Gartner defines customer management and experience solutions as part of business support systems (BSS) solutions for CSPs, and as commercial off-the-shelf software solutions that address CSPs’ all customer-facing operational requirements. This includes managing customer channels, customer information, incidents, products, pricing, quotes and offers, order and partner management. CM&X solutions often work together with revenue management and monetization solutions as part of a complete BSS stack.
A “subscription” is a contract between a supplier and a customer for the supply of a product or service over an extended period of time. The price of the subscription may be fixed (for example, access to a digital newspaper for $199 per year), variable depending on the level of usage (for example, mobile phone usage or flight hours on an aircraft engine) or a mix of fixed and usage-based charges. One or more subscriptions are recorded on a “service contract.” “Recurring billing” is the periodic (for example, monthly or annual) invoicing of a customer to collect payment for one or more subscriptions. “Subscription management” is the process of selling new subscriptions and amending existing subscriptions over time.