Billing Product Line - Zygo · Billing Product Line ... generation convergent solutions to enable...

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www.zygobilling.com

“New Generation Billing & Customer Care Systems”

Powered by New Systems technology

Contents Introduction........................................................................................................................................... 1 Architecture .......................................................................................................................................... 1 Modular Database & Middle Tier Structure........................................................................................ 2

Tier 1 ............................................................................................................................................................... 2 Tier 2 ............................................................................................................................................................... 2

NGMediate Integration Suites ............................................................................................................. 2

Integration ....................................................................................................................................................... 2 Mediation......................................................................................................................................................... 3

Client GUI Interface .............................................................................................................................. 3

NGBill Example Menu Structure...................................................................................................................... 3 Customer Care Module Example .................................................................................................................... 3

GUI modules ......................................................................................................................................... 4 The benefits of using Zygo.................................................................................................................. 6

Our relationship with our customers ................................................................................................................ 6 Type of solution/implementation model by Zygo ............................................................................................. 6 Platform/Architecture....................................................................................................................................... 6 Configurability.................................................................................................................................................. 6 Integration methods......................................................................................................................................... 7 Scalability ........................................................................................................................................................ 7 Usage processing............................................................................................................................................ 7 Invoice processing........................................................................................................................................... 7 Payment Methods ........................................................................................................................................... 8 Customer Service Representative (CSR) interfaces ....................................................................................... 8 Interfaces available to the Customer's clients ................................................................................................. 8 Reseller/Dealer interfaces ............................................................................................................................... 8 Reporting......................................................................................................................................................... 9 Internationalisation/localisation........................................................................................................................ 9 The process..................................................................................................................................................... 9 Time to market ................................................................................................................................................ 9 Implementation team..................................................................................................................................... 10 Post-implementation...................................................................................................................................... 10 To summarise................................................................................................................................................ 10

The Zygo product line........................................................................................................................ 11

Customer Care .............................................................................................................................................. 11 Service .......................................................................................................................................................... 11 Charges......................................................................................................................................................... 11 Rating Engine — for post-paid Billing............................................................................................................ 11 RTBS with Parlay/OSA platform implementation........................................................................................... 12 Ledgers ......................................................................................................................................................... 13 Stock ............................................................................................................................................................. 13 Online web-based Billing ............................................................................................................................... 13 Self-Care web interface for clients................................................................................................................. 13 ASP modules................................................................................................................................................. 13 Self-Care web interface for dealers ............................................................................................................... 13 Interconnect................................................................................................................................................... 14 Roaming ........................................................................................................................................................ 14 WorkFlow & WorkPoint.................................................................................................................................. 14 Integration ..................................................................................................................................................... 14 GUI................................................................................................................................................................ 15 Performance and Scalability.......................................................................................................................... 15

Glossary .............................................................................................................................................. 16

Introduction

Zygo Billing is a proven "vendor-of-choice" in the sophisticated information system market. Our product line and services are in a class of their own, which gives us a unique position in the market place and differentiates us from other suppliers in terms of functionality, components and architecture. Zygo is an experienced provider of leading strategic software products and services for billing and customer management to the telecommunications industry and multi-service companies. Its experienced designers and software engineers have, over the past 10 years, been responsible for more than 35 successful installations in 10 countries. Powered by New Systems technology the Zygo Billing product line provides sophisticated 4th generation convergent solutions to enable the billing requirements of our customers and our solutions, based on the very latest technologies, provide functionality, lower cost of ownership, future proofing and scalability with high levels of support and knowledge transfer procedures. All our products accommodate multi-language and multi-currencies, are modular and designed to be "stand alone" to be integrated with our own or third party system suites.

Architecture The system is a family of independent modules, which can be integrated to benefit the whole product family. There are two types of GUI front-ends: application type of front-end for internal networks and web-based front-end for internet ato data and functionssystem is designed to be flexible to interface with anexternal database, CORBAand EJB classes. It represents an N-tier architecture for a typical B2B and e-commerce solution.

