Telecom Billing Solutions By Sohag Sarkar

Telecom Billing Solutions 1

A Research Project on

“Billing Solutions for Telecom Sector”
By
Sohag Sarkar

© Copyright 2004, Sohag Sarkar, Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management, Pune.


1. Introduction
1.1 Evolution of Billing System



1. Introduction
Billing and customer care systems convert the bits and bytes of digital information
within a network into the money that will be received by the service provider. To
accomplish this, these systems provide account activation and tracking, service feature
selection, selection of billing rates for specific calls, invoice creation, payment entry and
management of communication with the customer.
Billing and customer care systems are the link between end users and the
telecommunications service provider. Telecommunications service providers manage and
setup the networks to allow customers to communicate (provisioning), and bill end users
for their use of the system. Customers who need telecommunication services select
carriers by evaluating service and equipment costs, reviewing the reliability of the
network, and comparing how specific services (features) match their communication
needs. Because most network operations have access to systems with the same
technology, because most Telecommunications Service Providers offer essentially the
same types of services and network facilities, Billing & Customer Care are becoming key
differentiating factors and play a critical role in the customer’s carrier selection decision.

Telecom Billing has undergone a seismic shift from being a sleepy back office system to
an explosive growth industry attracting attention from throughout the
telecommunications industry. Just as networks are the backbone of communication, the
operations support system, including billing and customer care functions, are the
backbone of the communication service provider. Traditionally viewed as little more than
a necessary expense, the advent of a competitive telecommunications market has
transformed Telecom Billing into an important strategic tool. For service providers,
bills are the culmination of their revenue objectives. For customers they form one of the
prime bases for the evaluation of service expectation.

The bill is the most regular form of communication between the telecom companies and
their customers. It provides the customer, with window on the Telecom Company, and
the telecom company, with a ready means of communication with its customer. From
both a financial and customer service perspective, getting the billing process right is
essential for the future profitability of a telecom company.
A bill is one means by which a service provider communicates with its customers. The
bill performs three functions:



–It is a request for payment
–It is a mechanism for customer care
–It is a marketing tool.
Today for telecom companies, traditional competitive benchmarks can no longer ensure
loyalty. Essentially the best competitive point left is billing, customer care and service.
In the present and in future a leading determinant in market differentiation will be
customer-care and billing system - and in some cases, it may be the pivotal investment
that will mean the difference between success and failure.



1.1 The Evolution of Telecom Billing
About 15 years ago most of the billing systems were developed in -house. The focus of
the billing systems were limited to circuit switched telephone calls. The few parameters
that can be charged for were basically duration and distance. The substantial growth of
the telecom market in the late 1990's triggered a need for more complex billing
solutions. The old in-house systems cost a lot to maintain and did not support all the
new functionality that was required.
In today’s communication service provider market, operators’ main priorities are basic
revenue and profit. Hence the ability to produce accurate bills lies at the heart of
operator’s activities, in both generating revenue and serving customers effectively.
Moreover, billing is not simply influenced by the trends currently imposing themselves
on the communications industry, its strengths and weaknesses within a service
provider’s operations can actively help determine the effect of those trends on the
operators business. Below is a graphical representation of the evolution of Telecom
Billing Solutions over two decades.

Figure 1.1: Evolution of Telecom Billing Solutions



2. The General Process of Billing
2.1 Basic functionality of billing systems and
architecture
2.2 Components of a Billing System
2.3 Billing System Requirements
2.4 Major Billing Functions
2.5 Billing System Costs
2.6 Billing Standards



2. The General Process of Billing
2.1 Basic functionality of billing systems
Billing systems collect, rate, and calculate charges for the use of telecommunication
services. The figure given below presents a simplistic view of a billing flow.

Call is made

Switch

Call data is collected data stored call rated for other charges
in customer database billing & credits added

Invoices are produced Billing is run

Invoices are mailed
Figure 2.1 basic architecture



The typical billing process involves collecting usage information from network equipment
(such as switches), formatting the usage information into records that a billing system
can understand, transferring these records to a Rating Engine, that assigns charges to
each record, receiving and recording payments from the customers, and creating
invoices.

Figure 2.2 shows a standard Billing and Customer Care process. In this diagram, the
customer interacts with Customer Care or works with an activation agent to establish a
new wireless account. The agent (CSR) enters the customer’s service preferences into
the system, checks for credit worthiness, and provides the customer with a phone
number so that the customer may make and receive calls through the mobile telephone
network.

As the customer makes calls, the connections made by the network (such as switches)
create Usage Detail Records (UDR) of the activities. These UDRs include the
identification of the customer and other information relevant to the billing system.
The billing system also receives records from other carriers (such as a long distance
service provider, or roaming partners). The billing system then reformats the UDRs into
an internal layout that is proprietary to the carrier, guides and updates the UDRs with
correct customer and rating information.

After each UDR has been rated according to the customer’s rate plan, it is stored in a
“Bill Pool”. The Bill Pool is a data store containing all UDRs that have been rated and are
waiting for the month-end cycle billing process to aggregate them and display them on a
customer’s bill. The customer then sends his payment to the telecom service provider.
Payments are recorded (posted) in the financial system. Customer’s bills are archived in
“Billing History” files. These files are used heavily by various organizations within the
enterprise: Customer Care (inquiries, adjustments, service order, etc.), Marketing
(product analysis), Finance (revenue management, revenue projections, profitability,
etc.), Audit, and Revenue Assurance.



Figure 2.2 Standard Billing Process

2.2 Components of a Billing System

A billing system is composed of a series of independent applications that, when run
together, are referred to as the billing system. Its major components are as follows:

Ø CDR— Call Detail Records (CDRs)
Billing information regarding specific calls is contained in Call Detail Records. (CDRs) and
includes: origination and destination address of a call (who), time of day the call was
connected and duration of the call (when), the call type and its details (what), the
connection location(s) of the call (where), and the cause of event recording (why). As
not all events are voice or data “calls”, the record generated by the network element is
often referred to as “Usage Detail Record (UDR)” and often contains non-telephony
billing information such as: a downloaded movie, or IP content.
Figure 2.3 shows the basic structure of a call detail record. This diagram shows that a
UDR contains a unique identification number, the originator of the call, the called
number, the start and end time of the call. This diagram also shows an additional charge
for operator assistance and that a UDR dynamically grows as more relevant information
becomes available.



Figure 2.3 User Data Record

Event 2 Event 1
Operator Switch
Services Record

operator stop start Called Calling CDRID
service time time Number number
1209 1207 2125551212 2125551212

Called Number Call Unique
Originator Record
Identifier

Ø Guiding—This matches calls to customer calling plans. The application uses the start
and end number and the duration and time of call to decide what the charge should be,
based on the calling plans on the customer's record.
Ø Rating application—This program applies the rate for the individual guided calls.
Rating gives the call a value to be charged at the time of billing (not including any
promotions, discounts, or taxes).
Ø Billing–This is usually performed once a month. This job collects all of the rated calls
that have been stored over the past 30 days. The program adds any promotions and
discounts that are associated with the customer account. For example, if customers have
called over a certain number of minutes, they might get a volume discount. In addition,
taxes and credits are applied.
Ø Invoicing—When the billing job is complete, a file is created that includes all of the
customer's information. This file is sent to a print house to be converted to paper
invoices. These invoices are then stuffed into envelopes, along with specific inserts
targeted to the customer. Many companies will also create electronic statements and



send customers their invoices via diskette, tape, or even e -mail; alternative billing
practice is especially common for business customers.

