Brochure

Telecommunications

Comarch Interconnect Billing

How to reach reasonable OPEX and rapid time-to-market?

Comarch Headquarters Al. Jana Pawa II 39 a 31-864 Krakow Poland phone: +48 12 64 61 000 fax: +48 12 64 61 100 e-mail: info@comarch.com

www.telecommunications.comarch.com
www.comarch.com www.comarch.pl www.comarch.de
ComArch Spka Akcyjna with its registered seat in Krakw at Aleja Jana Pawa II 39 A, entered in the National Court Register kept by the District Court for Krakw-rdmiecie in Krakw, the 11th Commercial Division of the National Court Register under no. KRS 000057567. The share capital amounts to 7,960,596.00 z. The share capital was fully paid, NIP 677 - 00 - 65 - 406 Copyright Comarch 2008. All Rights Reserved. EN-2009.01

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Introduction
The Comarch Interconnect Billing Solution is designed for all telecommunication operators and service providers who maintain relations with other providers and therefore have the need to exchange settlements, invoices and share revenue or costs. It is mainly designed for mobile and fixed operators and offers full support in handling billing-related processes for origination, termination and transition of services through the operators network, as well as roaming related billing processes for mobile operators. This solution, based on the Comarch InterPartner Billing system, enables you to handle any service type using one platform. It is a full, convergent system that handles voice, data, SMS, MMS, premium or modern content services and even roaming. All these aspects can be efficiently managed using this carrier-grade solution supporting you in your everyday operations and business development. We know that a billing solution is crucial for business performance. We know that it is not deployed for only one year. We know that it must be future-proof as such a solution has been designed to serve not only today but also tomorrows services regardless of network type or the partners that you deal with.

Figure 1. Interconnect Billing Solution

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Key Challenges
Powerful Interconnect Billing Charging and Accounting
This Comarch solution is capable of managing all kinds of inter-carrier agreements, including cascade and direct billing. The system is an ideal tool for the entire processing operation from single event records to interconnect reports and features discounting, revenue sharing and invoicing capabilities. Importantly, this solution offers a broad range of possibilities for charging event records (usage data), including call duration, number of bytes or packets sent, pulses, or any kind of measured value delivered by record. The charge can be calculated by a combination of factors including, among others, call origination, destination and class. To protect your business we have invented a set of functionalities for Revenue Control & Performance Management, allowing you to choose the best interconnect partners and best routing plan with Routing Optimizer. After planning the efficient routing it is possible to easily upload it to the network using the Network Configuration Management functionality. This solution supports interfaces for integration with existing financial systems, but may also maintain its local sub-ledger. In this way you can decide if you want to issue partner/supplier invoices within the financial system or within the InterPartner Billing System. To define prices for your partners and define prices of your suppliers the solution contains an intuitive interface for manual price and agreements configuration, as well as automatic dial plans loading from text end MS Excel files. Advanced and intelligent reporting with a set of predefined reports helps support you in managing your business and determining its performance. As you cooperate with partners and suppliers you will find that some of them are not as large in size as you are. For smaller partners it is better to give them web access to their profile and allow them to access their subscription data, self manage agreements and view service related usage. The Comarch InterPartner Billing is compliant with the most important industry standards and guidelines including ITU, GSMA, TMFORUM and ETIS.

Multiple Traffic Types for Voice and Non-voice Services

Comarch InterPartner Billing enables you to handle any service type using one convergent system which support voice, data, SMS, MMS, premium or modern content services and even roaming. Created charges cover one-off fees (e.g. signing-up the contract for a given service), recurring fees (e.g. monthly/quarterly/yearly fee for maintaining the service), usage-based fees (e.g. fee for SMS, data transferred in or out) and billing-period fees (e.g. discount on monthly summary when the given threshold of traffic is reached). The system handles billing including financial document creation, accounting, exporting data to general ledgers and (when needed) tax calculation, debt collection and payments loading.

