6   Financial Systems for Broadcasting and Cable

Calvin Lyles, Jr. and Bruce Lazarus¹

Introduction

This chapter is designed to walk the reader through the various financial systems used by all business units throughout the broadcast and cable industries. It spans the systems that distribute the product or network all the way to the systems that provide stockholders with the financial results. The following departments within the organization at some point in time come into contact with the financial systems:

Traffic Systems

The traffic system impacts all of the various departments in radio and television, including cable television. Primary functions of the system are:

Inventory Management and Commercial Scheduling

The traffic system manages commercial inventory for specific times throughout the broadcaster’s programming. To the listener/viewer, placing a few commercial spots within a specified break time may seem rather easy—but multiply this procedure hundreds of times over for a typical broadcast day, and the challenge becomes daunting. The “trafficking” of commercials has improved in recent years thanks to enhanced inventory-management tools and better automation. As discussed in Chapter 4, the greatest source of revenue in radio and TV is spot advertising, so this system is extremely important in managing millions of dollars and thousands of commercial spots. In order to schedule a single commercial for an advertiser, key information is required on a traffic order. This information includes client, product, and estimate (called CPE by the advertising agencies that supply the information); the version of the copy or spot to air; product category; and commercial rate. To be recognized by most advertising agencies’ spot buying and payment systems, the order must include the CPE information; if it is not included on all paperwork, the agency may delay payment until the discrepancy is resolved. A salesperson gathers this information in a proposal or order form. The order must include the flight (i.e., the dates that the advertiser wishes to run its commercials), and the specific day part requested. The sales order is then delivered to the Traffic Department, either by manually inputting the information or through means of an electronic interface, which is the preferred method for most national agencies. The system then generates a contract, which is printed and sent to the advertiser as confirmation of the order.

After the traffic person has scheduled all of the contracts, he or she reviews the entire inventory that has been sold for each individual date. The traffic person is responsible for ensuring that all spots ordered actually air as sold, and that there is proper separation between product categories and conflicting advertisers. Finalizing a traffic log is part art and part science. The person responsible must make sure that what goes out to the audience both works in the programming and maximizes station revenue. For instance, an advertiser who buys three spots within a one-hour program usually doesn’t want them all in the same commercial break, and it’s a bad idea to run a Toyota and a Volkswagen commercial back-to-back. The completed log is then delivered to the Programming Department for airing. The log includes everything for airing the program, including all commercial information as well as promotional spots.

In addition to the program logs, the traffic system provides data and reports for the sales-management team, finance team, and corporate management. Year-to-date reports on revenue pacing show how specific categories of revenue, sales executives’ billing, specific product categories, specific clients, and so on are performing—month to month, and as compared to the same period in the prior year. The system also provides data for the average commercial unit rate (the mean price charged for a spot in a specific program or day part over a defined time period) and sellout history (a report that shows how a certain day part or program has done in terms of percentage of available spots booked). These reports can prompt management decisions by both providing early warnings of trouble and highlighting new areas in which to focus the sales team. In some traffic systems, pending orders and revenue can also be incorporated into the system. If this portion of the system is utilized, key personnel can combine business on the books information with information about pending business, enabling them to determine additional sales needed and percentage remaining to reach monthly sales goals.

Invoicing and Accounts Receivable

In radio and TV broadcasting, the traffic system also handles the billing of commercials and provides financial reporting of both the gross and the net revenue for the specified reporting month. The spots that were scheduled inside a specific date period are itemized on an invoice to display the client, product, estimate, rate, dates, and times that the commercial aired. The invoices are delivered to an advertiser or agency via mail or an electronic delivery service tied to the traffic system. They may also be delivered to a third party. (Electronic delivery is a work in progress for invoices that contain billing that is not traditional spot advertising.) A detailed billing report is generated to prepare a journal entry for entering revenue into the general ledger system. The billing reports are often also used for calculating monthly sales commission.

Emerging and nontraditional revenue sources—including web sites, concerts, downloadable content, event cost, talent fees, and many, many others—have created problems in the current traffic process because they do not utilize the same spot inventory as conventional commercials do. Many of these revenue sources are entered into the current traffic system as “nonspot” advertising so that the revenue and billing can be generated and included in the revenue and accounts receivable system. In the case of nonspot, the billing is displayed on an invoice as a single line item along with the revenue definition.

