A London-listed software company, founded in 1999, whose billing, customer and network software helps telecoms operators in around 45 countries run their business.
Cerillion makes the software behind the scenes at phone and broadband companies. Its platform handles billing (working out what each customer owes), charging (counting calls and data in real time), customer records, product catalogues, order management and network management. The industry calls these systems BSS and OSS, short for business support systems and operations support systems. Cerillion says its software is used at about 70 customer sites in about 45 countries, among mobile, fixed, broadband and TV providers, and it also sells to finance and utilities. Customers named on its site include Manx Telecom, Gibtelecom, Norlys and MVNX.
The company began in 1999 as a management buyout of the customer care and billing product division of Logica, led by Louis Hall, who is still chief executive. An oral history written for the company's 25th anniversary says the early days were a time when "anything you wanted to do differently, you could", and describes staff choosing the company name and colour by a semi-democratic vote on a company weekend in Amsterdam. Cerillion billed what it describes as the world's first commercial UMTS (3G) services, with Manx Telecom, and listed on the AIM market in 2016. We did not find a formal mission statement, although its site has a Company Vision page we could not read.
Cerillion's registered office is 25 Bedford Street in central London, and the UK is its main country of operation. Its early London offices included Adeline Place, a satellite on Alfred Place and later Centre Point, according to the oral history. It also has a Global Solutions Centre in Pune, India, opened in 2006, and an office in Sofia, Bulgaria, opened in 2021. We could not confirm the size of the UK team or which London office is used today.
On culture, the oral history describes a close-knit, social early company, with a weekly "Friday Binge" named after a colleague. Seven of the original team were reunited for the 25th anniversary, and staff opened the London Stock Exchange for the 2016 listing. The company says it is proud of surviving the dotcom crash and the 2008 financial crisis and of staying independent. These are the company's own recollections.
Roles at a software firm like this include software developers, testers, business analysts who work out what a telecoms customer needs, and implementation consultants who set the system up. There are also support teams, product managers, sales and bid staff, finance and people teams. Computing, maths, business and engineering are common starting points, and the work has a clear link to everyday life, because telecoms billing touches nearly everyone with a phone.
Website: www.cerillion.com
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