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Page 1 © Zygo Billing Limited 2003

Modular Database & Middle Tier Structure

The database, powered by the latest version of Oracle, services the system with data and basic functions for the data. The database is modular and consists of separate modular entities. Tier 1 Tier 1 is a flexible object-oriented front-end which is based on the Swing Java components library. Together with a web server these give the cof two GUI front-ends forexternal and internal network solutions. Looking closer at Tier2 and the Database, each NGBill module is 100% modular and can be represented as an independent unit with own development circle.

hoice

Tier 2 Tier 2. NGBill collects all business entities, related to the NGBill. NGMediate is another module containing mediation and provisioning components (NGMediate). All these modules are wrapped into the following platforms: CORBA with Visibroker and EJB (Enterprise Java Beans) with BEA WebLogic or Borland Web Server.

NGMediate Integration Suites Integration At the heart of the Zygo Billing solution is the NGMediate suite of programs, which not only provides the interfaces for the various stand-alone modules in the Zygo Billing product line but also enables these modules (or any individual module(s) to interface with each other or indeed those of other existing systems.


The Integration module is the powerful platform that provides a customer with a wide range of capabilities to incorporate its legacy information systems with those that are required to be deployed. Mediation NGMediate - this mediation device product uses CORBA and Java technology to provide customers with an easily understood and manageable product, designed not only to interface with the various modules in the Zygo Billing product line but also with other billing and customer care systems (provided by other suppliers) as a separate unit, with or without a GUI front end or as a separate class. It facilitates the collection of call-record data from the network elements, to convert this to the "usable data" required by the rating engine and enables the Customer Care suite modules to send commands to the network elements of the various telecommunications networks (see Service).

Client GUI Interface

NGBill Example Menu Structure Description Tab Function Customer Care (Customer Leads to disconnection) Charge (Charges for service or product) Common (Setup Functionality) Service (Multiple Service Types) Ledger (Sales Ledger Screens) Stock (Stock System) Roaming (Roaming) System & Support (System & Support) Customer Care Module Example "Customer Care" is the module recording and controlling the whole spectrum of information and functions relevant to a Customer from the "Lead" stage to Account Termination, including account registration, deactivation, etc.


© Zygo Billing Limited 2003

GUI modules

The following table lists the billing modules. Subsystem No. Subsystem Name Module Name

Customer Care Dealer & Distributor

I

Customer Care

Lead Service - Wire Line Service - GSM Service - DAMPS Service - TACS Service - NMT Service - TDMA Service - CDMA Service – UMTS Service - GPRS Service - ISP Service - VoIP Service – Backbone Data TransmissionService - CATV

2

Service

Service - Utilities 3 Stock Stock

Bank Interface Ledger

4

Finance

Tax Account 5 Credit Control Credit Control

System Administration History

6

Sys Admin

Subsidiary System Mediation 7

Mediation/Provisioning Provisioning

8 Report Report Generator 9 Form Form Generator

Fixed charge Usage charge Tariffs

10

Charges

Discount 11 Address Address 12 Multi-Currency Multi-Currency 13 Invoice Run Invoice Run 14 Interconnect Interconnect 15 Roaming Roaming 16 Web-based Customer Self

Management Web-based Customer Self Management

17 Web-based Dealer Management Web-based Dealer Management 18 Pre-paid Pre-paid Service 19 Rating Engine Call Rating 20 Real-time Billing Real-time Billing

Problem List 21 Problem Management Request For Change


The benefits of using Zygo

Our relationship with our customers

We recognise that our customers operate in a highly competitive environment and it is essential that we supply them with the tools to maximise their own individual entrepreneurial methods of operation and provide the functionality, flexibility, future proofing and lower cost of ownership to enable them to succeed.