Once payments are received from the advertiser or agency, an accounts receivable clerk enters the payment into the system with the corresponding contract number, invoice number, or advertiser name to reduce the balance on the account. A summary report of all cash receipts for the month is generated from the system to prepare a journal entry for recording in the general ledger system.

Billing adjustments are sometimes required when a client short pays an invoice. Short payment may be the result of spots airing out of their intended day part, airing of the wrong spot, or an inaccurate sales-order entry. Bad debt adjustments are required when a delinquent client is turned over to a collections agency or the anticipated revenue is written off due to nonpayment. Billing adjustments and bad debt write-offs are entered into the accounts receivable system, and an adjustment report is generated in order to make the necessary general ledger adjustments to revenue.

The accounts receivable functionality of the traffic system retains all billing and payment history for an advertiser, agency, and salesperson. The collections person or accounts receivable manager generates an aging report to supply the Sales and Finance Departments with an accurate client history of payments and any remaining open invoices. The accounts receivable portion of the traffic system also enables the Collections Department to produce and send to the client statements that detail invoices and payments made. Because the system tracks all of the client’s history, the credit manager can also utilize the system to review payment history, write-offs, and trends when determining whether or not to grant future credit to an advertiser. A summary accounts receivable report is generated at least monthly to tie back to the general ledger balance sheet statement.

Financial Systems for Cable Networks

As the name suggests, these systems are specific to the cable programming industry. Unlike the model in broadcasting, where most revenue is generated by advertising, cable programmers generally derive more of their revenues from cable operators, who pay for the privilege of distributing the programming.

The Network Affiliate Finance (NAF) Department within a cable program network is responsible for managing the billing and collecting of program license fees from cable systems. The fee is generally based upon the number of subscribers receiving the programming service. The subscriber fee can range from a few cents to several dollars per month. As explained in Chapter 4, more-complex license fee agreements may include terms based on specific carriage requirements, volume discounts, channel placement (channel number, or the “neighborhood” in which the channel is placed), penetration (percentage of potential customers who subscribe to the service), and packaging incentives. With billions of dollars collected and accounted for by the NAF group, the value of this group to the overall financial performance of the network is apparent.

The NAF staff’s responsibilities are intertwined with the systems they use to perform these functions. The main responsibilities of the Network Affiliate Finance group include:

Launch Authorization

The authorization process is usually initiated with the activation of a network-specific decoder at the headend receiving the network’s satellite feed. This process usually requires the completion of a launch authorization form (LAF).

The LAF is completed by the cable operator or multiple-system operator (MSO) receiving the signal for the specified program network. A completed LAF will be faxed or emailed to the uplink/authorization facility. An approved LAF will initiate the authorization process to authorize a decoder to descramble and receive the network’s satellite feed. The approved LAF will also be sent to the Network Affiliate Finance Department as the formal notification that a cable system will be launching the network service. In many cases, the NAF Department will be the final destination for the approved LAF. Much of the data contained in the LAF will be transferred to the affiliate database during the system-setup process.

The information contained on the LAF and required by the NAF group will include headend location, device type and number (for the piece of equipment authorized to decode the channel, sometimes called the “network decoder”), and technical contact information. In some cases, the LAF will include corporate contact and billing information. Having a fully completed LAF will ensure that the system is properly set up in the Network Affiliate Finance Department’s affiliate database, assuring that future affiliate billing will go smoothly. It is equally important to maintain a thorough history of all LAFs. This is because, in many cases, cable operator/MSO payment backup (that is, the locations and subscriber counts sent with the monthly subscriber-fee payment) is not always consistent with the LAF. Reconciling LAFs with payment backup is probably the biggest challenge facing the NAF group.

System Setup

Following the authorization of a system, the NAF group will take all the information from the completed LAF and set up the system in the network’s affiliate database. In addition to using the LAF data, the NAF will apply the appropriate cable operator/MSO contract terms, which include the monthly billing rates and applicable free periods. It is crucial to involve the Affiliate Sales and Legal Departments during the determination and the application of contract terms because these terms are often very complex.

Affiliate Billing and Cash Application

The Network Affiliate Finance group must have an affiliate database capable of executing both billing and cash application functions. The affiliate database must manage a large volume of data, duplicate and store similar transactions in the same manner, and provide an audit trail for each transaction. The more robust the affiliate database, the stronger the likelihood that the financial reporting will be accurate and verifiable.

