Prepared for Ericsson · Finance & Monetisation
Monetising the shift from bandwidth to outcomes.
As Ericsson moves from cyclical hardware to usage-based software, network APIs and enterprise 5G, revenue increasingly flows per-transaction, across multiple parties, at platform scale. That’s exactly where classic billing was never built to keep pace.
Acuiti Labs has delivered SAP BRIM Quote-to-Cash inside telecom; Brightspeed’s BSS core and Lumen’s S/4HANA FI-CA finance transformation. The same high-volume, multi-party, usage-based monetisation Ericsson now faces, already proven in your vertical.
Outcomes
Selling assured, differentiated connectivity
APIs
Per-transaction revenue via Vonage & Aduna
Aduna JV
50:50 with twelve global operators
Private 5G
Subscription, usage and outcome-based pricing
Monetisation maturity · where does the network business sit today?
From reacting to monetising;
the path is a platform decision.
Most telecom API and usage businesses start manual and fragmented. The destination is a convergent, real-time monetisation core. Each stage below shows what it looks like, what breaks, and what it quietly costs.
Manual & bespoke
What it looks like
Spreadsheets and custom scripts per deal. Every new API bundle or enterprise offer is hand-built; reconciliation is manual.
What breaks
Doesn’t survive volume. Per-transaction API events can’t be rated by hand, and each new offer needs an engineering build.
What it costs
Revenue leakage from unrated events, and monetisation that launches late because billing is the bottleneck.
Fragmented systems
What it looks like
Multiple billing and AR systems by product line; hardware, connectivity, API and enterprise each on their own stack.
What breaks
Data is siloed, close is slow, and multi-party settlement is inconsistent across systems that were never meant to reconcile.
What it costs
No single view of margin. The true profitability of the API business is invisible until long after the quarter closes.
Unified rating core
What it looks like
One convergent platform rates and invoices all usage and API events, with centralised pricing and an FI-CA subledger.
What breaks
Little; this is the inflection point. The remaining gap is real-time charging and fully automated partner settlement.
What it costs
Minimal leakage; the focus shifts from fixing billing to launching offers and optimising cash.
Real-time platform
What it looks like
Real-time charging, automated multi-party settlement and developer self-service, with margin visible per line of business.
What breaks
Nothing structural; the platform scales with the business instead of constraining it.
What it costs
New offers launch in config, not code. Settlement is automated and cash application is clean; DSO falls.
Our reading of Ericsson’s monetisation shift
New revenue models, billing that
wasn’t built for them.
Ericsson is building a multi-speed revenue engine: network APIs via Vonage and the Aduna JV, enterprise and private 5G, and differentiated connectivity sold as outcomes. Each new model rates, bills and settles differently to the hardware business, and classic BSS wasn’t designed for per-transaction, multi-party monetisation. Here’s where we’d expect the friction.
High-volume network-API rating
Network APIs (identity, SIM-swap, quality-on-demand, fraud) generate per-call, per-transaction events at developer scale. Rating and invoicing that volume through custom code is fragile and hard to audit.
Multi-party revenue share
The Aduna model aggregates APIs across many operators. Splitting and settling revenue share across a dozen CSPs and developer channels is exactly where manual billing breaks down.
Mixed commercial models
Subscription, consumption and outcome-based (“assured connectivity”) pricing now run alongside classic hardware and licensing. Few billing engines rate all of these natively.
Milestone billing & receivables
Large network rollouts run on milestone billing with slow receivables collection. Manual-intensive cash management drives DSO up and ties up working capital.
Time-to-market for new offers
When a new API bundle or enterprise offer needs an engineering release to bill, monetisation launches late; a real constraint on a fast-moving platform play.
Margin & cash under pressure
With FX drag and input-cost pressure squeezing margin, the business case reads in EBITDA and cash. Finance needs automated billing, invoicing and cash application, delivered in phases.
Proof; two carriers, two different things proven
One proves the model. The other proves the scope.
These aren’t two interchangeable logos. Lumen is a wholesale, multi-biller, enterprise carrier; its convergent-finance transformation proves we understand the monetisation shape network APIs create. Brightspeed is a full BRIM digital-core build; it proves we can stand up the entire stack. Together they cover both questions Ericsson has to answer: do they get our model, and can they deliver at our scale.
Brightspeed
BSS transformation with SAP BRIM as the digital core
The challenge
- Tight TSA timelines requiring rapid exit from Order-to-Cash and Finance Operations legacy systems.
- Complex data migration across multiple legacy platforms with minimal downtime.
- Manual reconciliation and fragmented reporting delaying financial close.