The success of our customers reflects on us — if they succeed, we succeed. On a continuing

basis, we offer the benefits of our in-depth experience coupled with high levels of support and knowledge transfer and encourage one on one relationships between our own staff and our customers' relevant personnel. We look for a long-term future with our customers as their partner for growth.

We pursue a policy of continuing on-going development to ensure that our products

accommodate the rapid changes inherent in the business sector — we make a point of frequently consulting with our customers to obtain their input so that our solutions will deal with changes that affect them and any industry factors and challenges that arise.

Type of solution/implementation model by Zygo

1. Zygo offers its product line as an existing configurable product-based solution, not a more costly "services-first" product that requires considerable customisation or one that requires building a product from scratch.

2. Our approach to creating an ongoing relationship with our customers is to provide them with a

detailed demonstration (preferably on his site) — carrying out an in depth "scoping study" with the relevant departments and their senior personnel to establish their exact requirements — and thereafter providing a detailed presentation of the products needed to make up the solution and the implementation tasks involved.

We make it clear that Zygo are interested in a long-term relationship with our customers, and it is our target to ensure that we provide them with the tools to enable them to succeed in their ventures using their individual entrepreneurial experience and to provide them with on-going support.

Platform/Architecture

1. Zygo solutions/products are cross-platform capable. They can be run on virtually all types (e.g. UNIX, Windows, etc).

2. Zygo solutions are based on a N-tier open architecture. This ensures that there is little

dependence, if any, on the system processing time from number/amount of user records/files. Configurability

1. The flexibility of the Zygo product line modules provides the customer with the ability to easily "add new services".


2. Zygo's systems are table-driven and object-oriented so that a customer and/or Zygo can easily change definitions within them as the business changes — a feature which, for example, enables a customer to easily add new pricing and packaging structures.

Integration methods

1. Zygo delivers to its customers (if requested) a complete set of its Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to enable rapid integration with external systems. Documentation and training is provided.

2. This facility allows our customers (if they so wish) to independently develop their own robust

applications by using the API set — certain of our customers have very successfully utilised this facility.

3. Zygo products/solutions feature open systems standards, including Java™, CORBA, EJB,

etc.

4. The Customer Care and Billing solution (CC&BS) billing products suite is truly convergent as the system is able to handle feeds from other billing systems to produce a single bill.

5. Further, Zygo CC&BS is generically integrated with complementary systems including general

ledger, tax packages, credit card clearinghouses, credit scoring, etc. Scalability

1. The Zygo product suite is designed to be future proof — proven applications supported by the CC&BS exist demonstrating the ability to accommodate some two million subscribers (and the attendant transactions involved).

2. By using multi-server architecture, the CC&BS suite can be scaled to support very large

applications.

3. For our smaller customers any solution/product can be scaled down to handle a customer's smaller or less demanding applications so as to maximise return of investment.

Usage processing

1. Zygo's systems are designed to handle multiple-usage formats for different services.

2. Our customers have the ability to create complex discount plans (e.g. cross-product discounts or incremental/decremental discounts, etc). The processes involved are user-friendly, functional and flexible.

3. Complex hierarchical billing plans are available for corporate/business account subscribers,

which provide facilities such as headquarters discounts and departmental billing. Equally, the system enables a customer to offer his private clients "Friends and Family" type rating plans.

Invoice processing

1. The CC&BS module supports all types and levels of taxation during the bill calculation process, including US sales tax, US telephony tax, international taxation and franchise tax.

2. With Zygo CC&BS a customer is able to individually introduce customisation applications

such as billing frequency and bill date on a customer-by-customer basis. Page 7 © Zygo Billing Limited 2003

3. The choice of invoice/bill format is entirely at the discretion of the customer who can decide

on the appearance of the billing format and print in house or dispatch to an outside print facility.

4. Zygo customers can also avail themselves of the "Pre-Pay" application suites.

With Zygo CC&BS a customer can offer his clients multiple bill dispatch methods, such as paper, e-mail or fax.

