Billing Systems

From Service to Bill

Billing Systems

Billing system basicsBilling systems structureReal-time billing needsNeed for flexibilityConclusions

Billing System Goals

„Telephone billing systems are the largest commercial transactionprocessing systems running currently on earth?”

Kari Pasonen, VP at Comptel

Tens of milions events processed daily !

Basic functionality

Service Usage Data

Previously CDR – Call Data RecordsOne Record Per CallVendor-specific formatTypical CDR data:

Calling Party; Called Party; Call Start; Call Duration; Service Type; ...

Currently Usage Data Records (not onlycalls, but all other services)

One record per service providedSimmilar format for interoperability

Service Usage Data Sources - examples

Landline telephonyLocal switches

GSM telephonyVoice calls – MSCSMS traffic – SMSCData traffic – GGSNMMS traffic – MMSCRoaming CDRs from business partners

Billing Systems

Billing system basicsBilling systems structureReal-time billing needsNeed for flexibilityConclusions

Billing Systems Structure

Billing Mediation

Rating Engine

Invoicing Engine

Business Support Systems

Billing system is just a part of BSSPayment ManagementCRMFraud detectionUsage data analysisOrder managementInter-partner revenue managementMany other applications…

Billing Systems

Billing system basicsBilling systems structureReal-time billing needsNeed for flexibilityConclusions

Pre-paid service scenario

Pre-paid billing needs

Real-time balance check and reservationReal-time billing (just after the service was provided)Online charging during the service usage(how long can client use the service)

Optional element, not always implemented

Pre-paid billing specific issues

Traditional billing systems usually operated inbatch mode.Pre-paid billing is usually a part of a pre-paidservice platform (separate from post-paidbilling system).New generation convergent billing systemsoffered (unified pre- and post-paid).

Billing Systems

Billing system basicsBilling systems structureReal-time billing needsNeed for flexibilityConclusions

Need For Flexibility

„Changing billing system is like replacingwings on Jumbo-Jet in mid-Atlantic”

LightReading, industry portal

New services constantly added - have to be integrated with existing billing system

Billing Mediation expansionNew tariff definition

Customers specific functionality

Billing Mediation Expansion

Development of adapters for new networkelements

New services provided (content-based, advancedservices)Equipment from another vendor (UDR formats not compactible)Each service platform has to provide UDRs (one record per service offered)

New Tariff Definition

Capability to rate UDRs for all types ofservicesTariff Definittion flexibility:

Charging for new servicesAdvanced charging scenarios (Cross-productdiscounts, bulk discounts, ocassional discounts)

Rule-based rating (currently state-of-the-art)

Customer specific functionality

Each implementation is a big deal for theBilling System vendor.Each customer has a set of specificrequirements.It is not uncommon for the vendor to implement customer-specific functionalityextension (especially for big customers).Smaller vendors are more willing to expandsystem funcionality.

Billing Systems

Billing system basicsBilling systems structureReal-time billing needsNeed for flexibilityConclusions

Conclusions

High data throughputTens of milions events rated daily

High operational flexibilityPostpaid and prepaid customersNew services offered every monthLack of billing system flexibility can severelyimpact operator’s business

Crucial for operators’ businessExtreme stability is a mustVery hard to replace

Main Software Vendors

AmdocsConvergysCSG SystemsIntecLHSPortal Software

Source: Yankee Group

Most Software Vendors (Oct 2004)

Amdocs Ltd. American Management Systems Inc. Anite CalculusAsiaInfo Holdings Inc. Billing Concepts Inc. Boston Communications Group Inc. Cerillion Technologies Ltd. ComArch SA Convergys Corp. CPqD Telecom & IT SolutionsCSG Systems International Inc. Daleen Technologies Inc. (now ViziqorSolutions) DST Innovis Inc. Formula Telecom Solutions Ltd. HighdealIntasys Billing Technologies Intec Telecom Systems Inc.

IntraISPLHS Telekom GmbHLiberate Technologies MaxBill Ltd. MetraTech Corp. Mind CTI Ltd. Nexus Telecom AG Orga Systems GmbHPortal Software Inc. Protek (now Viziqor Solutions) Rodopi Billing SoftwareSentori Inc. Teleknowledge Group Ltd. TeleSphereTelution Inc. UshaComm CommunicationsTechnology Inc. WeDo Consulting

Source: LightReading

References

LightReadinghttp://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=ngs&doc_id=61229&page_number=2Vanillaplus http://www.vanillaplus.com/Billing World and OSS Todayhttp://www.billingworld.com/Vendors marketing materials, whitepapersSudhir Dixit, Tao Wu: Content Networking inthe Mobile Internet