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COMMSOFT $1.9M DEAL WILL HELP COMPANY PUSH SALES TO $10 MILLION
Richard A. D’Errico
Billing-software developer CommSoft of Albany won a $1.9
million contract with an Arizona-based telecommunications provider, the
biggest contract for CommSoft since founder and CEO Larry Davis bought
back the company last year.
Valley Telephone Cooperative, Inc. based in Willcox, Ariz., provides
telephone, wireless and Internet service to parts of Arizona and New Mexico.
CommSoft’s software will allow Valley Telephone to send customers
of multiple services one bill and will allow Valley Telephone to tap into
one database of customers and market all of its products and services.
The ability to provide our customers with a single bill was paramount
in our selection process,” said Judy Bruns, Valley Telephone CEO
and general manager.
Davis said a team of CommSoft employees will be working on installing
the software and hardware and training Valley Telephone employees during
the next nine months. It is expected to be running by August. “This
sale has been in the works over a year,” he said. “This one
was abnormally long.”
Davis was the salesman on the Valley Telephone contract. He said he has
known Bruns for more than 15 years, from the time when she was working
at another phone company that also purchased CommSoft software.
“That played a big part [in this current deal],” Davis said. “We
had a lot of success in the past.”
What made this deal even sweeter, he said, was that Valley Telephone
dropped a competitor to sign with CommSoft.
Davis said he expects CommSoft to close 2002 with sales of $10 million,
up from revenue of $6.6 million when he bought the company in February
2001 from Platinum Equity Holdings of Los Angeles.
Jeff Kagan, a telecommunications analyst based in Atlanta, said packaging
services in the trend in the industry.
For example, he said, both SBC and Verizon recently said they would be
bundling their local and long-distance telephone bills with wireless and
ISP service bills.
It provides a convenience for the customer, and it also is beneficial
to the phone company. If a customer uses more than one service through
one provider, the customer becomes more loyal, he said.
“The chances of them leaving to another competitor goes way down,” Kagan
said. “If you’re using two or three services, you’ve
got a very sticky customer.”
In the case of wireless customers, for instance, Kagan said, once a contract
expires they tend to shop around. But when wireless is part of a package
of services, customers tend to stay with the existing provider, he said.
“That’s one of the main drives [for this type of software]
from the company’s perspective,” Kagan said. “They win
big-time. Churn is a big problem and this helps them cut back on churn.”
© 2002 American City Business Journals Inc.
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About CommSoft
CommSoft's software solutions give communication service
providers the ability to conduct their customer care and billing operations
from
one
fully integrated, convergent system. Our ability to
centralize data reduces costs, increases efficiency and enables better
service. CommSoft
customers
benefit from the ability to offer a single bill for
all their services including wireless, wireline, cable, and ISP. We
have over
20 years experience
providing customer care, billing, rating, financial,
cabs, capital credits and provisioning solutions. For
more information, go to www.commsoft.net.
CommSoft and CommVergence are trademarks of CommSoft. Other
trademarks and registered trademarks
are the property of their respective owners. |