Payment Methods

1. Zygo's systems provide a customer with the facility to offer different payment methods to his clients (cash/cheque, credit card, direct debit).

2. Features are included to give the customer considerable flexibility as regards collections

methods and individual subscriber treatment scenarios — for example, designated VIP customers will never get their service terminated, no matter how late their bill may be, etc.

3. Zygo's systems offer multiple features to help manage cash flow and credit collections.

Further, Zygo's systems accommodate payments in multiple currencies.

Customer Service Representative (CSR) interfaces

1. Zygo's systems offer both Windows-based as well as web-based interfaces.

2. Considerable development time has been spent to ensure that the CSR interfaces are both easy to use and easy to navigate.

3. Our customer's CSRs, subject to the authority delegated by the Systems Administrator, are

able to access all account and service information for multiple services from a single system.

4. The CSRs can view invoices as they are dispatched to clients, add new services and packages to an account in real-time and also issue adjustments and credits, again in real-time.

Our customer's CSRs can easily navigate through complex business accounts and be aware of all the relationships between those accounts (i.e. parent and child, etc.)

Interfaces available to the Customer's clients

1. With Zygo's systems our customer's clients are enabled to access their own account information over the internet — subject to the levels of authority delegated to them by the System Administrator — are able to review bills and edit account and service information and initiate various processes.

Reseller/Dealer interfaces

1. A major feature developed for our customers who use the services of re-sellers/dealers, is the facility to enable such organisations to access account information for their own clients from a remote location over the internet.


2. The re-sellers/dealers, again subject to the levels of authority delegated, can also view invoices of their clients, and change account and service information, thereby reducing the workload of the customer's customer care, connections and other departments.

3. This facility is protected with high level security to ensure that not only the re-seller/dealers

are restricted from exceeding their authority but also that their access is limited to appropriate account information only.

Reporting

1. Zygo supplies its customers with a set of "Standard Reports" which, in our experience, satisfy the requirements of most customers. These standard and ad-hoc reports, for example, support customer activity, financial and systems reporting needs. They also support more advanced analysis for marketing purposes, incorporating data from any number of various external sources.

2. As a result, customer segmentation is available for purposes such as "identifying my most

profitable customers". Further, our customers can incorporate external applications to analyse churn and identify a customer's most churn-prone clients and the effectiveness of targeted marketing programmes that a customer has implemented.

3. Facilities are included (subject to System Administrator authority) to make all data available to

different departments and levels within those departments of the customer's organisation. Internationalisation/localisation

1. Products/solutions by Zygo support multiple languages and currencies for customer bills, reports, screens, etc.

2. Zygo's systems GUIs display in multiple languages and currencies for a customer with multi-

national Customer Sales Representatives (CSRs).

3. Zygo's systems process currency conversion and offer multiple date and currency formats. The process

1. Zygo's team has a proven implementation processes with references in more than eight countries.

2. Zygo's team is highly experienced and, with the assistance of our customer's own personnel,

can ensure that a customer's billing data can be migrated seamlessly from his current system(s) to the Zygo system.

Time to market

1. This varies according to the size of the customer's base, future requirements and the extent of the customer's own resources. In normal circumstances we would expect to have a customer up and running in a matter of a few months.


Implementation team

1. Zygo's team that installs the customer system regularly remains the same through the entire process. All members of the implementation team have close contact with Zygo's system engineers.

2. If necessary, Zygo have relationships with prominent third-party integrators, so it can be to

the benefit of a customer as a turn-key solution. Post-implementation

1. Zygo strongly believe in the philosophy of making a customer self-sufficient and we are strongly committed to do so.

2. Zygo provide the necessary training and education, complete documentation, as well as

support services to guarantee that a customer can operate the system without our day-to-day assistance.