2.3 Billing System Requirements

The following are standard telephony requirements used when issuing a request for
proposal (RFP) for a new billing system or an enhancement to an existing one:
Ø Customer-interface management—The billing system must be able to handle
customer-initiated contact, oversee outbound customer contact, and manage the contact
life cycle.
Ø Sales and marketing—A satisfactory billing system should answer customer query,
handle commissions, provide sales support, track prospects, manage campaigns,
analyze product performance, and acquire multiple dwelling units (MDUs).
Ø Order handling—It is crucial that the billing system maintain customer-account
information, manage the order-entry life cycle, and oversee the order-completion life
cycle.
Ø Problem handling—Billing systems should also be able to manage trouble-ticket
entry, coordinate trouble-ticket closure, and track the resolution progress of a trouble
ticket.
Ø Performance reporting—A satisfactory system will provide performance reporting,
ensure quality-of-service (QoS) reporting, create management reports, and generate
regulatory reports.
Ø Invoicing and collections—It is important that the system perform billing inquiry,
generate bills, handle collections, process deposits, perform account administration,
maintain tax and fee information, process financial information, and manage customer-
premises equipment (CPE) inventory information.
Ø Rating and discounting—Billing systems must manage products and services,
coordinate rate plans, and rate customer-usage records.
Ø Installation and maintenance—The system should also provide workforce
scheduling and manage activities performed at the customer premises.
Ø Usage and performance data collection—An adequate system will collect data and
handle interface from other providers.
Ø Information-systems management—Billing systems might also be called on to
perform configuration management, ensure security management, oversee fault
management, monitor performance, and manage accounts.



Ø Systems architecture and environment—A billing system should perform data
audits and integrity checks and ensure year-2000 compliance.

2.4 Major Billing Functions

Typically there are two major components to Billing systems: the Rating Engine
(sometimes known as “front-end”) and the Invoicing Engine (sometimes known as “back
end”, “Cycle Billing”, or “Month-End Process”). The Rating Engine accepts UDRs from a
service providers’ own switches or from other providers or billing companies’ systems
(sometimes called incollects, or in-roamers), checks the validity of billing records,
matches billing records to customers in a database, and provides billing details to other
systems (sometimes called outcollects, or out-roamers). The Rating Engine also guides
billing records to specific customer accounts. Guiding uses the event’s identification
information such as the calling telephone number to match the billing record to a specific
customer account.
The Invoicing Engine aggregates billing records for a specific period (billing cycle),
calculates recurring charges (e.g. monthly charges) and total usage charges (minutes or
quantity of usage), and produces invoices.

The Rating Engine: Processing the Usage

As part of the billing system, the Rating Engine receives call details from various sources
(event records), reformats and edits these into UDRs, assigns a customer account to the
UDR (guiding), calculates call charges for each UDR, and gets the UDR ready for
Invoicing.
In a traditional voice telephony environment, The Rating Engine processes UDRs in a
batch mode (or at best in near real-time). There may be several UDRs for each event.
For example, a call may be originating at a local switch, translated by an 800 number
service, and routed through a long distance switch. Billing and call processing can
require a substantial amount of computer processing time because there may be many
events for each call.
Each UDR is rated individually after having been assigned a rating band or category first.
After a UDR has been rated and the actual charge for the call is calculated, it is stored in
a “pool” of billing records that are ready to be invoiced (called a bill pool). A bill pool is a
group of call records that have been updated by the Rating Engine to include charging



rate information. The bill pool usually contains records that are ready for the final stage
of bill processing.
Figure 2.4 shows the basic functions of the Rating Engine. This diagram shows how
different event sources are received from various network elements or from other
companies that have provided services to your customers. These records are
reformatted to a common UDR format and duplicate UDRs are eliminated. Identification
information in each UDR is used to guide (match) the record to an account in the
customer database. The customer’s information determines the rate plan to use in
charge calculation.
The rating process uses rate tables, the customers selected rate plan, and other
information (e.g. rate band, distance, time of day) to calculate the actual charge for
each call. All of the information is added to the UDR and it is either placed in the bill pool
(ready for billing), or it is sent to another company to be billed if the customer
identification is not part of this network’s customer database. If there are any problems
as the UDR is being processed, it is sent to Exception Investigation for further analysis.

Exception Rejects CUST BILL Roamers
Investigation In Calls POOL
suspense

USAGE

Switches
Mediation Guide Rate Wrap-
up

Gateways

Clearing
Houses

Customer Rate
Other
Information Tables
Sources

Figure 2.4 Rating Engine



Billing systems contain many databases of information. Some of the key databases hold
customer information, usage records, rate information, and billing records that are ready
to be invoiced. A customer database holds unique identification information about the
customer. This includes a customer account identification number, telephone number
(may be the same as the account number), authorized feature list, rate plan identifier
(which rate plan the customer subscribes to), service activation dates, and other
information specific to a customer or account. A rating database holds the rate plan
identifier codes and charges associated with each rate plan. It may be necessary to
divide the UDR into several components parts. For example, a call from a mobile
telephone may be divided into airtime, landline usage, and long distance usage. UDRs
are commonly processed using a single rating software module. This module uses rate
plan identification information found on the UDR (determined after the guiding process)
to match to rate tables that allows a per unit increment rate. Rate increments can vary
based on the time of day (TOD), day of week (DOW), holidays, and other factors. After
the call rate has been determined, the Rating Engine places an initial value on the call.
It may be necessary to re-rate the call based on information received after initial rating
was calculated. Examples of this include: usage discounts (free minutes), toll free calls
(called party pays), and calls billed using an old rate table after a customer has selected
a new rate plan.

The Invoicing Engine: Month-End Processing

The Invoicing Engine uses data from the updated bill pool and adds non-call related
billing charges and financial adjustments. The billing system then adds fixed recurring
charges (such as monthly service fees and taxes), applies payments that have been
received, produces invoices, and maintains a history database.
Figure 2.5 shows the basic activities performed by the month-end process. This diagram
shows that the first step in this process is the selection of customers whose cycle is to
be billed during this “bill run”. For each customer to be billed, all usage having occurred
before the cutoff date is then selected. The next step is for the usage to be aggregated
according to the way in which it will appear on the customer’s bill; this step also includes
the calculation of any volume discounts to which the customer has subscribed. Fixed
charges – both recurring and non-recurring – are then calculated according to the
product information retrieved from the product portfolio database. Taxes and surcharges



are then calculated (Federal, State, Local, FCC, Universal Service Fund, etc.) and the
financial chart of accounts is updated with the debits and credits. Finally marketing and
other messages are inserted into the customer’s invoice, which is then sent to a
production facility (print shop, CD-ROM duplication, Internet website, etc.) for delivery
to the customer. The invoice is then archived in the Billing History database, and various
reports are generated, such as financial reports, reconciliation reports, analysis reports,
etc.