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Settlements Requiring High Performance for Vast Amounts of Usage Data Processing
While defining the requirements for the solution our computer scientists applied state-of-the-art technological achievements and many years of experience in the construction and implementation of the efficient mass data processing mechanisms, creating the very heart of the platform. Within an architectural context, its main processing engine is a multi-threaded component that allows parallel processing of any event data. Moreover, the kernel was constructed to allow for the expansion of the systems functionality with standard or customized plugins. The systems efficiency makes it possible to process even complex tariff definition quickly and accurately. The system was built to process extensive volumes of data, while its flexibility and openness enables it to deal with the problems facing big and small operators alike.

A Sophisticated Solution to Handle Regulated Services

This Comarch solution supports operators in all complex relationships with partners and suppliers and provides core features like agreements management and workflow processes designed for regulated services support such as BSA, LLU, WLR with dispute management, orders handling, SLA auditing and managed communication channels. Additionally, there is a set of features which helps mobile operators with handling MVNOs in their networks and with properly exchanging settlements with them even if there are no real Points of Interconnection with MVNOs.

Agreement Management in Relation to Modern Services, Partners and Suppliers

Interconnect business means working with partners and managing relationships with them. Comarch is giving you the tool for managing your agreements and relationships with partners and suppliers as a part of the Interconnect Billing solution. Additionally, to support you in resolving all disputes with partners and suppliers, this solution automates Dispute Management and Reconciliation of Settlement Reports. When dealing with multiple partners, it is important to provide proper standards for the relationship. To ensure the cultivation of mutually fruitful partnerships, a carrier must have all the necessary information (including detailed partner data and settlements) presented in one location to simplify the operation. Comarch InterPartner Billing provides a professional Partner Management functionality that covers the entire settlement process for all partnerships, including defining business agreements, loading, rating and generating settlements.

Reasonable OPEX, High Flexibility and Short Time to Market

A billing solution is crucial for business performance and is not deployed for only one year. It must be future-proof as such a solution has been designed to serve not only today but also tomorrows services regardless of network type or the partners that you deal with.

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The modular and object-oriented construction of the solution allows for fast and easy implementation of new services offered by carriers in harmony with their development. These changes do not require modification of the application code, owing to the universal construction of the system, which consists of a secure kernel and subsystems containing parameterized services and settlement agreement rules. The Comarch InterPartner Billing system is a configurable product. During its construction, emphasis was placed on making the system flexible and easy to use and to ensure that changes could be introduced to the system without modifying the systems code. Ready-To-Use technology enables the development of new business rules on-the-fly. The system allows operators to prepare new partner revenue-sharing techniques without modifying the existing application code. The capability to efficiently and accurately charge customers for provided services is one of a carriers primary requirements. This solution allows accounting for a full range of services, including conventional telephony, GSM, UMTS, ISDN, intelligent networks, cable and interactive television, content and other IP-based services. Comarch prepares carriers for next generation telecommunication products (i.e. 4G), ensuring that companies are ready and able to implement and gain revenue from their new products before they are introduced to the market.

Functionality of the Solution

Interconnect Agreements
The Comarch Interconnect Billing Solution makes it possible to bill inter-carrier connections. Different types of connections include: Outgoing connections initiated by a client of a home network, terminated by a client of another network operator Incoming connections initiated by a client of a different operator, terminated by a client of the home network Transit connections initiated and terminated outside of the home network (only passing through the exchange, and network, of the home operator) Reverse charge connections although the connection is initiated by operator A, the fee for the connection is charged to operator B, who is then required to pay operator A for the connection.

Figure 2. Types of interconnecting traffic

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Support for the above connection types allows for the defining of all agreement types currently used on the market which include: Balanced Balanced Outgoing Volume Commitment Threshold Volume Swap And more. Inter-carrier traffic can be charged in a variety of ways. Comarch InterPartner Billing supports different methods of clearing, including the two most commonly used: cascade and direct. The system also enables the use of revenue-sharing rules and advanced discounting based on a wide range of parameters including: Location of call origination and termination Dialed prefixes Dialed and connected numbers Origination and termination network operators Class of calls Aggregated traffic for a given direction Discounting for specific time periods (e.g. promotions).

