Historically many start-up Service Providers have provided Calling Card services as it offers a lucrative entry into the telecommunications market. The levels of competition in this marketplace have increased considerably and many operators now find that they need to offer more flexible services and implement measures to improve customer retention while optimising operating expenditure.

The DIGITALK Multiservice Platform is considered by many to be the industry standard for Calling Card solutions across Europe because of its inherent flexibility and feature rich applications, which allow Service Providers to take full advantage of market opportunities as they arise.

Calling Cards have become a very popular product enabling customers to pay for calling services in advance and can be easily purchased from high street retailers. Typically, cards have a PIN number and a fixed amount of credit and customers can access the operator’s network by dialling a predetermined access code (e.g. 0800, 0870 or 0845) and then entering the security PIN printed on the card. The customer can then make calls until the credit on the card has expired. Once credit is low the customer has the option of buying a new card or paying for more credit via and IVR interface or via the Internet.

Calling Cards give start up and established operators alike the opportunity to enter markets where high levels of risk would normally act as a significant barrier to entry.

Many Calling Card operators have had considerable success marketing Calling Cards to vertical ethnic markets, targeting specific segments of the community within various countries in Europe has proved to be a very successful strategy. Many of DIGITALK’s largest customers have built up a multi national Calling Card infrastructures using the DIGITALK Multiservice Platform activating millions of cards per month.

Key features of the DIGITALK Calling Card application include:

• Supports an unlimited number of cards
• Optional CLI validation
• Support for Follow-on calls
• Card chaining, allowing the transfer of credit between cards
• Card expiry dates from first use can be defined
• Credit and time announcements can be played as required
• A customised promotional message can be played on first use
• Maximum daily and monthly spend per card
• Full tracking of calls and call and card histories
• Real-time rating
• Revenue Assurance reports show gross margin.
• Full support for resellers through secure agent partitioning

The DIGITALK Multiservice Platform (MSP) can be managed remotely via a secure VPN connection and the Network and Service Management Suite provides all of the tools required by an operator to manage card batches, rate sheets, as well as performing CRM functions. In addition, when a resale or distribution model is applied secure access can also be given to agents so that they are able to self manage their own partition.

The philosophy of the DIGITALK MSP is that it grows as the Service Provider grows and enables expansion into new markets and applications, simply and quickly. Many Calling Card operators expand into full pre and postpaid residential voice services, premium rate telephone services and Virtual Office.