Recent Updates

• Note 64: Report Distribution Access (09 January 2010)
• Note 63: Reporting / Business Support (04 January 2010)
• Note 62: Maintenance Lifecycle (09 March 2009)
• Note 61: Transaction Sources and Types (26 February 2009)
• Note 60: Contact Channels (14 January 2009)

Jump to Sections:

1. Introduction to billing
2. Basics of Billing Charges
3. Functions of Billing Charges

Web www.purebill.com

Note 1: Billing as a Customer Contact Point

• Billing as a primary customer contact point
• Billing Systems that are 'Fit for Purpose'
• The Billing Process

Note 2: Billing for Networks

• What is a network?
• Non-network commercial situations

Note 3: Ordering and Provisioning

• The functional landscape around billing
• Ordering
• Provisioning

Note 4: Service Assurance and Data Analysis

• Service Assurance
• Data Analysis
• Fraud Detection
• Marketing Support

Note 5: Operating Multiple Billing Systems

• Why multiple systems are used
• Vendor choice
• 'Billing' as a marketable offering
• Convergence

Note 6: A Business' Key Billing Functions

• Five core functions
• Two supporting functions
• Activation / Service Provisioning
• Transaction Collection / Mediation

Note 7: Rating, Pricing and Bill Generation

• Transaction-level pricing (Rating)
• Bill Generation / Bill-level Pricing

Note 8: Bill Distribution, Reporting and Customer Maintenance

• Bill Presentation / Distribution
• Downstream Reporting / Business Support
• Account Maintenance / Inquiries

Note 9: Important Data Concepts

• Five core concepts
• Seven secondary concepts
• Databases of Record

Note 10: The Five Core Data Concepts

• Customer
• Account
• Service
• Product
• Hierarchy

Note 11: Seven Important, Second-level Data Concepts

Common Network Businesses - Aspects of:

Note 12: Utility Billing

Note 13: Tollways

Note 14: Telecommunication Networks

Note 15: Government Rates and Taxes

Note 16: Wholesale / Resellers

Note 17: Basic Building Blocks

• Atomic building blocks
• Non-recurring charges

Note 18: Non-recurring charges billed by Instalment

• Instalment collections
• Instalment variations
• Early termination of Instalment processing

Note 19: Recurring and usage charges

• Recurring charges
• Recurring charge periodicity
• Network usage / consumption

Note 20: Common processing protocols

• Date Ranges
• Effective Dating
• Pro-rata Charging
• Charging Granularity (Recurring charges)
• Charging Granularity (Usage)
• Change of rates (Recurring charges)
• Change of rates (Usage charges)

Note 21: Differentiating charges

• Determinants
• Examples of differentiation
• Moderating pricing complexity
• Product Segmentation / Versioning

Note 22: Using determinants in pricing

• Recurring and Non-Recurring Charges
• Network Usage
• Charges built from the sum of their parts

Note 23: Constructing bundles

• What is a bundle?
• Product Segmentation / Versioning (bundles)
• Why bundle products?
• Broken bundles

Note 24: Bundle Components

• Constructing a Product Bundle

Note 25: Billing Contracts

• Commitments over time
• Contract Examples

Note 26: Service Provisioning / Activation

• Customer Orders
• Network Processing
• Non-network Processing
• Order Management

Note 27: Operational Billing / Provisioning Models

• Different operational models for Billing
• Ordering to billing via network provisioning
• Ordering to network provisioning via billing
• Ordering managed centrally to both network provisioning and billing

Note 28: Bundle Provisioning

• Difference between three provisioning models
• An errored order's billing impact
• Automatic Network Activation

Note 29: Provisioning Latency

• Real-time, asynchronous and batch
• Aligning network and billing updates
• Accommodating provisioning delays in billing

Note 30: Transaction Collection / Mediation

• Historical Comparison: Fixed phone versus Utility network

Note 31: Network Collection

• Network Interfaces

Note 32: Collection: Operational considerations

• Operational impacts on processing
• Error Management
• Error Correction

Note 33: Data Mediation

• Active versus Passive Mediation

Note 34: Data Manipulation

• Thirteen examples of common data manipulations

Note 35: Transaction-level pricing (Rating)

• Pre-paid versus post-paid
• How much does a transaction cost?

Note 36: Key Steps of Rating

• Key Steps
• Prepaid Rating
• Error Processing

Note 37: Rate Plans and Charging

• Who gets charged?
• What are Rate Plans?

Note 38: Rate Plan Scope

• Rating's Product Scope
• Transaction Elements
• Rate Calculations

Note 39: Rating Algorithms

• Flat Rate, Tiered, Threshold
• Algorithm: From / To
• Algorithm Examples
• Non-financial Resources

Note 40: Rate Periods

• Rate Periods
• Rating across rate period boundaries
• Rating across rate version changes

Note 41: Additional Rating Mechanisms

• Minimum and Maximum Charges
• Units of Measure (UOM)
• Charging Block
• Algorithm Combinations
• Interim consumption records

Note 42: Additional Rating Mechanisms - Part 2

• Metering
• Taxation
• Transaction Discarding
• Currency
• Transaction Categories
• Downstream invoice presentation

Note 43: Rating Transaction Storage

• Prebill Transaction Storage
• Operational aspects of rating
• Business involvement in rating (billing)
• System processing load
• Timing

Note 44: Rating: Operational Considerations

• Operational Workload
• Cost of Complexity

Note 45: Bill Generation

• Rationale
• Alternative Billing Arrangements
• Prepaid versus Post-paid Billing
• Bill Types

Note 46: Triggering the Billing Cycle

• Deferred Bills
• Extract Frequency
• Extracting larger (corporate) customers

Note 47: Customer details for Billing

• Dates
• Extracted Customer Information

Note 48: Other Bill Cycle Extraction

• Information not extracted to the Billing Cycle
• Cross-system Extraction

Note 49: Bill-level Pricing

• Transaction Rerating
• Discounting

Note 50: Discount Calculation

• Products contributing to and eligible for discounts
• Overlapping discount plans
• Cross-product pricing

Note 51: Bill Cycle Taxation

• Taxation
• Discount and rate plan thresholds
• Prepaid charges

Note 52: Bill Format Options

Note 53: Downstream Information Flows

• Bill Validation
• Downstream Applications
• Financial Postings
• Updates of Customer Information

Note 54: Bill Distribution (physical)

• Bill Distribution
• Distribution Channels

Note 55: Self Service Portal

• Internet Portal
• Email
• Electronic File

Note 56: Notification Channels

• Electronic Alternatives
• Distribution Information
• Bills and other documents

Note 57: Distribution Operations

Note 58: Customer Inquiry Maintenance

• Pre-bill versus post-bill
• Customer Identification

Note 59: Wholesale Customer Maintenance

• The wholesale relationship
• Minimising wholesale cost/complexity
• Customer Confidentiality

Note 60: Contact Channels

Note 61: Transaction Sources and Types

• Transaction Sources
• Transaction Types
• Search
• Effective Dated Inquiries
• Whole Of Customer View

Note 62: Maintenance Lifecycle

• Capturing customer details
• Add / Install / Provision
• Update / Change / Modify
• Cancel / Terminate

Note 63: Reporting / Business Support

• Auditing Reports
• Exception Reports
• Adhoc Reports

Note 64: Report Distribution Access

• Size
• Timeliness
• Distribution
• Access
• Data Warehouses