1_applications overview participant guide

Applications Overview

Participant Guide

Release 3.0

Rating and Billing

Copyright © 2001-2006 Convergys. All rights reserved. Convergys refers to Convergys Corporation or any of its wholly owned subsidiaries.

Convergys, the Convergys logo, Atlys, Catalys, Infinys Rating and Billing, Cygent, Infinys, and Wizard are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Convergys in the United States and/or other countries, including but not limited to in Chile, China, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras, where Convergys and Atlys are registered trademarks, and in Chile, China, and Costa Rica, where Catalys is a registered trademark, in Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras, where Infinys is a registered trademark, and in Chile where Infinys Rating and Billing and Wizard are registered trademarks.

Parts of the described systems may be covered by one or more issued or pending U.S. or other patents, including but not limited to U.S. Patent 6,396,913, U.S. Patent 6,438,512, U.S. Patent 6,611,898, and U.S. Patent 6,658,099.

All other trademarks not owned by Convergys that appear in this document are the property of their respective

owners, who may or may not be affiliated with, connected to, or sponsored by Convergys or its subsidiaries.

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this document is true and correct at the time of going to press. However, the products and specifications and content in general described in this document are subject to continuous development and improvement, and Convergys is entitled to change them at any time. Convergys cannot accept liability for any loss or damage of any nature whatsoever arising or resulting

from the use of or reliance on outdated information or particulars.

Convergys does not warrant that the material contained in this documentation is free of errors. Any errors found in

this document should be reported to Convergys in writing.

The information in this document is confidential and meant for use only by the intended recipient and only in connection with and subject to the terms of its contractual relationship with Convergys. It is the sole property of Convergys or its subsidiaries. Acceptance and/or use of any of the information contained in this document indicates agreement not to disclose or otherwise make available to any person who is not an employee of the intended recipient, or to any other entity, any of the information contained herein. This documentation has the sole purpose of providing information regarding a Convergys software product or service and shall be disclosed only to those individuals who are employees of the intended recipient who have a definite need to know.

Any entity or person with access to this information shall be subject to this confidentiality statement.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means for any purpose without the express written permission of Convergys.

If you have received this document via e-mail in error, please send the e-mail to the originator, indicating that you received it in error. If you have received a hard copy of this document in error, mail this document in its entirety to Convergys Corporation, 201 East Fourth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio USA 45202.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Welcome ...................................................................................... 1 Slide 1: Welcome to Infinys Rating and Billing Applications Overview .......................... 1

Slide 2: Course Goals.................................................................................................. 2

Slide 3: Further Reading.............................................................................................. 3

Introduction ................................................................................. 5 Slide 4: Why Infinys Rating and Billing?.......................................................................5

Slide 5: Active Revenue Management ......................................................................... 6

Slide 6: Infinys Rating and Billing Applications ............................................................. 7

Slide 7: Infinys Rating and Billing Functional Areas...................................................... 8

Slide 8: Review ........................................................................................................... 9

System Setup ............................................................................ 11 Slide 9: System Setup ............................................................................................... 11

Slide 10: System Setup Applications ........................................................................... 12

Slide 11: Product Configuration ................................................................................... 13

Slide 12: Product Configuration Functions ................................................................... 14

Slide 13: Scenario — Stage One ................................................................................. 15

Slide 14: Rating and Billing Catalogs – The Difference ................................................ 16

Slide 15: Billing Catalogs............................................................................................. 17

Slide 16: Billing Catalog Maintenance Tabs ................................................................. 18

Slide 17: Price Plans Tab ............................................................................................ 19

Slide 18: Scenario — Stage Two ................................................................................. 20

Slide 19: Rating Catalogs ............................................................................................ 21

Slide 20: Rating Catalog Maintenance Tabs ................................................................ 22

Slide 21: Rate Plans Tab............................................................................................. 23

Slide 22: Scenario — Stage Three............................................................................... 24

Slide 23: Rating and Billing Configuration (1) ............................................................... 25

Slide 24: Rating and Billing Configuration (2) ............................................................... 26

Slide 25: Access Control View..................................................................................... 27

Slide 26: Bill Formatting View ...................................................................................... 28

Slide 27: Catalog Configuration View........................................................................... 29

Slide 28: Currency View .............................................................................................. 30

Slide 29: Customer View ............................................................................................. 31

Slide 30: Event Definition View .................................................................................... 32

Slide 31: Finance and Billing View............................................................................... 33

Slide 32: Interfaces View ............................................................................................. 34

