Billing Group at Work FOCUS members participating in the Billing Special Interest Group (SIG) are rolling up their sleeves to tackle their most pressing SBC billing issues and needs. The FOCUS Billing Special Interest Group (SIG) first met via conference call in January, 2005, and then again in March and as recently as June 20. Some 54 customers participated in the June call. The SIG's next order of business is for industry-specific groups to meet and each to establish a hit list of issues, needs, and processes that SBC can improve upon, including how bills are received and paid. The industry groups will present these lists to SBC. Later, SBC will report what issues it has resolved and enhancements it has made. The industry groups so far include Finance, Healthcare, Government, and Construction. They will begin meeting during the Third Quarter. If you are interested in participating in an industry group or forming a new industry group, please e-mail Billing SIG Co-Chairs David Loy at David_Loy@csaa.com and Donn Greiner at donn.greiner@usaa.com. "The Billing SIG is really gaining momentum," said Loy. "I'm delighted with the participation and hope that it will continue to grow." Lois Kraus, SBC Executive Director-Business Billing Product Management, said she's also very enthusiastic about the industry subgroups and the feedback SBC will receive from them. "Customer feedback from the Billing SIG will help us determine the priority of new enhancements," Kraus said. "We fully intend to bring our plans to the SIG and ask for input. We know that not everyone will want the same capabilities. Our hope is that we can satisfy the broadest group of our customers with future enhancements. We expect the Billing SIG to drive this." At the same time, FOCUS members benefit from the Billing SIG, because SBC can address customer-specific issues by putting customers directly in touch with an SBC subject matter expert, Loy said. "Also, customers want the opportunity to provide input into the billing products they will be using in the future," Loy said. "The Billing SIG gives customers a direct line to the SBC team responsible for developing billing products." On the June Billing SIG call, Kraus gave an update on recent enhancements made to the SBC billing products, including eBAT and Billing Connections. To read her report, go to the Billing SIG section under Interest Groups on the FOCUS site at http://www.thefocus.org In addition to the Billing SIG quarterly conference calls and industry groups, FOCUS members also can contact the SBC billing managers at billingsig@sbc.com with questions. "After the last meeting, we received quite a few e-mails," Kraus said. "The majority of inquiries were related to customer-specific issues. We asked the appropriate SBC billing subject matter expert to contact the customer. "We've also received some comments about competitive billing products, which were very interesting and helpful. The more we can find out about what our customers like and don't like, the better we can shape our future billing product plans."
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