The affiliate database can be developed internally, which has been undertaken by several large cable networks, or it can be licensed from a third-party software vendor. In either case, the development of this software never ceases—instead, its requirements continue to expand to adapt to a changing business environment.

Regardless of the software utilized, the major responsibilities of any NAF group will include:

Neither a robust affiliate database nor a skilled staff is a substitute for what is commonly called “best practices.” These are rules, processes, and procedures that govern how the Network Affiliate Finance group operates. Best practices apply to all users of the affiliate database, and especially pertain to individuals who are responsible for entering and maintaining data in the affiliate database. Consistency, accountability, and auditability are the foundation of best practices. Accurate financial statements will result from the implementation of best practices. For large networks that employ numerous staff to operate an NAF Department and maintain an affiliate database, without best practices, inconsistent management and operating procedures will degrade the network’s operations because proper oversight will be extremely difficult and time-consuming.

Affiliate Database Maintenance

The Achilles’ heel in any Network Affiliate Finance Department is affiliate database maintenance. Maintaining an affiliate database with current and accurate data is crucial to the department’s success. Maintenance extends not only to the data itself, but also to the functionality of the affiliate database and the NAF Department’s processes and procedures. Many cable networks, rather than staffing a department to maintain the affiliate database with industry data, prefer to purchase such data through third-party vendors that specialize in data collections. Although the accuracy of such data is questionable and may be out-of-date, it is cost effective and represents advancement for networks that choose not to staff internally to meet these challenges.

Cable System/MSO Customer Database and Billing

This system is specific to cable systems and cable operating companies. Again, unlike in broadcasting, where the majority of the company revenues are generated by the sale of advertising time, cable operators’ primary source of revenue is generated from customer subscriptions to one or more levels of service. Known generically as cable billing systems, these are really key operational systems for cable operating companies. They house massive databases for all homes and businesses in a cable operator’s service area, and track all customer transactions, beginning with the first contact between the company and the customer. These systems also provide data in a format that can be imported into the operator’s general ledger system.

There are currently three main cable billing systems, along with a number of other systems, either homegrown or customized from other software packages. In the majority of cases, the billing system provides the first point of contact for data involving customer orders and changes. When a potential new customer contacts the cable company, the customer service representative initiates a service request in the cable billing system. Entering the service request allows the rep access to scheduling (the customer hears, “We have an opening tomorrow afternoon between 2:00 and 4:00”). Once the appointment is scheduled, the system sets up the work order and schedules the installation with dispatch, and provides the interface to complete installation—provisioning and the authorization of any so-called “addressable” cable services—resulting in the customer’s being set up for monthly billing.

Most billing systems include individual customer credit limits. These give the cable company flexibility to offer optional services, such as video on demand (VOD), while maintaining appropriate internal controls against bad debt. Some cable systems have even set up their billing systems with real-time links to local credit bureaus, giving the company even greater control over credit decisions.

As one might expect, cable billing systems trigger the company’s collections activities. The billing systems are also the first point of contact when a customer calls with a service problem. This makes sense because, in some cases, the service problem is a direct result of the customer’s failure to pay for service.

Billing systems continue to change as cable company product offerings evolve and customers’ habits change. Systems that 20+ years ago were capable of handling only basic and premium cable video services, with the occasional pay per view movie or event thrown in, now handle high speed data (Internet), telephone (the ability to provide usage-based billing varies among billing system packages), wireless, and commercial services. They can also include modules that interface with third-party fleet management or other management systems. Other options may provide web software front-ends that allow users to request service or report trouble online.

The variety of billing system options available depends upon the vendor. Some systems offer a service bureau approach—all data is managed through the provider’s data centers. Other providers offer local servicing, which means the cable company houses the equipment and the data center. In some cases, the MSO may choose to set up its own regional service center to handle data from several cable systems. With some systems, the operator will have real-time access to customer and service data; in others, time-delayed data access. Statement presentation—the printing, stuffing, and mailing of customer bills—may be another option. And, as customers conduct more of their business online, billing companies are responding with electronic bill presentation options.