Figure 2.5 Backend –invoicing engine

Clearinghouse

A clearinghouse is a company or association that transfers billing records and/or
performs financial clearing functions between carriers that allow their customers to use
each other’s networks. The clearinghouse receives, validates and accounts for telephone
bills for several telephone service providers. Clearinghouses are particularly important
for international billing because they convert different data record formats that may be
used by some service providers and convert for the currency exchange rate.
Clearinghouses provide a variety of services including processing proprietary records
(e.g. switch records) into formats understandable by the member carriers’ billing
systems, validate charges from carriers with intersystem agreements, and extract
unauthorized or un-billable billing records. Clearinghouses transfer messages in a



standard format such as Exchange Message Record (EMR), Cellular Inter-Carrier Billing
Exchange Roamer (CIBER), or Transferred Account Process (TAP) format. The EMR
format is often used for billing records in traditional wired telecom networks and the
CIBER and TAP formats are used for wireless networks. The records may be exchanged
by magnetic tape or by other medium such as electronic transfer or CD ROM.
Clearinghouses receive billing records from companies (outcollects – sometimes called
in-roamers) and submit billing records to companies (incollects - sometimes called out-
roamers). Outcollects are billing records that are sent to other systems to collect for
services provided to visiting customers.
Incollects are billing records that are received from other systems for services provided
to their customers that have used the services of other networks. Inter-carrier billing
systems must be capable of handling billing system errors. There are many events per
call and the possibility exists for duplicate records or missing details in the billing
records. Charges or records may be received for customers that do not exist in the local
system or the inter-services (or roaming) agreement between companies may not be
valid. Charges or records may be received from other companies (incollects) that have
crammed or slammed bills. Cramming is the erroneous or fraudulent addition of charges
for services that were not agreed to by the end customer. Slamming is the unauthorized
transfer of customer’s preferred service provider to a different service provider. When
errors or omissions are detected, individual UDRs or entire batches of billing records
may be flagged for return to the sender and they may be tagged for further
investigation.

Invoices

Invoices contain the details of how much the customer should pay to the carrier, when
the amount is due and other information regarding the bill. Invoices usually provide a
customer with detailed information regarding the source of the charge (date and
location), reasons for the charge (service provided), and the amount of the charge.
Figure 2.6 shows a sample invoice.



Figure 2.6 A sample invoice

Invoicing

Invoicing is the process of gathering items to be billed (rated UDRs) that have occurred
over an invoice period, adding additional charges and credits that are not related to
specific calls, and preparing the information (formatting) so it may be presented to the
customer in a clear way. Invoices may be delivered by mail or in other formats such as
CD-ROM or email.

Management Reporting

Management reports provide information to finance, sales, and operations on the
performance of the system. Reports can identify problems such as, silent churn,
potential new services, and network congestion. Churn is the process of customers



disconnecting from one telecommunications service provider. Churn can be a natural
process of customer geographic relocation or to may be the result of customers selecting
a new service provider in their local area. Silent churn is the process of customers
disconnecting from one telecommunications service provider due to a competitor’s
influence. Silent churn is usually the result of inadequate customer service or lack of
competitive rate plans. Customers that are transitioning to competitor’s services will
show rapid declines in usage of service.
Management reporting can also be used to discover new services. By reviewing call
patterns, churn and silent churn patterns, and customer feedback, managers can
determine which new services may be good candidates for their system. UDRs and
network activity can also indicate areas of network congestion and corrective measures
(rerouting or adding resources) can be accomplished to overcome the challenge.

Processing Payments

Processing payments involves collecting assets to settle the customer’s invoices. The
typical forms of payments that are received from customers include checks, cash, wire
transfer, credits, and credit cards. However, other payments or credits may be applied
to the customers account.
Recording the payment to the customer’s account is called “posting”. Posting usually
involves using a payment coupon that has an account number on it and logging the
received amount of money to the account. Ideally, the customer has provided the
payment coupon with the correct amount. In some cases however, the customer might
not have included the payment coupon or might have paid a different amount than
indicated. In this case, posting of payments may result in errors such as posting to the
wrong account or applying payment new invoices instead of old invoices.

Posting to the Financial System

The billing system records financial details (receivables) for the carrier. Periodically,
summary information is transferred into the General Ledger (G/L) of the carrier’s
accounting system. This summary posting groups different types of billing charges into
summary totals to be posted to different financial accounts. These types of accounts
include receivables or expenses, and each financial account is assigned a unique number



(in the financial chart of accounts). For example, payments received by credit card are
usually categorized differently than payments received by cash and these totals will be
recorded in accounts with different account numbers.

2.5 Billing System Costs

Billing system costs can “eat up” a substantial percentage of revenues collected. In
addition to the initial acquisition cost of computers and software, operational costs tend
to be very high. Of the service provider’s staff, typically 20%-30% are directly or
indirectly engaged in providing billing and customer care support.
Billing system costs include the initial hardware, software costs of the system along with
the operational costs such as invoice processing, bill printing and mailing, intermediary
clearing house settlement companies, customer care (call centers), and collection
services.
Hardware and Software
The hardware usually includes high performance computers that operate proprietary
software. Due to the complexity of hardware and software billing systems, continuous
training is required in order to ensure quality services to the customers and to provide
revenue assurance.
Billing Cycles (Batching)
If a company has many customers, they are typically divided into cycles (or “billing
cycles.”) The billing cycles are different for groups of customers. This allows the billing
system to bill only a portion of the customers at a time.
Bill Printing and Mailing
In most cases, invoice records are sent to a bill printing facility or they may be sent by
email or printed by the customer when the payment is made online. Bills that are sent to
the printer and mailing house usually cost between $1-$3 per bill. Sending bills by email
helps to reduce the cost of providing the customers with bills and receipts.
Call Center
A call center is a place where communication occurs between a carrier and its
customers. Call centers assist customers with requests for new service activation and
help with product features and services. A call center usually has many stations for call
center agents that communicate with customers.
When call agents assist customers, they are typically called customer service
representatives (CSRs). Call centers use telephone systems that usually include



sophisticated Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) systems and Computer Telephony
Integration (CTI) systems. ACD systems route the incoming calls to the correct
(qualified) Customer Service Representative (CSR). CTI systems link the telephone calls
to the accounting databases to allow the CSR to see the account history (usually
producing a “screen-pop” of information). Call center telephone systems can cost over
$3,000 per CSR station. The average telecommunications service provider has 1-2 CSRs
for every 10,000 customers. This results in an average customer care call costing $7-
$10 per call.

Figure 2.7 Call center operations
Collections
Collections are activities that a service provider performs to receive money from their
customers. Ideally, all customers will receive their bills and pay promptly. Unfortunately,
not all customers pay their bills and service providers must have a progressive collection
process in the event customers do not pay their bill.
When customers are first added to a system, they are “scored” on the probability that
they will pay their bills. Using information on their application and reviewing the credit



history as provided by an independent credit reporting agency accomplishes this. The
collection process for delinquent customers usually starts by sending a reminder
messages to the customer be mail or recorded audio message. If initial attempts to
collect are unsuccessful, more aggressive collection measures are taken, such as:
restricted calling, service disconnection and sending or selling the uncollected invoice to
a collection service.

Some carriers automatically re-route all calls made by a delinquent customer to a
collections operator. This is called “Hot-Lining”. Hot-Lining is typically used when a
telephone is first sold or activated to allow activation after the customer has provided
the information to register for service or when the customer has not paid their bill. If all
attempts to collect from a customer have failed, a service provider may write off the
uncollected revenue as bad debt, retain a collection agency or sell the uncollected
invoice(s) to a collection service. If the account is written off as bad debt, the customer’s
information is usually placed in a negative file to avoid reactivation and their poor
payment history is reported to a credit reporting agency. Various collection companies
(collection agencies) offer collection services that work on a percentage of collected
revenue.