To summarise

The Zygo approach is based upon the "product-centric" methodology: With this we offer our customers a proven, robust product from day one, which can be configured to meet the customer's specific requirements and is supported with future product releases, updates and upgrades as part of a standard maintenance agreement.

Zygo consider implementation times and methods vitally important for our customers: Zygo's

team has repeatedly proved our ability to meet customer business requirements in a timely fashion during all phases of deployment, from learning a customer's unique business model and system configuration to on-site testing and training.

Zygo is proud to point out our products’ and solutions’ key inside advantages. We expect and

encourage our prospective customers to evaluate the products in-depth so that they can be certain that the product we offer is rich and robust in its core functionality and, furthermore, to appreciate the unique technical excellence of the systems' architecture.

We expect our customers to require a long-term relationship with Zygo and to be comfortable

that when making a long-term investment our products will easily integrate with any systems they currently have in place or might consider in the future.


The Zygo product line

Customer Care The Customer Care modules are focused on delivery of various features that are aimed to provide total control of the client, designed to retain existing clients and convert new client leads. To create the required optimum structure for Customer Relationships Management, the modules provide such product capabilities as:

N-tier customer billing and comprehensive discount and payment structures; N-tier organisation structure; Multi-address system; Preferred customer currency and language.

To summarise, Customer Care is a module controlling a whole spectrum of functions relevant to a customer, from lead stage to account termination, including account registration, deactivation, etc. Service Our Service modules accommodate the following services: Wire Line, GSM, GPRS, DAMPS, NMT, TDMA, CDMA (incl. 2000 1X), UMTS, ISP, VoIP, Backbone Data Transmission, CATV, Utilities, etc. These modules support the relevant services and products subscribed to, driving the Customer Care and Charging (tarrifing) suites, storing charges, tariffs and discounts which can be applicable for the service during the whole life cycle. The Multiple Service modules provided, give an easy-to-use/easy-to-add capability to a customer, based on the following design module features, such as:

Object oriented structure; Contract level; VAS level; Connection object; GPRS support.

Charges The Charges module provides for advanced charging capabilities, giving the customer a flexible tool to enable the maximisation of the customer's ARPU, for example:

Charge Plan entity; Tariff system; N-tier billing hierarchy for contract, service and VAS level; Multi-currency.

Rating Engine — for post-paid Billing

Supports multi, rollover, shared bundles, cross-band call calculation, multi-types units of the call(s).


Allows flexible product packaging. It supports major rate plans offered by service providers around the world. The system enables price plans to be made for each customer category. Alternatives can be provided to the normal pricing of traffic/calls. Separate price plans will allow the operator to assign customised prices to different customer groups for the same type of call.

Discounts can also be offered and can be for open end-dates or fixed end-dates. Volume

discounts at the service level and account level can be supported. New rate plans can be tested using live data from the production environment before implementation.

The tariff module (rate plan module) has access to all relevant data elements in the system

and can provide for "friends and family" plans, home-zone rating and accommodate practically all types of sophisticated and flexible charging plans devised our customers' Marketing Departments to suit their individual requirements — for example, promotional pricing for specific periods of service (30 days, 60 days, 90 days), changing price plans at any time to be effective immediately pro-rated charges (customer moving from unlimited usage plan to limited usage plan or vice versa).

The addition of value

added services in the middle of a billing cycle with pro-rated charges is also supported.

It supports GPRS

mode as well. RTBS with Parlay/OSA platform implementation

Shares the same data, tariff and discount system with post-paid functions of the Rating Engine;

Our real-time Billing

System enhances existing Billing Systems and by interfacing with eg the HP Open Call system communicates with the core network using industry-standard Parlay/OSA APIs. RTBS is enhanced existing product with a multi-session capability to establish real-time control of several simultaneous charging sessions for the same account. Implementation of the Parlay/OSA APIs includes, amongst other features:

1. Call Control Prepaid Application ("voice" events); 2. OSA Framework, Call Control and User Interaction SCFs (it is assumed that full-

featured FW and Call Control SCFs are provided by the relevant Network); 3. Charging Applications, which allows user account management using UI SCF;

