Company Profiles - Total Tel International
Total Tel International |
| A trusted provider of next-generation billing and payment solutions in the Middle East and Africa, Melbourne-based Total Tel International is looking to take the next step. |
| http://www.ttiadvant.com |
The story so far |
| With a long and successful history in Australia’s competitive telecommunications sector, Total Tel International (TTI) is now a leader in converged billing and payment systems throughout the Middle-East and Africa. The company’s focus is on wireless and wireline telecommunications operators and payment companies involved in electronic recharge, online top-up and mobile commerce. TTI was originally formed by some of the founders of Unidial Holdings, Australia’s second largest phonecard company. At the time Unidial was the nation’s largest provider of prepaid mobile phones ‘Fast Fone’, in partnership with Vodaphone, and was the first prepaid mobile virtual network operator in Australia. The success of prepaid mobiles attracted many software developers to billing and call control. “A small business like ours had to compete in a highly competitive global market and we were successful against the odds,” said TTI CEO, Peter Cook. As technology evolved TTI was quick to adapt. Although it remains a prepaid software provider TTI moved into converged billing products that incorporate pre and post paid services under a single user account. The company’s major billing product is a market leading, real-time billing solution called Advant Converged Billing, which supports billing for mobile and fixed services for prepaid and post-paid video (TV), voice and data. It is also IP and TDM capable. In what proved another smart move, the company also decided to focus on the development of a new platform for distributing electronic recharge and prepaid PINs, aimed at making telecommunications prepaid distribution simpler and more efficient. Called Advant Electronic Value Distribution System, the system can transact with any electronic account including prepaid accounts, bank accounts, credit cards and consumer utility accounts. The product has attracted global interest, and TTI is involved in joint ventures and revenue share deals in Africa, the Middle East, India, Sri Lanka, SE Asia, North America and Australia. |
Reaching new markets |
| Rather than compete with large, multi-national companies in established markets, Peter said TTI focuses on emerging markets the big vendors aren’t well-suited to serve, such as the Middle East and Africa where closer relationships with clients, flexible implementation procedures and smart pricing are essential. “Instead of coming in with a high, upfront price – which makes it very hard for start-up companies – we structure our pricing so we get our money down the track as they make their money, normally around a year later,” Peter explained. In 2006 TTI negotiated a joint venture with Dubaibased Estel Technologies (UAE) to supply the region with a number of TTI solutions including sophisticated billing platforms and a variety of payment systems in and out of the United Arab Emirates. This joint venture has partnered with a local service provider to establish Technopay, a local payments bureau. The Technopay platform offers independent payment and transaction services for telecommunications and utilities throughout the Gulf region and North Africa. “They chose us because of our accessibility in terms of maintenance and support, our willingness to engage in discussions about solution design and our flexibility,” said Peter. TTI also won a large payments system contract with MTN Uganda, one of the largest mobile phone providers in Africa ahead of a short-list of six impressive global competitors. One of the major conditions of the deal was approval by MTN headquarters in South Africa, which TTI hopes will open doors to other parts of the MTN business. |
Why Melbourne, Australia? |
| Although TTI has offices with partners in Singapore, Delhi and Ottawa, Peter says the company has no intention of moving its headquarters outside Melbourne. “We have access to highly skilled staff here that are capable of solution design, which is difficult to find anywhere else. In India we can get good programmers, team leaders and project managers but we haven’t found people capable of the end-to-end systems design,” said Peter. “The other great advantage of being based in Melbourne is that people are very loyal to small and medium businesses here. Whereas in other parts of the world we find people like to move on quickly. They’re looking for a major brand name on their CV.” Peter said being based in Melbourne was also an important selling point for the company in African and Middle Eastern markets. “The fact we can offer Australian-made solutions that are competitive with Indian and Chinese products is very important. “The companies we sell to value the fact they are getting Australian software. It has immediate credibility. They feel it’s the genuine article, and the solutions we provide are often individually tailored as well.” |
The future |
| TTI is now looking to build on existing relationships with its partners to help grow the business in the Middle East, East and North Africa and throughout the rest of Africa. TTI exhibited its leading prepaid and convergent billing solutions, along with its top-up and mobile commerce payments solutions, at AfricaCom in Cape Town in November 2007 and again in April 2008 at East AfricaCom, which focuses on the communications markets of countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. “We've got a market entry strategy that’s all about doing the research up front, and building our knowledge about these markets. We’re also looking carefully at what events we can attend so we can spend a bit more effort focussing on the best way to service clients in this part of the world,” Peter said. |