Revenue Control & Performance Management

This aspect consists of quality, margin and performance control. The quality control consists of using parameters like ASR, ABR, NER, ACD, MCT and PDD/PGRD/PGAD to optimize and utilize it within advanced reporting. Margin control is a crucial part of the Revenue Control functionality and can be performed in near realtime using volume, revenue and cost attributes. Performance control is connected with business performance measurement, and is focused on the monitoring of traffic volume, balances and thresholds covered by agreements, as well as KPI monitoring. Those tools optionally integrated with OSS Mediation allow for collecting network-specific data directly from switches, monitoring the correctness of routing configuration, as well as receiving real-time service status updates.

Dispute Management & Reconciliation

Dispute management is necessary due to ambiguously defined agreements, discrepancies in reference data, fraud, problems with payments, differences in charge and settlement reports and many more everyday problems experienced with partners and suppliers. The solution uses problem categorization and knowledge databases, multilevel contract acceptance and validation, automated reconciliation from top level to detailed CDR/EDR elements, alerts and SLA audits, and entire cross organization workflow processes for work automation.

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Routing Management
Routing optimization and management is connected with traffic forecasting (per product, agreement and destination), using this predicted traffic and agreement configuration to find the most suitable routing rules. This routing optimization uses physical network topology and many optimization parameters, including network capacity, quality, costs, traffic volume, and business rules amongst others. Within extended solutions for wholesale departments routing management is an essential part of the trading functionality.

Invoicing
The Invoicing module enables configuring and creating invoices for partners and suppliers, together with all processes connected with payment collection and automatic call blocking for small partners. Contact between a carrier and its customer is often limited to an invoice. The content and layout of invoices can be viewed as an extension of the carrier, similar to a business card. Therefore, the value of an invoices appearance and accuracy cannot be underestimated. This Comarch solution offers advanced mechanisms for adjusting the appearance and content of invoices (e.g. templates can be designed using a text editor) to meet the requirements of specific customers. Invoices can also be enhanced with analytical information, such as summaries for various subscriptions or the number of connections with a particular number. Additionally, Comarch InterPartner Billing stores information contained in the invoice in the same format in which the partners receive it, which is helpful when handling complaints or discrepancies.

Revenue Sharing
Revenue sharing is based on settlements, placing added importance on the knowledge and information needed to accurately share collected funds with many different service providers. Comarch InterPartner Billing supplies: Advertising, promotional and sponsored services for every individual service Possibility for configuring levels of commitment (time and money related) Penalty mechanism in the event of service failure QoS-based rating related to the degradation of services provided by third parties Cumulative and non-cumulative tiered settlements Flat commission calculated as a percentage of revenue per account and event different rates depending on the specific event and service Multi-party hierarchies revenue sharing between multiple partners E-commerce and pre-rated transactions commission per purchase Proportional rating and roll-over mechanisms Discounts, cross-product discounts and surcharges Interconnection agreements handles all functions starting from the point of interconnection to agreements, financial documents and reporting configuration.

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When processing events, the system applies relevant charges as defined in the tariff management module. Such charges are generated using many variables (and combinations of variables, also): Amount of time expended Volume of data Level of service activity Number of times accessed Loyalty discounts (e.g. gold provider) Other user-defined conditional bases for charging.

The system supports tax management and offers flexible rerating and undo settlement generation mechanisms. Comarch InterPartner Billing delivers a range of up-to-date reports that present essential information, including: Provider/service usage through separate revenue-sharing and usage reports for carriers and their respective subscribers, with optional parameters such as bearer type, prepaid, postpaid, etc. Separate revenue-sharing service and usage reports for providers (e.g. multiprovider services) and individual revenue-sharing service reports for products composed of more than one service (services can be rated differently).

