Telecom OSS

OSS Essentials: Support System
Solutions for Service Providers

Kornel Terplan
7.4 Best of Suite Products for Customer Care and Billing

7.4.1 Design of a New Billing System
7.4.2 Convergent Billing Platform (CBP) from ADC-Saville Systems
7.4.3 Ensemble from Amdocs
7.4.4 Infranet from Portal Software, Inc.
7.5 Best of Suite Products for Order Processing and Provisioning
7.5.1 Telecom Business Solution from MetaSolve
7.5.2 Service Fulfillment Products Suite from Nortel/Architel
7601010 Advance course in network based automation Nik Salleh 1 December 2003
7.4 Best of Suite Products for
Customer Care and Billing
These processes face customers, require:
• availability of real-time data
• friendly UI
• capable of self-care
• able to support customer relationship
management
7.4.1 Design of a new Billing System
There are four main steps:

1. Extract data from existing database.
2. Translate to new database structure.
3. Import data to new database.
4. Run applications against the new database.
Difficulties in database conversion:

• not all data is accurate.
• data may be incomplete.
• not all data can be audited.
• data is used almost everywhere within
organization, impacts every department.
• will be resisted in the beginning.
• database not clean due to add-on, patchwork
development and maintenance.
Project Management Task force

• to recognize the magnitude of the conversion
task.
• to assess the impact of the changes.
• to ensure that the organization is ready for the
new billing system.
Benefits of database conversion:

• opportunity to clean the database.
• therefore, old database shouldn’t be forced
into the new billing system.
Typical data to be included in new billing system:

• Subscriber details (names, addresses, payment
information, etc.)
• Contract details (dates, services, process, discounts,
etc.)
• phone numbers
• accounts receivable transactions
• history of customer with the service provider
• billed & unbilled usage
• customer contract history including usage patterns
Priority components in the billing system development:
• Network interfaces - for critical tasks of activating
customers, provisioning services, and collecting usage
data.
• Customer facing interface – customer service
representatives must always have access to necessary
information.
• Business interfaces – interfaces with banks, credit card
companies, external agencies. For collecting revenues,
printing bills etc.
• Financial interfaces – interfaces to internal financial
system. Ensures that the billing system integrates into
the corporate accounting and management control
processes.
Testing should use copies of live data from the old

system
• to realize the unexpected data gaps
• to realize the inaccuracies that will cause
problems
• because those occurrences cannot be
replicated by simulated data
Three approaches to conversion:

1) Trial runs
• using friendly customers or test customers
• should be as realistic as possible
• resembles normal business environment
• test business scenarios from end to end of
billing process
• provides opportunity to fine-tune the billing
system
…Three approaches to conversion:

2) Pilot runs
• a limited live implementation of the full system
• appropriate only when suitable limitations can
be applied, such as, by geographical area or
portfolio segment.
…Three approaches to conversion:

3) Parallel runs
• a fail-safe approach to conversion.
• old billing system is fully maintained until the
new system is fully proven.
• but it is expensive, requires more resources,
for maintain existing system and also for
familiarizing with new system.
• requires maintenance of old and new
business processes.
Training should be planned in the development

