I am biased, but I think that Freeside is the best value in enterprise class billing platforms. I’m not aware of another Billing and OSS platform that provides the same features and service as our software with configuration and support. In a prior life, when I was a proprietary platform, We were paying about $1500/month for basic telephone support and annual upgrades. Customization was astronomical @ $250/hour, and the hours they bid made my head spin. We used to half joke that it was six-months and $1MM to get anything done in that billing system. With that in mind, you can understand why I was so happy when, a little over seven years ago, I found Freeside.
I couldn’t believe that an installed and supported system was under $3,000, and telephone support for under $500/month! Seven years ago, it was even less.
Since then, I’ve been a huge advocate both of the open-source and paid installation path. I’ve gone to trade shows with Ivan, I’ve talked it up to almost anyone that would listen, which is why nobody was surprised when I joined Freeside. Those who I have talked to can probably vouch for my infectious love of the billing platform, and I’m not exaggerating when I say, it changed my entire outlook on billing.
I have a problem though, It bums me out that we’re still relatively unknown. Sure we get some airplay on mailing lists, and every now and then we’ll show up in a magazine article, (thank you to those who give us airplay and write magazine articles), but I’m looking for some help from the community. I need evangelists who are willing to post a blog entry about our great billing system. Friends that are part of a Linux Users’ group? Do you belong to an ISP association? A VoIP consortium? Then spread the word – Tell people what you know… Freeside ROCKS! Thank you for listening and thank you for sharing!
-Peter