An email conversation with Jonathan McCarrick, program manager at Parallels Plesk Billing, in which he discusses the content of his session “Parallels Plesk Billing,” which will take place 4:35 p.m. Wednesday, February 4th at the Parallels Summit.
In advance of this year’s Parallels Summit in Las Vegas, we’re contacting some of the speakers presenting at the event and asking them about the content of their sessions in an effort to give readers a sense of what to expect from the event, and perhaps help them choose which sessions to attend.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Billing and income collections is a complicated task most people would rather not deal with, but it is an essential aspect of any business.
This is exactly why Parallels prides itself on offering a billing system that is designed specifically for service providers in need of recurring billing support.
Shortly after integrating its billing solution with Parallels Plesk Panel 9 last year, the company launched version 6.0 of Parallels Plesk Billing in December.
The result is a unified, full-featured hosting automation solution that eliminates the need for third-party billing software. Parallels Plesk Billing is an evolution of the product that used to be the most popular third-party billing software, ModernBill, before it was acquired by Parallels.
With his Wednesday session at the Parallels Summit next week, Jonathan McCarrick, program manager at Parallels Plesk Billing will offer a detailed overview of Parallels Plesk Billing 6.0 and its many features.
The session should be an informative introduction to the billing automation solution for prospective customers who are considering using Parallels Plesk Billing 6.0, as well as maintain the interest of existing customers by covering its additional capabilities.
In an email conversation with the WHIR, McCarrick discusses some of the subjects certain to arise in the session, scheduled for Wednesday, February 4 at 4:35 p.m.
WHIR: The session seems designed to promote the Parallels Plesk Billing product. Is it aimed at Parallels Plesk Panel users who aren’t already using the product? How common is that?
Jonathan McCarrick: When the Parallels Plesk Billing code base was acquired last year, we already knew that there was a natural fit for the product with Parallels Plesk Panel. In fact, the combination of Parallels Plesk Panel with Parallels Plesk Billing was already the most popular combination in the industry. By adding new resources to the project, our existing team was able to transform Parallels Plesk Billing in many ways, increasing its usefulness.
The result of this development is exciting for both prospective customers seeking a new solution and existing customers benefiting from additional capabilities. New features include single sign on capabilities, cross-platform views of data, the ability to bundle a control panel and billing on a single deployment, and application hosting options to make cloud computing very real.
The most recent update to Parallels Plesk Panel featured integration with the billing solution as one of its key features. Has this affected the role the billing platform plays in hosting businesses yet?
JM: This is a huge game changer for the industry. Typically, panel makers have stood on one side of a fence and billing providers stood on the other. The two sides would try to pass information through the cracks in the fence, never really knowing what was on the other side.
With Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 and Parallels Plesk Billing 6.0, the two teams worked hand-in-hand, allowing each access to the other’s working. The result is two products that really act like one. The collective system is now much more intuitive for end-users, resellers, and administrators. Additionally, the combination of the two is really bringing application hosting into focus for this segment of the industry for the first time.
The automation platform leaves room for other billing applications. What are some of the advantages of using Parallels Plesk Billing?
JM: Parallels Plesk Billing offers the most complete billing solution, regardless of whether you are using Parallels Plesk Panel or another system. That said, when using the software in the Parallels ecosystem, our customers gain several advantages as Parallels Plesk Billing is being developed in tandem with Parallels Plesk Panel. This means that when great new features emerge on the control panel, Parallels Billing is already supporting them.
In the case of our most recent release, this means that there are more than 30 Parallels Plesk Panel feature integrations that are unique to Parallels Plesk Billing. Included among these are important features such as support for our new reseller layer, overselling features, and access to Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder. We will also continue to support integrations with other control panels, including those that compete with our own. As we have more than doubled the amount of resources for Parallels Plesk Billing, these customers will benefit greatly from the amount of quality assurance and stable development that has been driven into the product.
As far as the future is concerned, how closely integrated will these applications be? Are they becoming parts of the same thing?
JM:Our goal for the Parallels Plesk suite is that customers will not be concerned with which products they are choosing, but rather which platform. The Parallels focus on “Optimized Computing” is not just marketing jargon: it encapsulates our view that automation solutions are part of the complete picture for maximizing efficiency and productivity of back-end systems. To this end, we offer inter-related parts from which our customers can fashion their perfect system.
In the case of Parallels Plesk Billing, we will be integrating it as closely as possible with Parallels Plesk Panel to provide an easy, profitable and complete automation system. It will also be tied closely with Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, and Parallels Automation. Additionally, we will be tightly linking it with external systems like Parallels Marketplace, APS Catalog and a plethora of Independent Software Vendors.
The session summary promises some discussion of the road map for future developments. What are some of the future improvements you’ll be discussing?
JM:It is going to be a busy year for the development team. In fact we are still making some hard decisions as there are so many good ideas! However, key developments to look out for are specific improvements for meeting the needs of our European customers, further enhancements to the interoperability with all Parallels products, and the launch of the Parallels Marketplace.
It would be fair to say that 2009 is the year when Parallels will make it possible for anyone to start participating in the cloud computing movement and Parallels Plesk Billing will be the cash register.
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