process:
• to build confidence in the new billing system
• identify and train key users within each functional
area of business process
• key users should also be involved in testing and trials
Basic conversion processes may be simple, but
the actual execution is complex, due to the
interdependencies of billing systems with other
business processes.
7.4.2 Convergent Billing Platform (CBP)
from ADC-Saville Systems
• Billing and customer care solutions in one
platform.
• Depository of corporate data on all aspects of
customer relationship.
• Enables network operators to create customer
value
• to respond to future marketing challenges
• to capitalize on new markets
• enables service representatives to communicate
with customers and respond to them from one
system.
• Enables service providers and network
operators to access critical data
• customer data
• network data
• marketing data
• financial data
Benefits:
• Maintaining customer information and service profiles.
• Recording customer interactions in a contact log and forwarding action
items to department or users.
• Delivering service to customers in near real-time (under 1 hour).
• Creating trouble tickets and dispatching them to the correct workforce
for resolution.
• Billing, discounting, and providing supplementary information according
to the preference of individual customer.
• Enabling service providers and network operators to modify prices and
introduce products specific to customer segments.
• Discounting customers according to their value to the corporation and
according to the margins associated with product lines and offerings.
• Enables integration of charges from multiple service providers into
one service.
• Offers customized consumer accounts and verifies credit, enabling
easy customer service and the ability to upsell new services.
• Companies have an automated connection to third-party providers
delivering new services, and can confirm service delivery.
• Marketing manager module to enable new products and services to
be developed in under an hour.
• Easy handling of events like processing of call detail records and
one-time activation charges.
• The software also offers a multi-switch interface, flexible rating
schemes, and near real-time billing for multiple products and
services.
http://www.tmcnet.com/articles/itmag/0400/0400roundup.htm#3
Principal feature:
• Use of advanced technology
• object oriented design, rule-based applications, web-enabling, client/server,
three-tiered architecture
• Modularity
• carrier can choose only modules and applications to meet current business
needs
• Scalability
• supports unlimited growth without having to modify the software architecture
• uses parallel and multithread processing
• Flexibility
• rule-based, table-driven architecture allows flexible definition of switch inputs,
new services, price plans, rating rules, discount schemes, bill formats.
• online table facility enables frequently changing business variables (e.g. rate per
unit, sales commissions) to be modified and applied immediately.
Features and functions of the Internet Administration Framework (IAF):
• Service management module
• provides flexible platform for defining and registering new services
• using dynamic attribute model and provisioning data collectors (PDCs)
• PDC
• allows service providers to add new services without coding delays and
download, operates like a plug-in.
• Product console
• can create product offerings, pricing, and bundles quickly through web-based
GUI
• Rule-based rating engine
• Allows complex rating rules in a simple logical manner.
• Customer care module
• Customizable html interface application for customer service representatives
Internet Administration Framework
• Allows bundling of new services such as GPRS access, internet, e-
mail, WAP with traditional GSM services.
• Distributed infrastructure, supports very large number of
subscribers.
• Three main components:
• IAF server
• IAF database
• IAF provisioning data collectors (PDC)
7.4.4 Infranet from Portal Software, Inc.
• Can rapidly develop, price, and provision new services.

• Real-time architecture allows business operation to be
performed end-to-end (from data input to final storage in
database) in real-time.
• Open architecture allows customization and integration
(via its API) with other Internet and enterprise
applications (customer care, call center etc.)
• Supports emerging market opportunities such as private
branding, application hosting (ERP, sales force
automation, etc.), online content publishing (real-time
access to content; supports DRM)
7.5 Best of Suite Products for Order
Processing and Provisioning
• Combine multiple processes into a chain using
workflow principles.
• Using existing workflow concepts from Oracle,
HP, Vitria.
• Implement order processing and provisioning
around the workflow concepts.
7.5.1 Telecom Business Solution (TBS)
from MetaSolve
Consists of subsystems:
• Network design
• Brings together the geographical, physical, and logical
dimensions of the network into a single view.
• Service provisioning
• Enables designing how to deliver service in terms of on-net and
off-net facilities.
• Order management
• Enables creation and management of multiple types of orders or
transactions.
• Trouble management
• Captures and manages service assurance activities, including
trouble tickets from customers and from system alarms.
7.5.1 Telecom Business Solution (TBS)
from MetaSolve
…Consists of subsystems:
• Work management
• Brings together the work pieces from subsystems.
• Data management
• In relational data model
• Contains business objects, their business
relationships, business rules.
• OSS gateway management
• Supports exchange of information to internal and
external systems.
7.5.2 Service Fulfillment Products Suite
from Nortel/Architel
Architel OSS products
• service fulfillment capabilities - order
management, inventory management,
design/assign, service activation, OSS
interconnection.
• CORBA-based interfaces (open architecture)
• 3rd parties
• customer care and billing
• fault, performance, traffic, SLA management
7.5.2 Service Fulfillment Products Suite
from Nortel/Architel
Objectel suite
• total inventory management
Order Management System
• interfaces and facilitates exchange of information
between customer-facing and network-facing systems
Automatic Service Activation Prog. (ASAP)
• coordinate and perform activation tasks
InterGate
• interconnection gateway that allows service providers to
securely exchange and track interconnection requests.
• addresses scalability issues
• CORBA-based interface

Telecom OSS

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OSS Essentials: Support System

Solutions for Service Providers

7.4 Best of Suite Products for Customer Care and Billing

There are four main steps:

Difficulties in database conversion:

Project Management Task force

Benefits of database conversion:

Typical data to be included in new billing system:

Testing should use copies of live data from the old

Three approaches to conversion:

…Three approaches to conversion:

…Three approaches to conversion:

Training should be planned in the development

• Can rapidly develop, price, and provision new services.

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