Additional services can be supported by PPA (SMS, MMS, packet events, etc). Page 12 © Zygo Billing Limited 2003

Ledgers The Ledgers module supports truly convergent multi-services billing, thereby providing the customer with a flexible and easy-to-modify methodology which enables his clients to pay for different services. Significantly it gives our customer a powerful tool to manage his clients depending on their payment behavior and the customer's pre-defined classification rules. These are based on the following built-in features:

Item-based allocation; Tax reconciliation on item level; Manual invoices linked to invoice run; "Balance is in credit" control.

Stock The Stock group of modules provides the customer with wide range of methods to intelligently manage very different ranges of resources made available to his clients. The Stock group of modules are extensive but are based on user friendly and straightforward design principles, which include innovative capabilities such as the "Production Depot" program suite which enable (without the necessity of creating a new structure) the inclusion of new and unique items. Online web-based Billing The web-enabled modules provide the customer with a wide range of cost-effective options for managing its business. It supplies a customer with secure remote access to 100%-complete Billing System functionality through the web window, which it can offer to its clients. Self-Care web interface for clients Depending on the level of authority delegated to the customer's clients, the Self-Care suite of programs enable the clients to look after their own affairs — for example adding/removing subscribers, altering their internal billing hierarchy, changing rate plans, ordering stock, etc — thereby lessening the burden on the Customer Care departments with the attendant benefits of improving clients' commitment and minimising churn. ASP modules The customer is offered a variety of ASP modules available for on/off-line use by the customer itself or on an outsourcing base (b2b/b2c implementation scenario/services). These include, for example: Customer Care, Service, Stock, Finance, Credit Control, Mediation/Provisioning, Report, Charges, Tariffs, Address, Multi-Currency, Invoice Run, Interconnect, Roaming, Rating Engine etc. Billing for ASP is available as a virtually real-time option. Self-Care web interface for dealers Another of the web-enabled modules which, depending on the level of authority delegated, empowers the customer's individual dealers to control and monitor their own customers within the subscriber base, effectively in real time. Page 13 © Zygo Billing Limited 2003

Interconnect The Interconnect suite provides the customer with advanced options for cross-charging and accounting with its interconnect counterparts, including Clearing House, Routing and Reconciliation capabilities. Roaming The Roaming suite of programs complies with the present TAP3 industry standard, including clearing house capabilities. Mediation NGMediate — this mediation device product uses CORBA and Java technology to provide customers with an easily understood and manageable product, designed not only to interface with the various modules in the Zygo Billing product line but also with other billing and customer care systems (provided by other suppliers) as a separate unit, with or without a GUI front end or as a separate class. It facilitates the collection of call-record data from the network elements, to convert this to the "usable data" required by the rating engine and enables the Customer Care suite modules to send commands to the network elements of the various telecommunications networks (see Service). WorkFlow & WorkPoint Incorporated within the systems is the ability, via the Java messaging service (JMS), to initiate workflow processes for almost any database process or procedure. For example, the provisioning process at the CSR level and the system's ability to manage the provisioning process once the order has been committed. The data model allows organisations to define specific workflow processes for as many items as may be needed and, once set up at the implementation stage, are then maintained throughout the use of the system. In day-to-day operations, CSR's and back office provisioning personnel need to gather information about pending provisioning orders as quickly and easily as possible, and manipulate events and dates in order to meet new circumstances as they occur. This is enabled by allowing CSRs and provisioning personnel to gather this information using a fully configurable graphical user interface. It follows that the key concept to the management of workflow processes is the WorkPoint. By using our Workflow & WorkPoint engines during the provisioning process the status of all transactions can be traced and the WorkPoint determined at any time. Integration At the heart of the Zygo Billing solution is the NGMediate suite of programs, which not only provides the interfaces for the various stand-alone modules in the Zygo Billing product line but also enables these modules (or any individual module(s) to interface with each other or indeed those of other existing systems. The Integration module is the powerful platform that provides a customer with a wide range of capabilities to incorporate its legacy information systems with those that are required to be deployed.


