SAS® Business Analytics helps rings up millions in savings for telco

One Communications calls SAS to uncover billing errors in complex carrier chargeback network

CARY, NC - One Communications depends on SAS® Business Analytics to quickly and efficiently monitor the system of intercarrier compensation for calls switched between networks. The result: $500,000 saved the first year and several million dollars since.

With annual revenue of $800 million and serving customers in 16 states, One Communications finds the results significant. The company – founded as an alternative to local phone companies during telecommunications deregulation – also uses SAS Business Analytics to increase flexibility and profitability in numerous other areas.

“Before we brought billing in-house, we felt that we were not billing everything we could. In carrier access billing, there are too many chances to miss billing opportunities. Our then-CEO had concerns that as a startup company we were turning on a lot of lines without billing for all of them,” said Rick Pigeon, Vice President of Network Planning and Optimization. “Since bringing our billing in-house and deploying SAS, we’ve saved millions of dollars. That’s huge.”

One Communications deployed SAS Business Intelligence server, SAS® Enterprise Guide®, Base SAS and SAS/STAT® well before the global economy soured. Pigeon said SAS Business Analytics has even greater impact in tough times.

“The pressure of the tough economy drives us to become more efficient in everything that we do, especially our network costs,” he says. “That is very significant portion of our budget. SAS allowed us to very effectively validate our network cost. There is no way an individual analyst paying a bill could pick up that bill and determine if it is accurate or not. With SAS we can process very large volumes of data from our billing system, as well as tariff data, and determine if the billing is accurate.”
Customer Responsiveness

SAS Business Analytics has also improved customer service at One Communications, said Kelly Smilanich, One Communications’ Manager of Mediation. “If Sales wants to get a new customer into the system so the revenue appears in a current quarter, we can do that in one day with SAS – 28 faster than before. The sales people can turn things around quickly, and that demonstrates how responsive we are to customer needs,” she said.

Smilanich said business analysts appreciate the SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office, which allows internal clients to work with meaningful, timely data using a familiar interface.

“They now have almost a year of history on our server. They don’t have to sift through their e-mail to get the information they need. They absolutely love it,” she said.

The SAS Business Analytics Framework is a powerful blend of data integration, analytics, reporting and an ever-expanding portfolio of industry and line-of-business solutions. Organizations can quickly address their most immediate business issues, extending their use of SAS over time to achieve continuous performance improvements.

About SAS
SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions delivered within an integrated framework, SAS helps customers at more than 45,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know® .