Hi and welcome to your new Tête à Tête Décideurs program.
The digital transition that we all hear about is often accompanied by transformations of companies' business models.
Indeed, we are witnessing a new paradigm where consumers and companies
massively adopt consumption on the basis of subscription or usage billing.
Thus, companies prefer to rent their computer servers from Amazon or OVH
and purchase their software on a recurring subscription basis from Salesforce or Microsoft.
Individuals buy fewer and fewers cars, preferring mobility services such as Uber or even Chauffeur Privé,
and this paradigm shift is accompanied by a change in IT systems.
ERP software, primarily designed to manage the manufacture and sale of products,
is now being replaced by new solutions more suitable for billing of recurring services.
What are the new billing solutions?
To speak about this subject, I welcome David Meyer, CEO of Opencell.
- Hello Mr. Meyer. - Hello.
- Thanks for being present in our studio to talk about billing systems.
The first question concerns the key issues of businesses' information system. What are they?
- So, we are really witnessing a reconsideration of the ERP solutions installed in companies during the 90s.
They are often monolithic, onerous, very expensive to install,
very expensive to maintain and very expensive to keep up to date.
And today companies, want to avoid being disrupted – you typically talked about Uber, very good example
so these companies are asking their IT department
to adopt an approach that we would refer to as "Best of Breed".
They choose the best software bricks available in the market
and assemble them to obtain versatile software better suited to those new businesses.
They operate in DevOps mode as do start-ups,so they can quickly implement new features.
- So, you're talking about software. We talk a lot about billing software these days. What exactly does this mean?
- Traditionally, billing software solutions are invoicing applications which produce invoices.
These complex billing solutions which managed recurrent charging generally used in the telecom and utility sector,
i.e. water, gas and electricity.
But as very well said in your introduction, business models actually are evolving. They are evolving in all sectors.
So, what we are asking of these solutions, the new billing software, is a small revolution.
First, it is adaptation – to new sectors
and to be able to invoice these subscriptions and new usages.
I talked about the cloud businesses, but we can also mention mobility, for example.
For Parisians, the Vélib' and the Autolib'services are charged on a fee-for-service basis by these new systems.
- So, we are also talking about open source which could be a solution to develop complex software.
Can you explain its benefits?
- So first of all, we can witness a strong growth of the Open Source.
In the low layers, be it Linux operating systems, databases like Postgres
or even programming languages such as Java, Sourceopen source solutions have taken over. They have replaced all the old systems.
What we can also note is that, in United States and especially in Silicon Valley, the GAFAs,
(Google, Facebook and Amazon) finance Open Source projects in key sectors like artificial Intelligence,
but the big data or even security as well.
So what are its real advantages? What are the real benefits of Open Source?
Actually, when you are a software publisher, you can already aggregate existing bricks since the code is free.
You can aggregate existing bricks from different Open Source technologies
and like that, you move much faster while creating your software.
Also, as you already have access to this code, you can create your own features.
So the price/power ratio, compared to the closed world, is much higher. We have much faster results,
and if I could add something that is also very important in Open Source, the mind-set is different.
That is, today an Open Source publisher has a support contract with his client,
but his client already has the software since the code is free.
So every year, he must show his value and this creates a more ethical relationship
between the client and the publisher.
- What are the latest innovations in billing solutions to make them both simpler and less complex,
as we know it can sometimes be too complex for companies?
- In fact, we talk less about complex billing solutions and more about Agile Monetization Platform
which naturally offers more software bricks and which will support the entire the quote-to-cash process,
i.e. from the sales quote to the receipt of payment.
So the solutions goes much further and for example, we will be able to offer contract management,
we will be able to offer links with payment operator or even perform the management of revenue recognition
which is fundamental for CFOs.
So, I would say that the innovations in this sector, in the publishing of invoicing software today, are twofold.
The first is agility, obviously.
It is out of question to do as before, to set up information systems for several years while spending millions of euros.
Businesses go very fast and we must keep in pace with it. So, agility and more readily configurable systems, are key.
And then, the second one is the handling the data volume.
In fact, these new business often involve volume management, especially in terms of usage.
If we take the Internet of Things as an example, you will need to manage several billions of events every month.
And so, it forces these new billing software to be big data compliant.
In other words, to be able to handle large data volumes.
- You are the CEO of Opencell.
You are the editor of an Open Source billing solution for companies requesting the computerization of complex billing rules.
Can you tell us about your range of solutions?
- Opencell is effectively a billing solution that allows subscriptions and usages management.
The company was created in 2015, but is in fact based on an open source project dating back over in 2005. I had other functions at the time.
I had to set up a mini operator system for MVNO. I had to set up CRM, billing services and smart business systems.
At that time, it was very difficult to discuss with billing system operators.
So, I asked a small company to create one which we acquired in 2015 and which gave birth to Opencell.
So at Opencell, we market this solution.
And this solution is based on mediation, rating and billing, which is the core of all billing systems.
Since then, we have added many new modules, new bricks, like being able to generate invoice,
the connectors with ERP for management accounting or that with payment operators.
We also have a data warehouse that allows us to offer both financial and operational reports.
Our marketing manager is a very practical module that is actually revolutionary, since it allows you to create offers with just a few clicks. 85 00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:57,200 This is what I told you - we are moving very quickly, thanks notably to this marketing manager.
But also with our customer care which offers a 360 view for customer services
and our self-care module which allows a customer to onboard, to manage his invoice, to manage his offers.
It's self-management.
- What is your business plan?
- So, we have a classic open source business model, very simple,
i.e. , we sell a company license that offers support to our customers, expertise to our consultants,
training to our instructors and then obviously, quality service in case of a bug.
We are committed to correcting it in a timely and contractual manner.
- What are your clients' profiles, the typical clients and their expectations from your company?
- There is no typical client. In fact, we collaborate with big companies like Orange or Smoove,
a small start-up based in Montpellier and which forms part of Smoovengo' consortium that's behind the Vélib' in Paris.
The only relation between all these customers is, of course, their need for recurring billing.
- Inevitably. And what are your development projects?
- Our main project is to double our MRR, our monthly recurring revenue
that's really how we assess the value of start-ups, what they represent – and increase our revenue by 150%.
Our project is obviously to keep evolving our product.
This year, we are going to spend almost twice as much as last year on R&D
the team will have an addition of ten more people.
And then next year, as of 2019, we will organise a third funding round to complete the three million euros which we already raised
in order to ensure our international development in the Asia-Pacific region and in the United States.
- This is what we wish for all these development projects. We'll follow your evolution.
Thank you very much for being present on set.
- Thank you.
Thank you for watching us. See you shortly for a new issue of the Tête à Tête Décideurs on bfmbusiness.com.
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