[December 04, 2007] CSG's Industry-Leading Self-Service Solution Reaches New Milestones in Consumer Adoption Tweet ENGLEWOOD, Colo. --(Business Wire)-- Leading billing and customer care solutions provider CSG Systems (NASDAQ: CSGS) today announced that its CSG(R) Care Express product suite, a solution for cable and Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) providers that enables online customer self-service, now serves more than six million consumers of cable and satellite services nationwide. Over the past eight months alone, more than one million consumers have registered to use Care Express, bringing total consumers managed by the solution to more than six million. CSG and its clients are signing up more than 3,500 new Care Express users each day and processing more than $200 million in payments each month, or approximately $2.4 billion in payments each year. The CSG Care Express product suite allows consumers to manage their accounts, view and pay bills over the Internet and virtually eliminates manual processes carried out by customer service representatives (CSRs) when taking orders and upgrading services. Care Express offers convenience for the consumer and saves expense for the operator as these customers do not have to contact the call center for routine business transactions such as billing and account inquiries. The Care Express suite offers five modules that enable cable and DBS operators to offer key customer care capabilities such as e-billing, self-care and interaction with accounts through banking Web sites, kiosks and more. CSG began providing electronic bill, or eBill, distribution to customers through the Care Express Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) Module in 2002. Many consumers who elect to pay bills electronically also choose not to receive a hard copy statement in the mail. By offering a hard-copy bill suppression option, Care Express saved operators approximately $6.4 million in postage costs last year. In addition to the tremendous growth CSG has experienced in the adoption of eBill distribution, CSG has seen substantial uptake in the Self-Care Module of Care Express, which allows consumers to upgrade service packages and sign up for new services online. In CSG's two most recent deployments in two large cities, a cable operator gained more than 1,000 new service orders per month after deployment of the Self-Care Module. CSG is on track to deploy self-care in twelve new markets by mid-2008, drastically reducing call center traffic and increasing sales and marketing opportunities on the Web. In addition to consumer growth overall, CSG has seen a significant increase in the adoption of eBill payments through Web payment portals. Through the Consolidator Module of Care Express, cable and DBS operators can present monthly bills to consumers not only through their own Web site, but also through a wide variety of bill payment sites on the Internet, such as banking web sites, brokerage firms, credit unions and Internet portals. CSG has seen a 254 percent growth year over year since launching this capability within Care Express two years ago. Adding to the broad capabilities of the Care Express suite, CSG also recently introduced the Care Express Retail Kiosk; a new module of Care Express that includes a full service retail kiosk that allows cable and satellite customers to manage their account, make payments and upgrade services through retail kiosks throughout the United States using distributed web technologies. CSG has deployed the Retail Kiosk at payment centers of major cable operators nationwide. These operators are using the new product module as an additional option for consumers to interact with their account and receive care at a time and place that is convenient for them. "We have worked closely with our clients to evolve the Care Express product suite from an effective eBill platform to a powerful tool that can extend an operator's brand and services through the Web and into retail locations through kiosks," said Dwayne Ruffin, Senior Vice President of Product Management at CSG Systems. "The result is a robust, industry-leading solution that enables operators to raise the bar on the methods they use to provide customer care across a variety of channels to more than six million consumers nationwide." CSG plans to continue its investment in the Care Express product suite to include integration to CSG's Product Configurator and Offer Management solutions as well as offering an interface that can leverage the Care Express ordering system to extend to other partner portals. CSG also plans to add new service ordering features to its Care Express Retail Kiosk Module, which the company introduced in Spring 2007. CSG Care Express currently supports several of the nation's leading providers of cable and satellite services including Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications, Bright House Networks and Mediacom Communications. About CSG(R) Care Express CSG Care Express enables customers of cable services providers and direct broadcast satellite providers (DBS) to perform self-care functions such as viewing, managing and paying bills over the Internet. Care Express works with CSG's ACP (Advanced Convergent Platform) core billing solution and offers five fully-integrated options, including an Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) module, an Online Ordering and Customer Service module and a Consolidator module, managed in CSG Systems' state of the art service bureau facility. More than six million customers use Care Express on a regular basis to pay bills, manage account information and add or change services without interacting with a call center. About CSG Systems Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, CSG Systems International (NASDAQ: CSGS) is the leading provider of outsourced billing, customer care and print and mail solutions and services supporting the North American cable and direct broadcast satellite markets. CSG's solutions support some of the world's largest and most innovative providers of bundled multi-channel video, Internet, voice and IP-based services. CSG's unique combination of solutions, services and expertise ensure that cable and satellite operators can continue to rapidly launch new service offerings, improve operational efficiencies and deliver a high-quality customer experience in a competitive and ever-changing marketplace. For more information, visit our website at www.csgsystems.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]