Figure 3. Charge and discount management screen

Network Configuration Management

Network configuration, which is an optional extension to the solution, manages two layers: Provisioning and the Business layer. The Provisioning layer performs the automatic uploading of routing plans directly to switches, together with providing temporary alternative routes. Updates may

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be scheduled for off-peak hours and full switches configuration backup can be performed before reconfiguration. On the Business layer, the system prevents network loopbacks and manages rollback procedures.

Services, Prices and Prefixes Management

Prices & Prefixes Management allows complex dial plan loading and management, together with dial plan validation and testing. Automatic loading and verification is supported to help in mass price and prefix updating. Comarchs solution allows carriers to define an unlimited number of private and third-party services, which can be grouped into packages of unlimited complexity. Each service or service package can be introduced, sold, or withdrawn at any time without adversely affecting the rating results. The Flexible Discount module can calculate sophisticated reductions in accordance with freely-defined parameters (volume, time, periods, users, services or calls). It is also possible to base discounts on the usage of other services. Service configuration is supported by rule-based mechanisms. All the tariffs can be grouped and all the hierarchies can be defined. Rating parameters can be assigned to users, groups of users, objects, and/or periods. A complete history is then stored in the system for journaling. Although the rating and service algorithms can be very complex, it is an extremely straightforward process to create them. With this Comarch system, service and rating activities support strategy planning, enabling carriers to develop proactive and visionary methods of gaining an optimal market share.

Clearing, Financial Management and G/L Integration

The Financial and Accounting module offers full control over financial transactions of partner accounts. Clearing periods and deadlines can be freely modified, while a customers credit can be monitored to avoid any overcharging issues arising. All financial documents are immediately made available to the carriers partners service department. Payments that are introduced into the system are assigned to corresponding charging documents. Details of every single entry of a customers account settlement are displayed on-line and can be critical in certain situations (e.g. complaints). The system also provides automatic access to archived data. Flexible and detailed reporting of financial data improves control and management of a carriers finances. The Wholesale Billing Solution can be integrated with many popular G/L systems with out-of-box interfaces. The Internal Accounting module may be used and periodic reports can be sent to the external G/L system. Integration may also be performed on a low level without using internal accounting mechanisms, and in this way full accounting is performed within the external G/L system.

Partner/Supplier Relationship Management

An operators business is connected with high interaction with partners and suppliers. High service quality requires strong support in managing all relationships with partners and suppliers, and so requires the automation of most work required to run this type of business. This solution can handle many voice and non-voice agreement types, such as wholesale and transit agreements, bilateral and swap, as well as typical agreements including balanced, balanced ongoing, commitment, threshold, volume swap and more. Agreement Management, as part of the Partner/Supplier Relationship Management module, manages agreements with suppliers and partners.

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Appropriate inter-partner settlements and revenue control scenarios between operators and partners are needed when service offerings for end subscribers increase. One contributing factor to the increasing role of third parties is the regulation that aims to increase competition on the market. Changing business models, with an increasing number of partners involved in business scenarios, results in an increase in the amount of money on the wholesale market. Furthermore, Partner Relationship Management is assuming an essential role within this type of business. Comarchs solution supports operators in all complex relationships with partners and suppliers, and provides core features, such as agreements management, workflow processes, regulated services support (BSA, LLU, WLR), dispute management, orders handling, SLA auditing and managed communication channels. Partner Relationship Management is a functionality allowing operators to view all central business operations. During the design process, great emphasis was placed on creating clear and reliable functionalities to ensure operators could obtain accurate information. Operator has quick access to: Partner related data Address Contact person Services provided Rating units Currency Taxes Account information for every individual partner Invoice details Payment status Credits/debits Agreement related data Flat fees Recurring/nonrecurring charges Penalty and discount mechanism Revenue sharing algorithm Historical data for every individual provider/service. This Comarch solution supports application, commerce, and kontent-based partnerships, as well as all forms of carrier-to-provider relationships and roaming. The system manages essential information regarding business partners and agreements and allows carriers to define services such as charging rules, discounts schemas and currencies. Partner Relationship Management presents complex data in a simple and easy-to-read format. For each partner, carriers can find: Contact data Financial details Organizational hierarchy Referential data Settlement agreements Usage data

