Company Information
HQ
Paris, France
Founded
2015
Market
Agile Billing
Solution
Opencell Billing Engine
Representative
Customers
OVHcloud, La Poste, Fnac Darty, Eir, Engie, Alpiq, Velib
Ideal Customer
Profile
Mid-to-large EU-based organizations requiring medium-to-high complexity and billing volumes with projects driven by IT teams that embrace the open-source model.
Company Size
The optimal fit is for a company/product line with revenues of $250M – $1B+, although their sweet spot can be as low as $20M if the customer has high complexity monetization requirements.
Business Model
Technology Ecosystem(s)
Opencell runs on an open source, Java-based system; their front end is developed in ReactJS. The preferred cloud provider is OVHcloud. The optimal deployment is in a single tenant, hosted by either Opencell or by the customer’s preferred cloud (e.g., Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure) using Kubernetes.
Primary Users
Business
Finance
Operations
Marketing
IT
Sales
Services
Developers
The common users of this solution include finance and IT teams. Sales and operations users also frequently use the system to produce quotes, process orders, etc.
Investment Level
Smaller projects can be a deployed with a handful of internal staff, while larger projects are typically staffed with 1015+ internal resources plus external consultants. Software fees are below market average.
Agility
Implementation times are commensurate with the sophistication and complexity of the monetization and IT environments the product is going into. Once implemented, the solution offers above-average agility — introducing change into the system does not require a large team of resources.
Complexity
This solution can address monetization requirements with medium to above medium levels of complexity. Although it is sold as an “all in one” solution, customers are able to use components for specific needs.
Geographies
North America
Latin America
EU
ME
Africa
Japan
Asia
Australia /NZ
Opencell is best suited to European companies. The company has a number of customers outside France (e.g., Ireland, Spain, Switzerland), so it is not limited to French-speaking countries within Europe. International expansion is primarily dependent on creating a network of local, trained integration partners.
Sales Channels
Direct
Online
Indirect
Companies with an indirect and/or direct sales motion will find a good fit with OpenCell.
Top 3 Verticals
Utilities/Energy
The solution is an ideal fit for energy and other utilities providers.
Telecommunications
This solution addresses the needs of telecommunications operations, particularly those with cloud and next-gen business services.
B2B Service
The business services vertical is a primary focus of this solution. The consolidation of diverse billing solutions into a single platform is a common use case.
Analyst Notes
Opencell distinguishes itself in two ways. First, it is one of the few viable open-source billing solutions in the market. This makes it particularly appealing to organizations with strong IT departments seeking a software product that can be built upon and customized within the context of the customer’s existing portfolio of home-grown and off-the-shelf applications. Potential buyers’ concern about vendor lock-in is softened by the open-source approach and option to self-host. Second, Opencell offers a variety of deployment modes. Most customers prefer a single-tenant implementation, while others elect to a multi-tenant deployment. A multi-seller option allows deployment across multiple legal entities or business units.
Other interesting aspects of the solution include (a) their customizable, role-based interfaces that enable end users to operate the system without needing to acquire a CRM license or develop custom portals, and (b) their extensive Restful APIs that make it easy to create complex integrations with third-party solutions. These factors, combined with its position in the European market, give the company a distinct profile apart from the legacy billing solutions and the younger, lightweight subscription management products. CPQ functionality was introduced in late 2021.