Some collection companies will pay for uncollected invoices. When uncollected invoices
are sold to collection services, the service provider is usually prohibited from working
with the customer in the future regarding payment on the account.

2.6 Billing Standards

There are many billing standards that have been developed for telecommunications
networks. Because the services offered by different types of network operators (e.g.
cable television compared to local telephone companies) are beginning to overlap, billing
standards are also converging.
Billing standards define the measurements, record format and the methods of transfer
for billing related information within a network. New services are being offered by
network operation because of deregulation of the telecommunications industries around
the world. As a result, billing standards are continually being revised and they are
converging. Because companies can use different billing standards or different revisions



of billing standards, clearinghouses often provide translation services between different
billing standard formats.
Exchange Message Record (EMR)
Exchange Message Record (EMR) is a standard format for the exchange of messages
between telecommunications systems. The EMR format is often used for billing records.
The records may be exchanged by magnetic tape or by other medium such as electronic
transfer or CD ROM.
Automatic Message Accounting (AMA)
Automatic Message Accounting (AMA) is a standard record gathering and billing format
that is used primarily by local telephone companies to process billing records and
exchange records between systems. The AMA format was created by BellCore and is
now managed by Telcordia.
Carrier Inter-exchange Billing Exchange Record (CIBER)
Carrier Inter-Exchange Billing Exchange Record (CIBER) is a billing standard designed to
promote inter-carrier roaming between cellular and other wireless telephone systems.
The CIBER format is developed and maintained by CiberNet. The Cellular
Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) owns CiberNet.
Transferred Accounting Procedure (TAP)
Transferred Accounting Procedure (TAP) is a standard billing format that is primarily
used for Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) cellular and Personal
Communications Systems (PCS). There are currently multiple versions of TAP: TAP II,
TAP II+, NAIG TAP II, and TAP 3. Each successive version of TAP provides for enhanced
features. Due to the global nature of 3G wireless and GSM, the TAP billing standard
provides solutions for multi-lingual and multiple exchange rate issues. TAP3 was
released in 2000 as a significant revision of TAP2. TAP3 has changed from the fixed
record size used in TAP2 to variable record size and TAP3 offers billing information for
many new types of services such as billing for short messaging and other information
services. The GSM association (www.GSMmobile.com) manages the TAP standard.
Network Data Management – Usage (NDM-U)
The network data management – usage (NDM-U) is a standard messaging format that
allows the recording of usage in a communication network, primarily in Internet
networks. The NMD-U defines an Internet Protocol Detail Record (IPDR) as the standard
measurement record.



The IPDR structure is very flexible and new billing attributes (fields) are being added
because Internet services are now offered in almost all communications systems. The
NMD-U standard is managed by the IPDR organization (www.IPDR.org.)
Interim Standard 124 (IS-124)
The Interim Standard 124 (IS-124) standard allows for the real time transmission of
billing records between different systems, primarily between wireless systems in the
Americas. IS-124 messaging is independent of underlying technology and can be sent
over X.25 or SS7 signaling links. The development of standards is primarily led by
CiberNet, a division of the cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA).



3. Mediation System
3.1 What is mediation? Basic features
3.2 The Need for Mediation
3.3 High-level Requirements of billing mediation
3.4 Mediation features
3.5 Mediation Devices



3. Mediation System

3.1 What is Mediation? Basic Features:

Mediation is a process that is inserted between the network elements and the
downstream applications. These applications could be of many different kinds and the
mediation process itself can manage several kinds of data. Mediation is a chain of three
processes: data collection, normalization and business transformation, and data
delivery.
Data collection involves collecting usage information in the form of call detail
records (CDR). The CDR is collected from a varied set of network elements
ranging from PSTN switches to MSCs, using various transport protocols such as
FTP, FTAM, and TCP streaming. The data formats in which the CDRs are
exported could also vary depending on the equipment and could be in one of the
formats namely: ASN.1, BAF, or fixed width binary/ASCII etc.
Normalization is a process of transforming the CDR from a raw input format into
an internal format suitable for applying business transformations. The
transformation is performed using a set of business rules that specify the
pertinent data for the transaction and the circumstances in which the data is
used. For instance, sending all records to a statistics-based business application
but sending only calls that span more than a minute to the billing system. In the
data communication scenario, the transformation process involves absorbing
information from different data sources and consolidating the collected data into
a concise record.
Data delivery is the last step in the mediation process. Here, the CDR is
delivered to the downstream application, such as: billing systems, fraud
management systems, and business intelligent system. It involves the following
processes:
Encoding the collected and transformed CDR into a format suitable to the
corresponding downstream application.
Streaming the transformed CDR for immediate use by the downstream
application in the push-mode operation.
Placing the data into a file so that the downstream application can pick it up
at a suitable time.



Figure 3.1: Mediation

PROCESS I
FTP/FTAM Collection
Data Source Collection disk
(PSTN, MSC)

Raw CDR

PROCESS II Aggregate
Normalization and Filter
Business Transformation Correlate
Enrichment

FTP, TCP PROCESS III
Streaming Distribution
Distribution disk
Downstream
Applications
(Billing, FMS)

3.2 The Need for Mediation
The mediation process enables service providers to take full advantage of their valuable
network usage data, using it not just to streamline any billing system, but for strategic
applications such as fraud management, customer behavior analysis and network
planning. The flexibility of the mediation process enables the operator to cope with
future applications as they are added and helps it to better manage its growth in a
rapidly changing, complex environment. A mediation system is intended to give network
operators a way to rapidly deploy new applications and services, whilst protecting
existing applications from change.
Today to remain competitive, the operators have to provide more and more services,
based on new technologies. The mediation system enables not only the immediate
billing of newly launched service but also the billing convergence that is to say providing



only one bill to its customer gathering all the billing information related to all the
services used by the subscriber. Flexibility is the most important capability in staying
competitive and enabling these new features, to deal with ever-increasing complications
of technology and government rulings, and the capability to prototype new services and
measure their acceptance and interest before committing large expenditures, are
essential.
Service providers must ask themselves how some of the following issues will affect their
billing system:
Ø Number portability
Ø Unbundled networks
Ø Access charges to other carriers
Ø Features offered through Intelligent Networks
Ø Convergence of many types of services into a single bill
To adapt and migrate to theses changes, flexibility in their mediation system will be the
key. In summary, the mediation system is the key to overcome the following challenges:

Time-to-market for new services
Billing for multiples types of network services
Real-time needs for call detail and billing information
IP Telephony Billing
Wholesale and Retail billing/settlement needs
Interconnection agreement settlement needs
Continuing Fraud Challenges

Consequently, the mediation system

Encourages the focus on an organizational “end to end” service view
Support for new value added services
Bridges the gap between IT and network operations
Reduces dependence upon billing and element suppliers
Can speed up introduction of convergent services
Saves money on support for multiples mediation platforms and diversity
Provides OSS flexibility to assist with mergers and acquisitions
Network Integration capability - FMI, SS7



3.3. High-level Requirements of billing mediation

Ø Collect data from a range of vendor equipment interface
Ø Support introduction of new technologies
Ø Support changes to those technologies
Ø Normalize, consolidate and filter data across equipment types and
vendor sources
Ø Deliver data to a range of vendor system interfaces
Ø Support introduction of new systems
Ø Support changes to those systems to meet new business requirements