Each billing system includes financial reports along with the ability to automatically feed data to the company’s general ledger. Reporting capabilities and data currency vary based on the billing company used and the options package(s) chosen. With all of the parts of a cable operator’s business that they touch, cable billing systems are truly key financial systems for the operating companies.

Accounts Payable Systems

A company must have a sound method of selecting the proper vendor for purchasing products, equipment, and supplies; for approving vendor invoices; and for processing and recording invoices, expenses, and cash payments to the proper accounts in the general ledger system. A more detailed discussion of the types of expenses that relate to the broadcast and cable industries can be found in Chapter 5. All expenses and payments relating to entity operations are tracked through the use of accounts payable software systems. Accounts payable (AP) systems range from manual-type record keeping to very sophisticated automated systems, encompassing vendor history, purchase order approval, invoice matching, payment scheduling, batch entry controls, cash flow restrictions, security controls, and check signing controls. In the most basic AP system, an accounts payable clerk enters approved invoices into an accounts payable system. The information required for input is the vendor name, the invoice amount, and the account codes to which the payment is to be expensed. Checks are generated periodically based on the vendor’s terms. Management regularly reviews the outstanding payables to determine future cash needs. The system generates reports that are imported into the general ledger system. The AP system is also used for expense analysis reporting, and generates reports that can be used for annual W-9 tax-reporting purposes.

Payroll Processing Systems

As one of largest expense components in broadcasting and cable, proper payroll processing is essential and leaves little room for error. A payroll system can range from manual periodic payrolls to large, sophisticated automation systems. The complexity of payroll processing is often underestimated. The Payroll Department is responsible for tracking information on hundreds of employees, both current and past. A typical payroll will include salaried employees, exempt and nonexempt, hourly employees, overtime, commissioned employees, talent fees, bonuses, and severance pay. Additionally, company benefits are usually administered and tracked through the payroll system, including vacation, sick time, insurance deductions, taxable fringe, 401(k) plans, and stock compensation. This process can be completed manually or, in most cases, through a sophisticated automated system or third-party service provider.

A basic automated-payroll software system retains pertinent employee information, such as address, Social Security number, tax preferences, and regular payroll deductions (including insurance and 401(k) deductions). Some systems are employee self-serve, which means that the employee can enter this information himself or herself. A payroll clerk receives time sheets and payroll information on a periodic basis, and enters the earnings and hours into the payroll system. The payroll system then calculates the pay and the required tax deductions, and generates the paychecks.

Most payroll software systems will automatically generate the reports required for the myriad of federal and state tax-reporting agencies. These include new-hire reporting, federal and state unemployment-tax reports, federal and state tax with-holding, and W-2’s. Some third-party providers also offer services such as check stuffing, direct deposits, tax filing, new-hire reporting, and W-2 and 1099 processing.

Additional reports generated from the payroll system provide analytical tools to management personnel. Reports such as salaries and hourly wages earned can be used to determine average pay per employee. Commission reports can be compared to revenue to evaluate compensation as a percentage of sales. A company may also want to track overtime and part-time hours per department.

All of the expense, payment, and accrual information obtained from the payroll ledgers must be recorded onto the general ledger in the appropriate department and expense lines. This can be done through manual entries, or through an automatic general ledger interface.

Fixed Asset Systems

Fixed assets typically include studio and camera equipment, towers, furniture, and other assets as defined in more detail in Chapter 7. Broadcast and cable companies require many fixed assets to operate. Fixed asset systems are used to track the assets related to the operation. As with the other systems identified in this chapter, the fixed asset system can either be managed by a simplistic manual or spreadsheet tracking system, or by use of more-sophisticated and automated-tracking software systems.

Assets are typically entered into the fixed asset system when entered into the accounts payable system at the time of purchase or project completion. The asset information included in the system is the value of cost of the asset, the life of the asset, the vendor, and the location. Assets can then be classified by various groups, such as asset type, asset location, general ledger account number, and personal property type. More-sophisticated fixed asset systems enable the company to keep track of model numbers, vendor contact info, and even maintenance records. The Finance Department is also responsible for updating the system when an asset has been sold or otherwise retired. The company can create periodic customized reports to assist in fixed asset inventory, insurance reporting, annual purchase and retirement activity, book value, and to handle reporting of real property and personal property taxes in certain jurisdictions.