- Need to support rapid business expansion and new product launches on the new platform.
What we delivered
- SAP BRIM as the digital core of the new BSS landscape; subscription order-to-cash, rating, charging, billing and invoicing.
- Integrated with Salesforce, Vertex, credit agencies and print/payment vendors as one connected estate.
- FI-CA for payments, disputes, collections and sub-ledger accounting, with Revenue Accounting & Recognition.
- Seamless migration of customer master and transactional data via GCP and Datasphere.
- Seamless migration of customer master and transactional data via GCP and Datasphere.
- Embedded Acuiti Q2C portal; supporting strategic initiatives like asset-based securitisation and fibre expansion.
Lumen
Finance transformation on S/4HANA FI-CA
The challenge
- Diverse architecture and configurations across billers' AR systems.
- Variability in invoice formats, payment terms, tax handling and customer master data.
- Multiple upstream biller systems feeding inconsistent financial data.
- Issues with credit limits and dispute tracking across the enterprise segment.
What we delivered
- Single source of truth: FI-CA as the AR subledger in S/4HANA, retiring multiple legacy AR systems.
- Biller systems integrated via SAP CPI and mediated through Convergent Invoicing into FI-CA.
- Credit and Dispute Management to track disputes, manage collections and protect customer relationships.
- Customer and contract-account master data harmonised and migrated to S/4HANA.
- Custom Fiori apps (SAP UI5) for billing, collections and dispute workflows, with reporting extracted to the data warehouse.
Why SAP BRIM for a telecom monetisation platform
One platform to rate, bill and settle every model Ericsson sells.
SAP BRIM unifies convergent charging, convergent invoicing and FI-CA on S/4HANA; built for exactly Ericsson’s shift. It rates high-volume network-API and usage events in real time, handles subscription, consumption and outcome-based pricing together, and settles multi-party revenue share across operators and channels.
Where the friction lives today
- Monetisation logic hard-coded per model, so each new API bundle or offer means another billing build.
- Multi-party revenue share across operators and developers reconciled manually and hard to audit.
- Milestone billing and slow receivables on rollouts pushing DSO up and tying up cash.
- New commercial models waiting on engineering releases, so monetisation launches late.
A future-ready monetisation platform
- Real-time convergent charging for per-transaction API and usage events at platform scale.
- Native subscription, consumption and outcome-based rating in one engine; config, not code.
- Automated multi-party settlement and revenue share across the operator and developer ecosystem.
- Automated invoicing, FI-CA and AI cash application; less manual effort, lower DSO, cleaner cash.
Component-level BRIM fitment
Where SAP BRIM maps to
Ericsson’s revenue engine.
Convergent Charging
Rate high-volume network-API and usage events in real time, across subscription, consumption and outcome-based models. Strong fit.
Convergent Mediation
Ingest per-transaction API and usage events from multiple platforms and operators, ready for rating. Strong fit.
Convergent Invoicing
Aggregate usage, subscriptions and one-off charges into consolidated invoices and partner statements. Strong fit.
Contract Accounting
High-volume payment lots, bulk clearing and receivables management on rollouts and enterprise contracts. Strong fit.
Subscription & Order
Model enterprise and private-5G offers sold on recurring-plus-usage terms; renewals, upgrades and orchestration.
Portal & SmartMatch
Developer and partner self-service for usage, invoices and disputes, plus AI reconciliation for bulk, multi-source payments.
Why Acuiti Labs
The specialist BRIM partner for usage-based Q2C.
High-volume, usage-based domain depth
Q2C frameworks and accelerators built from real high-volume engagements; usage rating, multi-party settlement and convergent billing.
Full-stack BRIM integration
The only partner with proven capability to integrate BRIM with CPQ, SFDC, SBS and EMS; end to end.
Structured, low-risk delivery
SAP Activate methodology, phased delivery, iterative sprint reviews, and hypercare through to value realisation.
Products & IPR that extend BRIM
The Acuiti Q2C Customer Portal and a cash-application AI; SAP App Store products that complement your BRIM platform.
100%
Successful BRIM project track record to date.
450+
Q2C consultants globally; the largest dedicated team in the industry.
25+
Referenceable BRIM customers across North America and Europe.
6
Global delivery locations · Specialist SAP BRIM Partner.
Why SAP BRIM for a telecom monetisation platform
One platform to rate, bill and settle every model Ericsson sells.
SAP BRIM unifies convergent charging, convergent invoicing and FI-CA on S/4HANA; built for exactly Ericsson’s shift. It rates high-volume network-API and usage events in real time, handles subscription, consumption and outcome-based pricing together, and settles multi-party revenue share across operators and channels.