3.4. Mediation Features

SERVICE USAGE INFORMATION

Archive
DISTRIBUTION
Alarms
BUSINESS DATABASE
Audit
PRESENTATION
Scheduler

Monitor CONSOLIDATION ERROR STORAGE

Reporter

GUI FILTERING

Rules SHORT TERM
COLLECTION REPOSITORY

NETWORK USAGE DATA

Figure 3.2: Generalized Mediation Architecture



Collection
The mediation system must collect call data records (CDRs) from different network
elements, multi-vendor switches, Internet router, Internet servers (e - mail,
authentication, etc). The data are collected via various means protocols, tapes, discs.
The most commonly used protocols are:
Ø FTP over TCP/IP
Ø FTAM over the OSI stack
Ø X.25 or Ethernet at the link level
Filtering
The mediation system filters the CDRs based on user-configurable rules. The purpose of
this feature is to separate billable CDRs from the non-billable ones or to route the CDRs
according to the services corresponding to the call or route and store partial CDRs
generated during long duration calls. It can also filter erroneous CDRs to route them to a
correction engine.
Consolidation
This feature is very important and specially in the Internet billing. It allows to produce
only one CDR based on user-defined rules and gathering all the billable information
extracted from multiples others related CDRs that may come from different sources.
Presentation
As stated before the format of the raw CDRs cannot be used by the billing application.
The Presentation feature converts the CDR format into the format requested by the
billing system. Moreover, it can also modify and/or add information if needed. The added
information can be deduced from other existing information or retrieved from external
resources (e.g. database). As an output of this process, we have billing records that can
be gathered in files or kept individually for immediate distribution.
Distribution
The feature distributes the billing records to the billing application. The
commonly used means are:
Ø FTP over TCP/IP
Ø NFS mounted disc
Ø TCP/IP
Ø Ethernet at the link level



General Services
Besides these typical mediation features, the mediation system need general
purpose services:
Scheduling: to start the overall process or a part of it
Audit logs
Monitoring
User Interface: preferably a graphical one that gives user access to all
level for configuration, monitoring, audit functions.
Reporting: to generate report for the revenue assurance.
Alarms notification in case a error that would need immediate actions.
Archiving: to store the raw CDRs for later re-processing.

3.5 Mediation Devices

A mediation device receives, processes, and reformats event information in a
telecommunications network to a suitable format for one or more billing and customer
care systems. This processed information is either continuously or periodically sent to
the billing system. Mediation devices are commonly used for billing and customer care
systems as these devices can take non-standard proprietary information from switches
and other network equipment and reformat them into messages billing systems can
understand.
Switches usually record usage information (e.g., switch connection time) in Binary
Coded Decimal (BCD) format and these record formats are often proprietary to the
manufacturer of the switch. Each record may be variable length and several events (e.g.
switch points) may be recorded in the same system for a single call. There are at least
60 switch manufacturers and each has several models of switches that may result in
different billing record formats.
There are other network parts or devices that may be involved with connecting a call or
providing Value Added Services (VAS). These devices also can produce cal detail records
and these records are in a different format. Figure 3.3 shows a mediation system that
takes call detail records from several different switches and reformats them into
standard call detail records that are sent to the billing system. This diagram shows that



the mediation device is capable of receiving and decoding proprietary data formats from
three different switch manufacturers.
Figure 3.3 Mediation system

Market Expectations

The prevailing economic conditions in the communications market are ensuring
that all service providers are focusing on RROI and realisation of business
benefits. Every action taken by each organisation is measured against these
criteria.

The products have been built on the tenets of:

• Rapid return on investment:

o Pre-configured integration – minimises system integration cost &
time;

o Single product line – all customers on the same version of the
software, minimising TCO;

o Rapid deployment – minimises time from contract to payback;

• Flexibility:

o Phased implementation facilitates migration from legacy systems;

o Configurable – GUI driven parameter set-up & business process
editor;

o Rapid implementation of services;



o Internationalisation – language (double & single byte), currency,
tax jurisdictions, date and address;

• Customer focus:

o Self-service – service order initiation and tracking;

o Self-care – information management, EBPP and problem
management;

o Customer structures – ability to reflect the unique structure of
each customer’s organisation (unlimited levels) – supports
customers and partners - corporate, consumer, dealer, roaming
and settlement;

o Invoicing tailored for each customer – language, currency,
format, tax jurisdiction and delivery media – paper or electronic;

o Segmentation – ability to group customers by any combination of
attributes and tailor interaction for each group;

o Sales promotions – matching customers and services – minimises
cost, maximises ROI and customer satisfaction;

• Ease of use:

o Automation;

o Workflow management;

o Mass updates & operations;

o Business process management – configured for each service
provider;

o Intuitive GUI – minimises training cost and time;

• Consistency:

o Customers, dealers and employees utilise the same web
interface;

o Data is entered once;

o History of data updates is available – who did what and when;



• Convergence:

o Multi-service support – voice, data, web and content;

o Post-paid, pre-paid and near real-time rating/billing;

o Single rating/billing engine for retail, wholesale,
interconnect/content settlement, roaming and billing-on-behalf-of
(BOBO) environments;

o Multiple service environments – PSTN, PLMN, data and Cable;

• Efficient management:

o Sales channels;

o Inventory management – optimised stock levels across
distributed warehouses;

o Debt & cash-flow – sophisticated and proactive credit
management;

o Security;

o Fraud;

• Analysis and business reporting:

o Analysis;

o Business reporting;

Customer Care & Billing – The Solution

A Customer Care & Billing (CCB) solution encompasses services and software
from both parent vendor and 3rd party partners. The major components of the
solution are:

• Professional services:

o Business analysis;

o Implementation – configuration, customisation, project
management, testing and training;

o Post-implementation – help-desk, change and enhancement
consultancy;



• 3rd party software – pre-integrated using industry standard APIs:

o Fraud management ;

o Analysis & reporting – Business Objects;

The functionality provided by the CCB system encompasses:

• Product/services catalogue and tariff management;

• Customer relationship management:

• Order management;

• Provisioning inventory and mediation:

• Rating and Billing:

• Revenue management:

What to expect from the Customer Care & Billing

The business benefits that the customers realise include:

• Rapid time to market – The open architecture of the CCB empowers
service providers to add new services and to administer tariffs easily
enabling them to respond quickly to competitive threats and attract
customers by innovative services, which boosts revenue and reduces
costs.

• Minimised integration costs and deployment time – the CCB offers
a rich set of functionality that is pre-integrated into a complete cost-
effective solution. This ensures timely and cost-effective implementation
and deployment of new services. The complete application suite can be
implemented in as little as 3 to 6 weeks, enabling service providers to
realise early revenue streams and a rapid return on investment.

• Improved customer service – the CCB provides a single customer
view for self-care, dealers and Customer Service Representatives to
handle all customer queries and complaints quickly and efficiently. Self-
care includes registration, edit service packages, check balance and pay
bills online, without time-consuming calls to service representatives.



• Customer focus - All customer information is stored centrally and can
be accessed and analysed across multiple dimensions to guide service
providers' marketing decisions. Customer segmentation enables service
providers to identify their most profitable customers and focus on
keeping them via targeted marketing activities and VIP customer service.

• Increased revenue - The convergent nature of the CCB enables service
providers to leverage cross-selling opportunities and increase ARPU.
Flexible discount and tariff management enables the introduction of
innovative and competitive pricing and special promotions that attract
and retain customers, thus improving revenue streams.