Another primary use of fixed asset systems is to handle complex depreciation calculations. As discussed in more detail in Chapter 7, depreciation is the method of expensing an asset over time. Different depreciation methods are used for book and tax purposes. In some cases, a company may even need to calculate multiple depreciation methods for tax purposes alone. A sophisticated tool will apply tax rules simultaneously, and calculate depreciation for all of the various methods.

Book depreciation information obtained from the asset tracking system must be recorded onto the general ledger in the appropriate department and under the appropriate category. This process can be completed manually or through automation. The fixed asset reports are used to tie to the balance sheet accounts generated from the general ledger system.

General Ledger System

The Finance Department processes thousands of transactions, representing millions of dollars on a monthly basis. Every transaction will ultimately be reflected in the financial statements through the monthly accounting close. The Finance Department is responsible for providing the revenue accrual, monthly cash receipts, accounts receivable adjustments, revenue adjustments, accounts payable, and depreciation entries. All entries should be supportable by backup. Best practices, combined with a robust database and skilled staff, will assure that a proper audit trail accompanies each financial transaction. Because accurate financial reporting has become the cornerstone of Sarbanes-Oxley, the attention and resources devoted to the finance group reflects a business necessity to create an infrastructure to support its financial reporting responsibilities. For a more in-depth look at this topic, see .

The general ledger system is the central point of an operation’s financial system and monthly close. The data and results obtained from the billing, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, and fixed assets systems are all accumulated into the general ledger system to provide the financial results of the operations. The general ledger system provides key financial reporting to parent companies, investors, and analysts for activity during a specified period. The general ledger typically generates an income statement and balance sheet, as well as department cost detail and activity. The accuracy of the financial reports depends upon the accuracy of all the primary financial support systems outlined above that feed into the ledger.

Subsystems

As with any industry, various subsystems are sometimes utilized by companies to simplify, consolidate, and analyze various components of the business. The following are just a few of the systems that are commonly used by the broadcast and cable industries.

Pricing Software

Pricing software, often referred to as a yield management tool, is being employed in the industry to maximize advertising-sales dollars. The basic premise behind yield management is similar to pricing for the airline or hotel industries. There are a fixed number of commercial units available for sale, and the inventory is highly perishable. Once the time has lapsed, the inventory is no longer available for sale.

Through a complex set of calculations, pricing software relies on both current and historical information to determine how local commercial inventory demand is pacing against historical sellout levels. The software also reviews market revenue from prior periods based on pacing to prior years to estimate what the total revenue will be for the market. With all of this information, a pricing system assists management in establishing inventory pricing to maximize station revenue or to achieve goal.

A pricing system can be either static or dynamic. A static pricing model looks at all historical sales data, and determines a fixed, or “static,” pricing grid—what the average yield should be based on current activity. In a dynamic pricing model, an actual proposal is first entered into the system. The system will look at each week and individual day parts ordered, and will set pricing for each order based on current demand or the ongoing “dynamics” of the marketplace, rather than on historical precedents. For example, the dynamic model will raise the rates when sellout levels reach various increments, such as 50, 60, or 70 percent sellout levels. The system reports the proposal as pending business, which further impacts the demand model and assists management in forecasting future revenue. Most available systems will integrate with station’s traffic systems to pick up the most-current inventory and sales data.

Enterprise Reporting, Business Intelligence (BI), and Forecasting

Often referred to as enterprise reporting or business intelligence (BI), this software has gained importance due to ownership consolidation in the industry in the late 1990s, and the emergence of large companies with many stations/systems and multiple reporting units. Enterprise reporting software provides business intelligence and rapid information to identify trends and assist in forecasting and planning. For large organizations, these systems enable quick rollup of information. Based on OLAP (online analytical processing) or tree technology, it gives users the ability to drill down and analyze information from all areas of the enterprise, including human resources, general ledger, payroll, accounts payable ratings, market share, and other systems.

Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS)

Human resources represent the basic foundation of any organization. As larger companies have emerged through consolidation of the industry, tracking a company’s employees has become extremely difficult, and yet critical to the success of the organization. Many of today’s human resource systems can track and report on virtually thousand of employees. Also known as human resource management software (HRMS), such systems enable employers to input and retain much data on their workforce, including supervisors, training history, promotion and position history, performance reviews, skill and experience levels, technical certifications, and property assigned. These systems are typically integrated within a company’s payroll system to reconcile and automate benefits within payroll and avoid duplicate entry. HRMS systems may also be included as part of an overall ERP package (see below).