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Figure 4. Partner-related data management screen

Figure 5. Architecture of the Partner Relationship Management Module

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Data, Content and Next Generation Services

We have entered the 21 century with new solutions in the field of information exchange/data transmission through telecommunication and IT networks. The mass media is dominated with rhetoric of a global village. However, a new problem is looming for operators of wide (skeleton) and access networks, namely, mutual billing for the services provided. Comarchs solution has been designed to meet these needs. It features inbuilt mechanisms for the billing of IP services, including those which are already in use and those which have only been tested and are operating as trial implementations, such as NGN and IMS based services. The system makes it possible to charge for services based on a very broad range of information gathered from the network and can also manage inter-carrier billing processes relevant to parameters related to the quality of the provided services.
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Support for New Business Models

The increasing number of services being provided to end-users has forced many carriers to expand their business models and range of offerings. The answer to this contemporary challenge is cooperation or partnership with a third party. This particular solution presents carriers with the opportunity to satisfy the most demanding needs of their clients. Although such a relationship involves income sharing, it also means that a certain degree of risk and responsibility is shared with the third party. Comarch InterPartner Billing features multi-party settlements, revenue sharing and an interconnect calculations functionality. It covers the entire settlement process for all partnerships, including defining business agreements, loading, rating and generating settlements. The system manages essential information regarding business partners and agreements, and allows carriers to define services including charging rules, discount schemas and currencies. Even if the business chain is particularly complex, our system tracks all cash flows, ensuring carriers obtain the highest revenue possible.

Compliance with Local Laws

The Comarch InterPartner Billing system covers certain areas where compliance with local laws is binding. Thus, all specific local regulations are carefully analyzed and implemented during deployment of the system at the carriers site. All configurations associated with legislative changes can be completed by an administrator during system use.

Mass Data Processing and Monitoring

Mass data processing, including record rating, settlement generation, and information exchange with banks, are automated, configurable and easy to use in the graphical, intuitive interface. Mass data processing can be suspended and resumed without harming the final result. Progress bars provide a visual representation of the settlement billing cycle and help the user track the process. Detailed error reports can also be produced. Information related to the process is displayed and allows the operator to plan his/her time and strategies efficiently. In order to increase the performance of the entire system, it is often wise to delay certain events. Using Comarchs solution, carriers can optimize their resources by using the task scheduling mechanism. For example, billing procedures can be performed at night when the system is not being used for day-to-day operations.

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Partner Self Care Portal

To improve efficiency and comfort for operators and their partners, Comarch has created an additional web-based solution Comarch Partner Self Care. It can be used by operators to create and manage relations with partners and interconnecting parties. It allows partners to access their information online, register new services and manage contracts. The Comarch Partner Self Care module significantly reduces the time required for deploying new services and simplifies contact between operators. The web-based module is usually accessible through the public Internet and boasts security features that allow users to work safely with the system. Comarch Partner Self Care is equipped with a BPM engine, which controls the processes and interaction of all elements.

Security on All Levels and All Phases

To protect the systems data, the InterPartner Billing system includes advanced applied security measures. However, security is not only connected to encoding and protecting system data. It has to be managed on multiple system levels from end-user, configuration, database and network and in all phases of the system lifecycle - from its implementation to operation.