• Reduced operating costs - The Business Process Editor enables
workflow configuration via a GUI that empowers service providers to
automate their operational processes. Delivering significantly improved
efficiency, reduced staff levels and training needs, thus driving down
operating costs.



4. Customer Care Billing – a product
perspective
4.1 Business Proposition
4.2 Functional Overview
4.3 Third Party Interfacing Elements
4.4 System Integration



4. Customer Care Billing (CCB) – a
product perspective
To have an in-depth understanding about a Billing System we have taken a product
perspective of the Protek’s Customer Care & Billing Version 2.9.8.

4.1 Business Proposition

In the fast changing world of telecommunications where customer focus, leveraging
technologies and utilising resources effectively are the primary drivers for all service
providers’ software vendors must deliver more than a system. Everyone involved in the
industry must deliver ROI based on the business benefits required to maintain a viable
business.

The objectives in this section are to cover the complete range of deliverables and
services that CCB should provide that would enable service providers to:

• Realise a rapid ROI (RROI);

• Achieve and maintain competitive advantage in their markets;

• Maximise revenue and ARPU;

• Reduce customer service costs – sales, marketing, billing and support;

• Minimise total cost of ownership.

The areas covered in this section encompass:

• The capabilities of the CCB solution – mapping them against the benefits
that can be realised by the service provider;

• An overview of the CCB system covering the business functions that are
supported;

• Various Supporting services – including implementation, documentation,
and post-implementation services;

• The architecture of the system encompassing integration, security, and
availability.



Capabilities

The focus of the capabilities section is on what the CCB can deliver and how this
enables the service provider to achieve their business objectives.

Rapid Return on Investment (RROI)

Pre-configured integration

Implementation on a green field site from starting the project to completing the
first bill cycle can be as short as twelve weeks. Where integration and
customisation is required this is minimised through the use of industry standard
(and published) APIs and the availability of a library of interface modules (e.g.
to network elements).

Single product line

The CCB should successfully encourage their existing customers to upgrade
their implementation to take advantage of the new features developement. This
will keep costs under control and reflects the importance of listening to the
customers and incorporating functionality that enables customers to grow and
maintain their competitive advantage.

Rapid deployment

The system should be configured to meet many of each service providers needs.
Hence deployment of the system is rapid, even where customisation is required
there is always an option to implement the standard system and upgrade to the
customised version later.

Flexibility

Phased implementation

There are a number of options when deciding how to phase the implementation
of the CCB. These include the following:

• By customer type – retail (corporate and/or consumer), wholesale,
settlement partner;

• Geographical area – country or region;

• Functional area – customer care, mediation, rating & billing etc.



Whether the implementation is into a greenfield site or has to be integrated
within an existing IT infrastructure, a phased implementation model can be
defined that minimises risk and realises the ROI required by each service
provider.

Configurable

The aspects of the system that are configurable include:

• Global system parameters – e.g. base currency and invoicing type (open
item or balance forward);

• Object types – e.g. contract, customer status indices, taxes, invoices,
payments and adjustments;

• Additional customer attributes, including the validation rules to be
applied during input;

• Business functions – processes that determine workflow for customer
definition, order management, provisioning etc.;

• Default values – the automatic population of device attributes and
parameters when completing details for subscribers that can be
overridden where necessary;

• Tickler configuration – used within the system for problem and action
management, including sales campaigns and debt collection procedures;

• Sales hierarchies – sales points (locations) and assigned sales people;

• Schedules – batch job processing, e.g. event collection, reports, bill
processing etc.;

• Analysis and reporting universes;

• Third party system interfaces.

Many of these parameters can be amended and extended after the initial
implementation.

Rapid implementation of services

Many new services and service packages can be created by the system
administrator through the configuration, product catalogue, business process



editor and tariff management functions of the system with minimal and in some
cases zero assistance from BCC experts.

Customer Focus

The specific characteristics of customer focus that should be provided by the
system include:

Self-service

• Initial customer registration;

• Service selection and order entry.

Self-care

• Maintaining customer information, e.g. name, address, services,
payments etc.;

• EBPP;

• Problem management.

Customer structures

The CCB supports customers and partners - corporate, consumer, dealer,
roaming and settlement within a single environment. The features supported by
the system include:

• Ability to reflect the unique structure of each customer’s organisation;

• Change the structure to meet the changing needs of each customer;

• Set invoicing at multiple points in the organisation structure;

• Pre-paid and post-paid subscriptions can be created within a single
customer hierarchy;

• Subscribers can be switched between pre and post-paid services while
retaining billing history.

Invoicing tailored for each customer

All of these characteristics of the invoice can be tailored for each customer -
language, currency, format, tax jurisdiction and delivery media – paper or
electronic. For complex corporate customers it is also possible to vary any or all
these parameters for each invoice produced.



Segmentation

Customer segmentation can be achieved in a number of ways within the CCB.
The following approaches are supported:

• Customer type – e.g. retail (corporate and personal), wholesale, dealer
and settlement partner;

• Ability to group customers by any combination of attributes and tailor
interaction for each group – e.g. credit rating (index), ARPU, credit
history, services purchased etc.

Sales promotions

Using the segmentation described above to match each segment against a list
of unpurchased/new services and create a sales promotion tailored to each
group. The sales promotion activities can be defined in a tickler, linked to the
customers in a group and assigned to a sales team to execute.

This alignment of customers and services minimises cost, maximises ROI and
customer satisfaction by matching services with customers who are likely to buy
them.

Consistency

One of the design tenets of the CCB is consistency – encompassing the user
interface, data storage and tracking changes.

Web Interface

Customers, dealers and employees utilise the same web interface for registering
customers. This ensures consistency of response to the users and enables the
CSRs to help customers very easily if they have a problem with the input.

Data Entry and Integrity

Data is entered once, stored in RDBMS (that manages distribution and
replication of data, if required) and available for all authorised users to view and
update. Data input via batch interfaces is maintained in the same database.

Changes History

History of data updates is available – who did what and when;



Some histories provide a number of additional facilities: printing data, viewing
statistical information, and filtering data by subscribers and invoices. The
histories available include:

• Calls History

• Address Change History

• Deposit Change History

• Client Index Changes History

• Client/Subscriber Status Change History

• History of Changes to Contract Statuses

• Tariff Plan Changes History

• History of Changes to Subscriber’s Phone Numbers and SDA

• Service History

• Charges History

• Equipment History

• Contract Rewriting History

• Payment and Payment Application to Invoice History

• Roamer Calls History

• Discount History

• Phone Number Owner Changes History

• History of Service Status Changes

• Pre-paid subscriber events history

• Credit Control Actions History

• Mass Operations History

Convergence

The CCB supports many aspects of convergence within a single installation of
the system. The primary areas supported are:

• Multi-service support – voice, data, eCommerce and content;



• Single tariff management environment for pre-paid and post-paid
services;

• Post-paid, pre-paid and near real-time rating/billing;

• Subscribers can be switched between pre and post-paid services while
retaining billing history.

• Single rating/billing engine for retail, wholesale, interconnect/content
settlement, roaming and billing-on-behalf-of (BOBO) environments;

• Multiple service environments – PSTN, PLMN, data and Cable;

• Common environment for managing customers, dealers/agents and
settlement partners.

