Portal Software, Inc. (Pink Sheets:PRSF), the premier global provider of billing and Revenue Management solutions for telecommunications and media markets, today announced that more than 85 percent of its customers intended to repurchase products and services, with 66 percent of customers looking to upgrade in the next 12 months, according to the latest Portal Customer Satisfaction Scorecard, a semi-annual customer survey conducted by CustomerSat. In contrast, a recent VanillaPlus Magazine and Yankee Group survey of 101 billing and IT executives from a broad range of carriers released in February 2006, found only 53 percent of carriers decided to continue with their current vendor and nearly 45 percent planned to expand usage of their current system, putting Portal’s results well above the industry average.
“Portal’s approach to Revenue Management is deeply rooted in its understanding of its customers’ business needs–scalability, time-to-market, ease of integration, and quick return on investment,” said Vidar Methi, Portal system manager at Telenor Mobile Nordic. “Portal is a valued partner in delivering strategic products and services that enable immediate solutions, and enable the rapid expansion of future profit-rich services to remain competitive in today’s marketplace.”
Additional results of the Portal Customer Satisfaction Scorecard found that Portal’s product quality, ease of configuration and integration, and innovative consulting services were the main drivers of the intent to repurchase. In response to product quality, more than 77 percent of customers surveyed found Portal’s product-based platform to be good or excellent, compared to the industry average of 67 percent of customers regarding their current solutions, as reported by VanillaPlus and Yankee Group. Likewise, more than 75 percent of Portal customers rated ease of integration as good or excellent, compared to the industry average of nearly 31 percent of customers.
“Portal continues its assault on the billing industry’s dirty little secret–poor customer satisfaction,” said Paul Hughes, vice president of billing and payment application strategies at Yankee Group. “With service providers facing an increasingly volatile market with competitors entering from every direction, billing and Revenue Management solutions will rise in prominence as a mission-critical and differentiating business weapon. As such, we have seen an increased willingness among service providers to shop for new solutions that best address today’s business climate.”
“We remain steadfast in our belief that customers should not be required to sacrifice market opportunity, business agility, or customer satisfaction in exchange for a functionally-rich solution tailored to their business,” said Dave Labuda, CEO of Portal Software. “We’re pleased that Portal’s customer satisfaction remains above the industry average, and are committed to improving upon it.”
Methodology
The Customer Satisfaction Scorecard is conducted by CustomerSat, the leading provider of enterprise solutions for measuring, analyzing, and managing enterprise-wide action responding to real-time customer feedback. The survey is designed to offer insight into Portal customers’ experiences in the continued effort to provide superior billing and Revenue Management solutions and support programs to the wireless, broadband and content services markets. CustomerSat surveyed 120 technology support, business owners, and executives, representing over 80 Portal customers. The survey was conducted online during November 2005. Portal has measured its customers’ satisfaction at 15 intervals over the past 7 years.
About Portal Software, Inc.
Portal is the leading worldwide provider of billing and Revenue Management solutions for the global communications and media markets. The company delivers the only platform for the end-to-end management of customer revenue across offerings, channels, and geographies. Portal’s solutions enable companies to dramatically accelerate the launch of innovative, profit-rich services while significantly reducing the costs associated with legacy billing systems. Portal is the Revenue Management partner of choice to the world’s leading service providers, including Vodafone, AOL Time Warner, Deutsche Telekom, Telstra, NTT, China Telecom, Reuters, China Mobile, Telenor Mobil, and France Telecom.