Thanks Charles. I've heard of most of those, and a few more, but haven't talked to many people that use the. I probably know Freeside the best because that's what Matt Larsen uses. He's showed me some of what he's doing (customer monitoring etc.) with it and I'm very impressed. But he's much more server side talented than I am....
As for merchant services, we have a very nice system in place through our local bank. We're quite happy with it and we're getting very good rates. laters, marlon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Wu" <[email protected]> To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 7:58 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. > Hi Marlon, > > In no particular order, here's a list of some of the more popular ISP/WISP > billing packages that we see in the market > > Platypus/Tucows > PowerCode > Rodopi > BillMax > Freeside > Emerald / IEA Software > > Every package has their strengths and weaknesses -- ultimately, it comes > down to personal preference and business processes to see what's a best > fit > > Whatever it is that you end up with...be sure to check out ip pay > (www.ippay.com) for your back-end payments =) > > -Charles > > P.S. -- in all seriousness -- QuickBooks does a really good job of hosing > merchants (especially ISPs) on their payment processing -- we actually > just helped another ISP/WISP pay for a new billing system with the $400 / > month we were saving when they switched from QuickBooks Merchant Services > to IP Pay > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer > Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:52 AM > To: WISPA General List > Cc: [email protected]; Odessa Office 509-982-2181 > Subject: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. > > Hi All, > > I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in > order > to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 > month > or so to get it done.... I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. > > Here's the work flow in our office. > > New customer calls in. > Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. > Assign static ip to customer. > Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. > Enter all customer data into Access. > Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. > Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. > Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). > Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer > folder. > Generate installation work order. > Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. > > This has worked nicely in the past and "only" takes about 30 minutes to > accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to > maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is > having > to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there > to > be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone > all > of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have > someone > trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around > no > matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, > redundant > data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of > reports etc. > > We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on > them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad > because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem > customers. > > This would probably be a good time to change everything though. > > In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the > taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server > configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. > > I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more > per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that > money > into the local labor pool. > > Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work > in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take > care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. > > What are people using? Do you like it? > > If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? > > Vendors please feel free to hit me up. > marlon > 509.988.0260 > Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what > she > does day in and day out. > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! 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