Efficient Management

The effective utilisation of, channels, staff and assets is essential. Using IT
systems as tools to enable the business to manage these resources and to
ensure there is a focus on improving customer relationships is a major factor in
achieving the businesses objectives. Examples of the ways in which the CCB
provides the tools to help manage resources efficiently are:

Sales channels

The main components of the hierarchical structure that can be created for
channel sales teams are:

• Sales team – i.e. a dealer, reseller, agent or direct sales team;

• Points of sale – i.e. the layers in the structure that define how each sales
team is organised;

• Personell – the individuals in the sales teams who will access the system,
work within a point-of-sale and be assigned to prospects/customers.

Commission statements can be generated using these structures based on a
number of criteria – including sales (e.g. orders taken) and actual revenue
created.



Inventory management

The warehouse management functions provided with the CCB enable the service
provider to manage inventories of equipment and number ranges
encompassing:

• Optimised stock levels across distributed warehouses;

• Number ranges including voice, data and IP addresses;

• Stock valuations and updates into the financial accounting systems;

• Stock replenishment orders triggered at user defined minimum stock
levels.

Debt & cash-flow

The system provides a number of functions that support pro-active credit
management. The primary capabilities are:

• Credit checks can be incorporated into the order taking process,
including interfaces with 3rd party agencies;

• Credit limits can be set for each customer and each invoice level for a
single customer;

• Credit rating indices can be created and automatically updated to reflect
the billing and collections history of each customer;

• Debt chasing (dunning) processes can be tailored for groups of
customers where the groups are created based on the customers’ status,
billing, collections and credit history;

• Pro-active collections strategies, e.g. calling, email or SMS to customers
reminding them to pay outstanding bills can be managed automatically;

• Disputes can be recorded in the system and change the debt collections
process while the dispute is in progress;

• Multiple payment options are available – e.g. pre-paid, advance
payment, direct debit and credit card in addition to cheque and cash.



Security

Data and access security options are provided within the CCB to control create,
update and view access rights as well as data integrity when distributed
databases are implemented.

The primary functions of the system are:

• Access rights defined using roles and assignment of one or more roles to
individuals registered in the system;

• Segmentation of the database so that access to customer/service specific
information can be restricted;

• Data integrity is maintained within the system by reducing data
duplication to a minimum and where it is necessary, utilising standard
Oracle capabilities to manage the distribution and replication.

Fraud Management

To enable service providers to identify fraud the following Fraud Management
capabilities:

a) Subscription fraud - An attempt to register new subscription with wrong
personal/credit information with the deliberate intention to not pay for
services

b) Usage fraud - Normally associated with stolen terminals / handsets. The
usage pattern changes and goes outside pre-determined values

c) Access fraud - Technical fraud via manipulation of terminals / handsets
(fake identification, cloned phones etc)

d) Internal fraud - Unauthorised access to the CCB Database or amendment
of call/subscription data.

If more sophisticated Fraud Management capabilities are required then the 3rd
party FMS like Cerebrus or Ranger (Subex) application can be integrated with
the CCB.

Analysis and Business Reporting

Efficient management requires timely access to succinct, accurate information.
Flexibility is also essential to ensure that management can respond to the



rapidly changing conditions in the market place. The ABR (analysis and
business reporting) tools available with the CCB provide an environment that
will satisfy current and future needs of the organisation.

Business Business
Metadata Functional Areas
Objects™
Layers Terms

customer • Production report
• Ad-hoc reporting
marketing • OLAP
invoices
• Slice & dice
• Access to corporate
tariff plans documents & reports
other financial
...

...

Intranet

Protek's CCB database Web

Remote point
Crystal Reports of sale
- Basic Reports

Figure 4.1 Analysis and Business reporting

The main features of the ABR are:

• User friendly data dictionaries (Business Objects universes) that uses
business terminology to describe the data and hide the complexity of the
database structures from the users;

• The universes are pre-defined so that extraction and presentation of the
data is optimised and the impact on the operational use of the system is
minimised;

• Pre-defined reports that are parameter driven and can be customised
where necessary to meet each service provider’s specific needs;

• Scheduling jobs so that generating reports is performed automatically,
delivering the required information when it is needed.



4.2 Functional Overview

The solution is characterised by the configuration and rapid customisation that enables
service providers to implement the system in weeks and realise an ROI in as little as
three months. The following sections describe the modules of the CCB.

Product/Service Catalogue and Tariffs

Product/Service Catalogue

Supporting Catalogue of Services and Equipment

The CCB has the Catalogue of Services and Equipment. The catalogue contains
all services and equipment available for sale to clients and/or subscribers.

There are settings for each catalogue item that allows for the full description of
the methods and parameters for selling each item.

Among others, the following settings are stored for each catalogue item:

• Price;

• Charging method. In addition to one-time charges (as for a usual sale)
the system supports various methods of recurring charges for services
and for equipment rental and leasing;

• Who is allowed to buy this service or equipment (client and/or
subscriber, the company's own subscribers and/or roamers);

• The range of dates within which the item is available for sale.

Several catalogue items may be created for the same service or an equipment
model. This allows different prices for services with different tariff plans.

Setting Links between Elements of the Service and Equipment
Catalogues

The system allows relationships between elements of the service and equipment
catalogues to be set-up.

Service and Equipment Packages

Catalogue items can be grouped into defined service packages and equipment
packages.



Restrictions may be set-up so that certain packages may only be sold if defined
conditions are met.

Tariff Management

Configuration

The definition of a GUI template for each type of network usage. Thus enabling
service providers to tailor the tariff maintenance environment for their own
business.

Inclusion of friends and family style discounts within business processes to ease
the configuration and assignment of this type of discount for customers.

Flexible Tariff Plan Mechanism

The CCB rates events according to a tariff plan. These tariff plans are adapted
from a Master Tariff Plan when the system is set-up and new plans may be
introduced or modified whenever new campaigns are launched.

Call/Event Rating Profiles Based on Time

Rules for calculating event costs that depend on the day of the week, time of
day, and the call duration (or data volume) are set in Profiles. The list of profiles
is compiled and modified independently of other parts of a Tariff Plan.

Using profiles, parameters may be set so that the rating will depend on call
duration or data volume, on time of day or the day of the week.

Flexible Tariff Planning

In addition to rating rules for different call types (whether inherited from the
MTP or set anew), user tariff plans may be given individual features unique to
them. These include linking a tariff plan to a service package as well as tariff
plan special features. These features may be combined in any way for a specific
user tariff plan. This allows the creation of complex tariff plans.

Discount structures

The discount structures are very flexible and any of the parameters may be set.
Friends and family style discount structures can be defined with restrictions on
the types of number that can be included e.g. local calls only, one mobile
number only etc.



Fees

Access fees, recurring fees etc may bet set-up according to the operator’s
desired environment.

Customer Relationship Management

Managing customer relationships and the data attributes associated with all
customers is a strongly convergent capability of the CCB. All aspects of the
relationship with all parties involving services and/or billing are managed
through a single set of functions within the system. That is:

• Sales, dealer and service provider management, set-up and maintenance
of:

o Sales team structures;

o Dealer points of sale and warehouses;

o Service provider agreements for interconnect;

• Pre-sales – sales lead and prospect management, set-up and
maintenance of:

o Prospect registration and assignment of sales personnel;

o Ticklers used to track interaction with each prospect;

o Order processing for prospects automatically changes their status
to customer;

• Customers:

o Retail customers – corporate and consumer;

o Roaming – partners and subscribers;

o Settlement partners – eCommerce, content and telephony;

o Dealers/resellers – as agents, resellers or branded VNOs;

• Promotions and campaigns;

• Users of the system:

o Customers – self-care – retail, roaming or partners;



o Dealers/resellers – self-care as customers and registration of new
customers;

o Employees – customer service representatives etc,;

• Business processes are configured and associated with services,
customers and users of the system to match the service providers
working procedures.