GUI Our Graphic User Interface is extremely user friendly, easy to set up and re-design. The GUI offers an extensive set of localisation formats and options and accommodates advanced industry standards. In particular, its components are:

Table setup driven; Object oriented; Multi lingual; User PC setup driven for date/time/number masks and language; AWT & Swing components based; Drag & Drop development mode; User self navigation enabled.

Performance and Scalability Our systems' N-tiered architecture provides the ideal scalable platform to support any client from start-up to millions of subscribers, and for processing the tens of millions of call records. The system has been designed to provide the best possible performance for a variety of different sized customers. Its N-tiered architecture allows for multiple servers to be used to distribute the processing load and maintain high performance. The system is scalable from running application server and database tiers on the smallest UNIX server and the user interface on multiple attached Java stations or PCs to running the database on multiple distributed servers and the application servers on multiple NT servers, with as many clients interfaced through the NT servers as necessary.


Glossary

The following table lists terms, acronyms and abbreviations that could be used in this document. Term, Acronym or Abbreviation Description API Application Programming Interface An API is a clearly defined method used

by programmers to make requests of a computer operating system or another application. In the Java™ programming language, the API is a set of standard runtime libraries that allow access to the resources of a host computer.

ARPU Average Revenue Per User ASP Application Service Provider An ASP deploys, hosts and manages access

to a packaged application to multiple parties from a centrally managed facility. The applications are delivered over networks on a subscription basis.

AWT Abstract Window Toolkit Provides the Java GUI. Contained in the java.awt package. (A package is a collection of importable classes.)

CA Credit Advantage. This is a credit reference-checking bureau. CC Customer Care Functions within the telecommunications operation map

which interact with the actual customer including sales, order handling, problem handling, customer QoS management and invoicing and collection of payments.

CDR Call Detail Record Computer record containing data unique to a specific call. (This information is processed as a unit and contains such details as originating switch, terminating switch, call length and time of day.) (2) Processing of call-specific information — start time, elapsed time, number dialled, date, and other pertinent customer data — to provide call detail reports and invoices.

CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture is an enterprise software architecture designed to allow disparate applications on different operating systems to operate together, transparently to the client software.

CSP Carriage Service Provider means as per section 7 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.

CSP ID CSP ID means an identification code allocated to a CSP. CSR Customer Service Representatives answer consumer questions and

resolve customer problems. Customer Customer means a person to whom an MSN is Issued. EJB Enterprise Java Beans is a component architecture for the development

and deployment of object-oriented, distributed, enterprise-level applications. Applications written using the Enterprise JavaBeans architecture are scalable, transactional, multi-user and secure.

ESN Electronic Serial Number The unique identification number embedded in a wireless phone by the manufacturer.

FW An abbreviation for "framework" that is used wherever appropriate. GPRS General Packet Radio System A means of delivering a packet-based data

network to mobile handsets using a GSM network. GSM Global System for Mobile communication is a digital mobile telephone

system that uses a variation of time division multiple access. GUI Graphic User Interface A graphic based interface between a "user" and a

computer. HLR Home Location Register Database in a cellular network that contains

subscriber information; used in handing off calls to networks outside the subscriber's local area (roaming).

HTML Hyper Text Markup Language The standard mark-up language used for documents on the World Wide Web.

IN Intelligent Network An architecture defined in the ITU-T Q12xx recommendations which supports the provision of value-added services in a communications network environment through the use of off-switch logic initiated via a Service Control Point.

ITU International Telecommunications Union The ITU is an agency under the


Term, Acronym or Abbreviation Description United Nations charged to define standards for international telecommunications. The ITU is the parent organ for ITU-T (formerly CCITT) and ITU-R (formerly CCIR).