Enduser Configuration/ Administration Database

SSLsupportinenduserportalapplications

Doublechangesapprovalforaltered configuration(offers,prices,) Advanceduser/grouppermissionconfiguration(screens,reports, processes) Auditreports

Userpasswordsandsecuredataencoding CarriergradeOracledatabase Journalinganddatachangelogging

Network

Separationforenduserportals,CMRandcorebillingdatabase Firewallsbetweenzones

Figure 6. Security on all levels

Implementation

Switchoverbackupprocedures

Operation

Dataandapplicationbackup Automatedconfigurationcopying betweeninstances

Service continuity

HighAvailability Clusteredhardware Geographicaldistribution

Figure 7. Security on all phases

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Business Scenarios
Interconnect Scenario
An interconnect scenario is described in the figure below. Operator (DemoTel) routes interconnection traffic between its partners Interconnect partner (DemoPartner1) Operator that provides VoIP services to the customers Interconnect partner (DemoPartner2) Operator that provides mobile services to the customers Customer (John Smith) subscriber who receives a VoIP service from DemoPartner1 Customer (Joe Stevens) subscriber who receives a mobile phone service from DemoPartner2

Figure 8. Sample interconnect scenario When John Smith calls Joe Stevens, VoIP operator DemoPartner1 routes the call to DemoTels network. DemoTel transforms the IP data traffic into voice traffic and routes the call to DemoPartner2s network. The call is now established between John Smith and Joe Stevens. DemoTel does not send an invoice to John Smith and Joe Stevens for the interconnection traffic. Instead, interconnection reports are exchanged between DemoPartner1 and DemoTel, and between DemoTel and DemoPartner2, based on the IP data records (IPDRs) and call data records (CDRs) regarding the interconnection traffic between networks. When DemoTel receives an interconnection report from either of the partners, it can easily locate the discrepancies between its own report and a partners report by using the reconciliation features of Comarch InterPartner Billing.

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Revenue Sharing Scenario

When compared to todays services, the services of earlier years were basic with easily calculable charging scenarios generally leading to a quick and easy-to-track cash flow. Currently, in an increasingly active market, customers are demanding new, sophisticated products. As a result, carriers operating single-handedly cannot become market leaders who are able to fulfill the requirement of every single customer. Engaging in partnerships means sharing risks and responsibilities with third parties, although sharing the revenue generated from the relationships poses a major challenge for carriers.

Figure 9. Relations and money flow between telco parties This diagram illustrates a sample service and cash flow both demand well-designed infrastructure and proper systems from the billing provider to provide services and an application capable of handling complete and sensitive information regarding partners and their settlement agreements. This business example can be depicted by a real life scenario: Billing provider (DemoTel) service aggregator presenting aggregated services and providing billing to the end customer, can settle with partners and share revenue, Service provider (Win&Lose co.) offers on-line betting customers can place a bet using SMS or WAP-enabled phones, this provider does not possess infrastructure to present its services nor does it produce a bill for the end consumer, thus making a deal with the service aggregator and agreeing to the aggregators settlement conditions. Content provider (AdCompany) this provider sends advertisements to the end users. The advertisements are aggregated to the other content by DemoTel. Customer (John Smith) the consumer who desires access to the betting services via telephone, SMS, WAP.

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Figure 10. Sample revenue sharing scenario The end customer (John Smith) subscribes to a betting service that is delivered through the operator. The end customer pays the operator for the usage of the service. The operator also charges a service fee (e.g. a monthly fee) to the content provider. The end users payment for the usage of the betting service is shared between the operator (DemoTel) and the service provider (Win&Lose) using a specific ratio. The advertisements that AdCompany sends are paid to the DemoTel.

Comarch value proposition

You might be asking yourself why you should choose Comarch Interconnect Billing Solution over any solution proposed by our competitors. Take a look at some of its unique features that you might not find in most of the alternative offers you come across: All services on one platform Handling voice, data, messaging and content services Multiple settlement types Bilateral agreements, Hubbing, Revenue Sharing, Roaming, Content based billing and more Carrier grade performance Hundreds of millions of events per day, (more than 50M events/1h @4CPU), scalability and reliability Efficient partner management with the Partner Management module Support for regulated services WLR, LLU, BSA and MVNO Strong support during business changes and adherence to regulations with flexible configuration and powerful inbuilt aggregating engine Low Total Cost of Ownership OPEX, low cost upgrades

Krzysztof Kwiatkowski BSS Product Manager Comarch SA

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