CSG International

CSG is a multinational corporation headquartered in Englewood, Colorado. It provides business support systems (BSS) software and services, primarily to the telecommunications industry.

CSG was founded by Neal Hansen as a division of First Data in 1982. It became an independent corporation when it was acquired by CSG Holdings in 1994 for $137 million. A contract with Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), the largest cable TV business at the time, was influential in the company's growth from $80 million in revenue in 1994 to $171 million by 1997. CSG went public in 1996. A dispute with TCI over pricing led to a $120 million arbitration settlement in 2002 with Comcast, who acquired the TCI business. The two continued to do business together and expanded their relationship in 2014. CSG made more than ten acquisitions in the 2000s, mostly of companies that sold billing, customer service, and operations software.

Corporate history

Early history

CSG was founded in 1982 by Neal Hansen under the name Cable Services Group (CSG) as a division of the payment processing company First Data Corporation.[3]

Products, software, and services

CSG provides software and services for managing customer data, analyzing that data, billing, and customer service. For example, customer service representatives may use CSG systems to look up a consumer's records and add a new service, or business analysts may mine customer data for trends.[11] According to the company's website, its primary product areas are digital monetization, revenue and customer management, and customer experience.[56] CSG also prints and mails billing statements to consumers and provides call-center services.[3]

Product history

CSG originally sold two versions of its billing process outsourcing services. Under new leadership in 1994, it began developing additional software and providing consulting to in-house billing departments.[7][9] During this period, it developed CSG Workforce Express® (now Field Service Management), a suite of software products that manage the dispatch of technicians and other logistics at customer sites. Workforce Express consists of three applications: CSG Workforce Management, CSG TechNet and CSG TechNet CE, which integrate with CSG's databases and billing systems.[7][57] It also developed CSG Care Express, which is for creating online self-service portals for consumers to view and pay their bills online.[7][58]

In the 1990s, CSG introduced the ACSR (Advanced Customer Service Representative) system.[7] An extension to ACSR called ProfitNow! was introduced in 2003. ProfitNow! used a consumer's account data to advise customer service representatives on the likelihood of a caller cancelling their service or buying a new product.[59] It was later turned into an online system with a user interface similar to Microsoft Windows at CSG.net.[7] CSG purchased the Kenan FX software from Lucent Technologies in 2002. Kenan software managed billing and ordering and provided middle-ware to help various customer service and billing products integrate with each other.[60] CSG NextGen was introduced for international markets, with support for multiple languages.[7] In March 2014, CSG added a cybersecurity suite to its product portfolio, under the name CSG Invotas.[61] The company released CSG Ascendon®, a digital platform for communications service providers, in March 2015.

The company released CSG Detect,[65] a software as a service (SaaS) system, in February 2019.[66] The system is aimed at detecting and notifying telecommunications companies real-time of potential fraud in their billing process. In July 2019,[67] the company introduced CSG Field Service Management, a cloud-based advancement of its Workforce Express product suite.[68] CSG Field Service Management is part of the company's Customer Communication Management portfolio, which customers use to send over 1.5 billion messages to their end-users each year. The company announced[69] the availability of its Dispute Reconciliation Management system (DRM) in September 2019.[70] The system provides service providers with the tools and support to automate the reconciliation and dispute process. CSG Dispute Reconciliation Management is a part of the company's digital Wholesale suite of products and systems. The company introduced

In April 2019,[73] CSG announced the opening of a technology lab to adopt blockchain technology across the wholesale business support systems (BSS) industry.[74] In May 2019,[75] the company announced the availability of its Mediation platform as a cloud-based system.[76] In June 2019, CSG and ITW Global Leaders' Forum (GLF) announced a partnership[77] to create an open blockchain ecosystem called the Communications Blockchain Network (CBN).

In March 2020,[78] Forte®, a CSG company, announced its BillPay system including omnichannel accessibility, payer-friendly navigation, biller customization, and advanced tech.[79]

type	Public company
traded as	nasdaq: CSGS S&P 600 component
foundation	1982, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
founder	Neal Hansen and George Haddix
location	Englewood, Colorado, U.S.
area served	Worldwide
key people	Brian Shepherd (CEO)
products	Business support system (BSS) Customer interaction management Digital monetization Revenue and customer management Customer experience Payments
revenue	$1.20 billion (2024)‡R1R‡
operating income	$131.3 million (2024)‡R1R‡
net income	$86.9 million (2024)‡R1R‡
assets	$1,500.7 million (2024)‡R1R‡
equity	$282.6 million (2024)‡R1R‡
num employees	6,000 - 8,000 (2022)‡R2R‡
website	www.csgi.com

Corporate history

Early history

Post IPO

Recent history

Acquisitions

Products, software, and services

Product history

Organization

References