JAIN Java Advanced Intelligent Network Integrated network application programming interfaces for the Java platform.

MDN Mobile Directory Number A 10-digit directory number used to call a wireless phone.

MMS Multimedia Message Service Mobile Carrier Mobile Carrier means a carrier that operates a mobile network. Mobile Network Mobile Network means the facilities operated by a carrier for the purposes

of providing public mobile telecommunications services. MSC Mobile Switching Center A switch that provides stored program control for

wireless call processing. Identifies the switching office that processes the cellular call.

MSN Mobile Service Number means a number, other than an analogue AMPS number, that has been allocated under the Numbering Plan to a CSP for the provision of a PMTS. Although all allocated MSNs used for a PMTS are portable, the customer can port only those numbers issued to the customer.

Network Network means a carrier's or CSP's system, or series of systems that carries, or is capable of carrying, communications by means of guided or unguided electromagnetic energy.

Network Provider Network Provider means an OASD, a TrSD or a PSD. OSA Open Service Architecture, Open Service Access Parlay An application programming interface created by the adoption by the JAIN

community of the Parlay API for use by service providers outside the telco-trusted domain or value-added service providers with the telco domain.

PPA Prepaid Application Public Mobile Telecommunications

Service Public Switched Telephone Network

PSTN Public Mobile Telecommunications Service has the meaning given by the Act.

QoS Quality of Service refers to the measure of service quality provided to the user.

RDBMS Relational Data Base Management System ROI Return Of Investment RTBS Real-time Billing System RTRE Real-time Rating Engine SCF Service Capability Function SCP Service Control Point A computer database that holds information on IN

services and subscribers and is separated from the switch, making it easier to introduce new services on the network.

SCS Service Capability Server Service Order The command sent to the network to action changes to the services

available as part of the subscription. Typical examples are service orders to connect, disconnect, bar, unbar, and so on.

SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node A serving GPRS support node (SGSN) is responsible for the delivery of data packets from and to the mobile stations within its geographical service area.

SIM Subscriber Identity Module The means to identify a subscription. The SIM number is a 19 or 20 digit number always beginning '89', followed by some manufacturers' codes, a unique serial number, and check digits. Details of the subscription are held on the handset using a SIM card — a smart chip — which can be moved between different handsets if required. Also on the SIM card is the IMSI number.

SLA Service Level Agreement An agreement between a service provider and a customer's company, guaranteeing a certain level of service.

SMS Short Message Service A service in GSM mobile networks allowing the transmission of short text messages (160 characters) between mobile stations using a store-and-forward principle.

SSL Secure Sockets Layer SSP Service Switching Point A switch that can recognise IN calls and route and

connect them under the direction of an SCP. Page 17 © Zygo Billing Limited 2003

Term, Acronym or Abbreviation Description Standard Hours of Operation Standard Hours of Operation means 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Standard Time) from

Monday to Friday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Standard Time) on Saturday, unless otherwise agreed between CSPs on a bilateral basis.

Subscription A contract between a subscriber and the network. The person(s) to whom services are provided. May also be referred to as the handset.

Swing The Java Swing package of classes is used to create GUI components for applets and applications.

Tariff The set of rules defined to price the airtime used by the subscription. TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol UI User Interface VAS Value Added Service A service provided by a network that exceeds merely

transporting user-originated information, such as message storage for later delivery, code conversion, electronic mail, etc.

VisiBroker™ A CORBA-compliant object request broker that provides an environment for the development, deployment, and management of complex, distributed applications written in C++ or Java.

VLR Visiting Location Register WebLogic User modeling and workflow environment for BEA WebLogic Collaborate. XML Extensible Markup Language is a flexible way to create common

information formats and share both the format and the data on the World Wide Web, corporate intranets, and elsewhere.

XSL XML stylesheet for formatting XML documents.


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