Cycle30, which likes to call itself an order-to-cash hosted services provider, has finished converting all the cable TV services provided by Alaska-based GCI Communications and is ready to start attacking MSOs in the lower 48. It could be a bit of a tightrope walk for Cycle30 because it's a wholly owned subsidiary of GCI and other MSOs might not be that amenable to signing up with a service hosted by a competitive provider.
"That's the beauty of GCI being located where it is," Jim Dunlap, president of Cycle30 and former CIO at GCI told FierceCable. "If GCI had multiple properties in the lower 48 and could potentially be a competitor to some of the target customers that we have, it would be a little different, but since they're really captive in the Alaska geography ... I've never had anybody ask me about any potential competitive threats from GCI."
Dunlap emphasized that Cycle30 provides an end-to-end order-to-cash infrastructure that many small and mid-sized cable operators can't get from larger billing systems providers.
"We take all the infrastructure ... all the systems necessary from the minute you place an order until there's money in the bank-order management, workflows, activation, provisioning, inventory, fraud management to invoice printing and mailing," Dunlap said. "If you're a Tier 1, an AT&T or Comcast, absolutely the (incumbent) hosted providers are happy to bend over backwards for you. But if you're a mid-tier company with a half-million subscribers or 250,000 subscribers, it's very difficult to get the kind of service level you need to differentiate yourself in the marketplace."
For more:
see this news release
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