• Ticklers:

o Problem management – recording, assigning and tracking to
resolution problems and queries reported by customers;

o Escalation – notification of system users when tickler actions are
overdue;

o Action – e.g. sales campaigns aimed at a group of customers
based on a profile produced by an analysis of recorded customer
attributes or a collections hit-list based on an analysis of
outstanding debts;

• Common information model – all attributes of every customer (including
organizational structure) are stored in a single (logical) database. This
eliminates duplication and provides a rich source of data for sales and
marketing;

• Indices management – customer segmentation and status.

Data updates history – tracking who changed what – this provides an audit trail
and adds depth to sales and marketing analyses.

Order Management

An order is a set of operations for one and the same subscriber or client, for
which an invoice can be issued.

The main components of an order are:

• Order header – containing customer information common to all items in
the order.

• Order components – including any parameters that can be set for each
item



Where multiple actions are required to process and/or activate the
service/equipment item for an order component the system records and tracks
progress on the actions.

The steps involved in creating and processing an order are:

• Create order i.e. all the operations included in the order have been
specified

• A pro forma invoice is generated – where a payment is required before
the order can be processed.

• A credit check is an optional action that can be included in the business
process that controls the processing of the order.

• Start the order - this may occur, for example, after the pro forma invoice
has been paid. It is possible to start part of an order and, furthermore,
different operations within a single order can be performed at different
times, and different invoices can be issued for them.

If it is necessary to perform any operation immediately, an order start can be
included in the corresponding business process.

Where an order includes items that require activation (network or service)
and/or equipment to be delivered the system automatically creates and starts a
work order or a warehouse order. These orders are processed by the respective
subsystems.

Attempts to order an identical service twice for the same customer will be
detected and flagged by the system as an error.

Provisioning, Inventory and Mediation

Network and Service Inventory

The inventory integrates service, network and customer information into one
system. It stores all information related to network elements, including port
usage and capacity capability and can manage all the bandwidth capacity
demands, from an individual circuit point, sub-network and complete network
view.



It supports the recovery of network resources enabling reallocation of
bandwidth usage. It can represent network elements in many different views
i.e. card and port level or as a 'black box'.

Benefits

• Data cleansing and auditing from legacy systems;

• Accurate inventory management;

• Protected investment, ability to model all known network topologies and
technologies;

• Integration of total network inventory management, circuit design and
bandwidth management in one package.

Warehouse Management

The warehouse tracks the inventory of equipment that can be supplied to a
customer. In the Warehouse subsystem, there are both itemized inventories
(mobile phone handsets, SIM cards, phone cards, packages, etc.) and non-
itemized inventories, such as accessories. The tools provided to manage this
environment include:

• Hierarchical warehouse structure

• Automatic stock tracking and re-ordering

• Minimum stock quantity specification

• Equipment reservation with expiry date assignment

• SIM management

• Service enabling equipment (routers, modems, PBXs etc.) management

• Stock valuation

• Serial number entry from files and via bar code readers

The System supports the hierarchical classification of inventories. Each item of
inventory belongs to a catalogue item, each catalogue item to a model and each
model to a type.

Inventory type is the root element of the warehouse inventories hierarchy. The
set of inventory types is fixed. The following types are possible:



• Handset GSM;

• Handset DAMPS;

• SIM card;

• Scratch card;

• Accessory;

• Package (Set).

A Nokia 3310 handset is an example of a model that is associated with the GSM
handset type and could also be an item within a package. E.g. a pre-paid
package could include a 3310 handset, SIM card with a pre-assigned telephone
number.

The unique warehouse code that is used to identify stocks of 3310 handsets
must be included on the list of equipment defined within the resources sub-
system of the CCB.

Service Provisioning

Service Provisioning establishes connections with devices using connection
protocols supported by the given network element service parameters can be
edited. Network elements include switches, voice mail devices (VMS), and smart
devices (IN platforms).

Configuration of the parameter file will be sufficient to tailor the system for
some installations others may require customisation.

The parameters used for setting the Device Provisioning to manage a network
element of any given type are fully described in the Administrators Guide.

Event Collection

The Mediation Device is a billing system interface to a variety of network
elements (switches, voice mail devices, IN-platforms, SMS servers, WAP-
gateways, and GPRS Charging Gateways), all of these network elements must
be integrated with the Mediation Device.

Some changes may be achieved through modification of the switch driver
screens others may require customisation.



Logging Operations and Identifying Errors

Messages about how event records are collected and diagnostic error messages
are recorded to a log file and may be displayed on the console. Details of
logging messages may be customised.

Optimising Data Processing

Optimisation of data processing by setting such parameters as the size of data
batches, frequency of querying output streams, or message waiting time can be
set.

Benefits

The mediation and provisioning modules bring the following, immediate
benefits:

Fast and reliable call record collection enhances the revenue assurance of a
service provider and is a key factor when implementing different “hot billing” or
“warm billing” applications.

Single and uniform point of access to the network lowers the overall cost
of network management. This eliminates the need for multiple and often rather
expensive Operations Support Systems from several vendors. The differences in
the network are effectively hidden from the customer care and billing
applications.

Reduced manual effort is an obvious benefit from the high automation level
of the mediation module. The engineers can concentrate on tasks that are more
challenging and the customer service representatives do not have to learn
exotic tasks or command languages. This also has a tremendous impact on the
reliability and security of the operations.

Good architecture for growth, providing a path for larger transaction
volumes (call records) just by adding new servers to the mediation
infrastructure. Adding support for new network elements or new releases of an
existing element is also easy through the flexible Network Model Database.

Instant Service-Provisioning results in higher customer satisfaction through
quicker service at the point of sale.



Flexible Service-Packaging enables the combining of different services
together in a single service request. Even multiple networks can be supported
simultaneously - a must in a convergent telephony operation.

Rating and Billing

Rating and billing within the CCB provide convergent capabilities encompassing:

• Post-paid, pre-paid and near real-time rating;

• Billing for multiple types of customer – retail, wholesale, settlement,
dealers/resellers and roaming;

• Multiple services on a single and/or multiple bills;

• Multiple bill formats, languages, currencies and presentation methods
(e.g. paper and electronic).

Rating

Post-paid

Events are rated within the CCB as the event records are processed (CDRs etc).
Transactional discount schemes (e.g. friends and family) are applied during the
initial rating process.

Where tariff changes need to be applied retrospectively a rollback function
enables the service provider to update the rated records selectively – i.e.:

• Select the events affected by the change;

• Rollback the rating;

• Apply the tariff change;

• Re-run the rating process.

Account balances and credit limit information will be updated automatically.

The characteristics of the post-paid billing functions supported include:

• Real-time balance update – facilitating continuous credit limit
management;

• Multiple rating parameters including type of event, type and volume of
data, location and access point name, bandwidth used, content and
quality of service (QoS);


Telecom Billing Solutions By Sohag Sarkar

Telecom Billing Solutions By Sohag Sarkar

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