The reporting capabilities of these systems are valuable. Some reports identify salary ranges by job type by consolidating employee information from various entities or divisions. The system can also track employee turnover ratios by division, station, or supervisor, and also assists in the management of benefits outside the payroll system—such as FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act), benefit plans and coverage, COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act), EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), and OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration).

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

ERP systems encompass all back-office support functions in a single integrated package. Traditionally, ERP capabilities include accounting and finance, supply chain, and HRIS. Thus, an ERP package would include the finance elements mentioned earlier (accounts payable, fixed assets, etc.), as well as additional operational capabilities. The cable industry has used these enterprise-wide applications to help manage some of the unique aspects of a cable system.

Supply chain entails the management of physical equipment such as set top boxes, cable modems, and network equipment. The supply chain is the chain of events that brings equipment (supply) to the operator, manages the inventory, and distributes the inventory to its end location at a customer site or headend.

The first step in the supply chain is procurement. Inventory managers create purchase orders, which request inventory from the appropriate vendors. When the inventory arrives, the receipts are matched to the purchase order (P.O.) in the Accounts Payable Department, and the vendors are subsequently paid according to their contract. This is also known as the procure-to-pay process.

Once the inventory arrives, it is stocked in the warehouse. The stocking levels of each item in the warehouse are carefully monitored, and P.O.s are created when supply is low. The ERP application tracks the location and current quantity of each item in the warehouse as it is received, and will alert inventory managers when supply is low.

Finally, inventory is distributed to the appropriate personnel for installation. In the case of infrastructure equipment, it may have been ordered with a specific project in mind. In this case, the equipment is forwarded to the appropriate project team for installation. In the case of common, frequently used equipment such as set top boxes, the items will be stored and then pulled from inventory as needed. Field technicians will pull from this inventory to stock their truck each day as they complete work orders for customer installations and maintenance work.

Cable System Operational Support Systems (OSS)

Whereas ERP represents the back office of business operations, operational support systems represent those systems that interact directly with the cable network (i.e., the physical network responsible for delivering cable products to consumers). There are several key systems in this area.

First, provisioning systems are responsible for reserving the network capacity and activating a customer for a cable service, such as broadband or cable television. For example, the customer’s cable modem will be registered with the network through provisioning, and likewise each set top box will be configured to show the appropriate packages and channels in each room of the house. Typically, an order will be passed from the customer care or billing system directly to provisioning in order to turn on the appropriate services.

Second, an engineering network (sometimes called “cable plant”) inventory system is used to track the details of each device in the cable plant, including the overall network/plant design, device configuration, and device locations. These systems give network engineers as well as business systems a central point of record for all network information.

New Requirements in Cable

With the cable operators moving into new markets—such as digital phone, wireless, and commercial services—new requirements are being placed on the business and operational systems. From a front-office standpoint, agents now need to be able to place orders for multiple services at once, such as a “triple play” order of cable TV, broadband, and digital phone. This requires coordinating product definitions, pricing, promotions, and orders across these multiple service lines.

From a back-office standpoint, several of the new services, such as digital phone and wireless, require the gathering of usage data from the cable system network (or plant) itself for billing. For example, to offer a wireless service, an operator needs to know call details and minutes each month for each subscriber. Two systems work hand in hand to offer this capability. First, a mediation system ties directly to the cable system network to gather usage detail. Second, a rating engine receives the usage detail and calculates the charges based on usage. The rating engine then provides this detail to the core billing system, which invoices the subscriber along with the charges for other services.

In Conclusion

Broadcasting and cable companies have both common and unique financial systems. The need for advertising inventory management and commercial scheduling, for commercial invoicing, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll processing, fixed asset management, general ledger, and HRIS can be common, with minor variations, for radio, TV, cable programming, and cable operations companies. ERP systems may or may not be used in all industries, depending upon the corporate structure. Cable NAF and LAF systems are unique to cable programming companies. Both the specific cable OSS and cable SBS (subscriber billing systems) are, as the names suggest, unique to cable operating companies. As these industries continue to evolve and add new products/businesses, their financial systems needs will continue to change. What will not change, however, is the importance of systems that can quickly provide accurate financial data.

Notes