The iPaaS alternative

DigitalRoute vs. iPaaS comparison - tools for usage billing

Companies often use Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) tools to process usage and billing data. The problem is that these multi-purpose tools are designed for any type of enterprise data, so customizing them for usage data and billing takes time, resources and skill.

DigitalRoute Usage Engine, however, is specifically designed to process usage and billing data. This increases accuracy, reduces your implementation and maintenance costs, and gives your business more flexibility. Let’s take a closer look.

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Usage billing challenges

The top 3 reasons why enterprises choose DigitalRoute over iPaaS

Reason #1

Aggregation

When your billing depends on charging customers for usage, aggregating their usage data over time is critical. Individual usage data records are just noise. This requires state management, something most iPaaS solutions cannot do.

Usage data tends to come in fast and furious, but billing systems don’t care about each individual message – they want an aggregated summary.
DigitalRoute excels at holding usage data records (state management) in order to deliver a billable record. Maintaining state at scale is notoriously difficult for generic iPaaS tools.
Aggregation is also key to scaling your billing system. With DigitalRoute Usage Engine, you could start billing your customers on consumption before even upgrading your billing system.

Reason #2

Transactions

With usage billing, usage data directly informs your revenue. No matter where the usage data is coming from it needs to be processed once and exactly once. Even if it comes from traditionally deemed unreliable sources such as text files.

Many iPaaS tools can propagate transactions between transactional systems, such as databases. However, when it comes to files, web services and APIs, most iPaaS use a “best effort” approach.
This approach can lead to duplicates, which results in overcharging. Or if a usage data record is missing, this leads to lost revenue.
DigitalRoute has extended transactions beyond databases to include text files – the most common container for usage data. This means all usage records are processed once and only once.

Reason #3

Auditability

Usage is not just another type of data – it’s financial data that demands full auditability.

With DigitalRoute Usage Engine, all transactions are fully auditable and transparent, preventing disputes and proving that regulations have been followed.
Our audit dashboard gives full visibility into usage data, showing what data was processed and what failed.
DigitalRoute Usage Engine includes a bulk data correction interface to assess, repair and redeploy all incorrect records.

Here’s the bottom line