornett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 11:37 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] Net Equalizer Anyone? I too would say the same. Initially they did a good job, but soon after they began to be in effective and variable. We contacted them and got very little satisfaction. so, we are now trying mikrotiks at every tower. like a 333... details will follow with our success or failure. We have implemented them at 4 or 5 towers and will be puting them at 30 towers... Ross ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jake VanDewater" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 11:33 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] Net Equalizer Anyone? We purchased a NetEqualizer last year, and we weren't impressed. It did not perform well compared to the Emerging Technologies box we use. The rate limits were not effectively enforced. -Jake Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:16:46 -0600 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: wireless@wispa.org Subject: [WISPA] Net Equalizer Anyone? I have been considering the Net Equalizer as a possible platform for bandwidth management. I know that topics like this often lead to a myriad of posts about bandwidth management normally. If possible I would like to hear feedback from people who have actually used this one appliance to hear about any advantages or disadvantages to use of this device for managing bandwidth in WISP networks. I appreciate hearing from any past or present users of the Net Equalizer platform. All the best, John Scrivner -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ WISPA Wants You! 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