Slide 33: Languages View ........................................................................................... 35

Slide 34: Managed Files View...................................................................................... 36

Slide 35: Payment View............................................................................................... 37

Infinys Rating and Billing Applications Overview Participant Guide

Slide 36: Plugin Definition View ................................................................................... 38

Slide 37: Rating Configuration View............................................................................. 39

Slide 38: Receivables Management View .................................................................... 40

Slide 39: Tax View ...................................................................................................... 41

Slide 40: Thresholds View ........................................................................................... 42

Slide 41: Other Configuration Tools ............................................................................. 43

Slide 42: Review ......................................................................................................... 44

Customer Setup ........................................................................ 46 Slide 43: Customer Setup............................................................................................ 46

Slide 44: Customer Setup Application.......................................................................... 47

Slide 45: Customer Account Maintenance ................................................................... 48

Slide 46: Customer Account Maintenance Main Window.............................................. 49

Slide 47: Customer View ............................................................................................. 50

Slide 48: Account for Customer View........................................................................... 51

Slide 49: Product for Customer View ........................................................................... 52

Slide 50: Scenario — Stage Four ................................................................................ 53

Slide 51: Review ......................................................................................................... 54

System Monitor ......................................................................... 56 Slide 52: System Monitor............................................................................................. 56

Slide 53: System Monitor............................................................................................. 57

Slide 54: System Monitor Introduction.......................................................................... 58

Slide 55: View Tab ...................................................................................................... 59

Slide 56: Logs Tab ...................................................................................................... 60

Slide 57: Review ......................................................................................................... 61

Pricing ........................................................................................ 62 Slide 58: Pricing .......................................................................................................... 62

Slide 59: Pricing Applications and System Processes .................................................. 63

Slide 60: Pricing and Bill Publishing Processes............................................................ 64

Slide 61: Rating........................................................................................................... 65

Slide 62: Event Attributes ............................................................................................ 66

Slide 63: The Rating Process ...................................................................................... 67

Slide 64: Management of Rejected Events .................................................................. 68

Slide 65: Principal Billing Processes ............................................................................ 69

Slide 66: The Billing Engine......................................................................................... 70

Slide 67: Review ......................................................................................................... 71

Bill Publishing ........................................................................... 72 Slide 68: Bill Publishing ............................................................................................... 72

Slide 69: Bill Publishing (1) .......................................................................................... 73

Slide 70: Bill Publishing (2) .......................................................................................... 74

Table of Contents

Slide 71: The Bill Formatting Engine............................................................................ 75

Slide 72: Review ......................................................................................................... 76

Money Management.................................................................. 78 Slide 73: Money Management ..................................................................................... 78

Slide 74: Money Management Applications and System Processes ............................. 79

Slide 75: Payments Processing ................................................................................... 80

Slide 76: Automatic Payments ..................................................................................... 81

Slide 77: Payment Requests ....................................................................................... 82

Slide 78: Manual Payments ......................................................................................... 83

Slide 79: Payment Requests ....................................................................................... 84

Slide 80: Batch Payment Entry .................................................................................... 85

Slide 81: Accounts Receivable .................................................................................... 86

Slide 82: Accounts Receivable Main Window............................................................... 87

Slide 83: The Debt Escalation Engine.......................................................................... 88

Slide 84: The Dunning Letter Engine ........................................................................... 89

Slide 85: Review ......................................................................................................... 90

Integration.................................................................................. 91 Slide 86: Integration .................................................................................................... 91

Slide 87: Integration .................................................................................................... 92

Slide 88: Infinys Rating and Billing Functional Areas.................................................... 93

Slide 89: Review ......................................................................................................... 94

Slide 90: Course Summary.......................................................................................... 95

Welcome

Welcome

Slide 1: Welcome to Infinys Rating and Billing Applications Overview


Slide 2: Course Goals

Welcome

Slide 3: Further Reading

To access the Convergys Client Support Web site:

• Navigate to www.convergys.com

• Click Client Support Center link, the Convergys Client Support Center page opens.

• Click Infinys product documentation link, the Client Support Center – Product Documentation page opens.

• Enter a User ID and Password. Each operator has one user ID and password; consult your system administrator for this information.

• Click Log on. The Convergys Client Support Center – Product Documentation page opens.

• Click the appropriate links to access the guides.

Introduction

Introduction

Slide 4: Why Infinys Rating and Billing?


Slide 5: Active Revenue Management

Introduction

Slide 6: Infinys Rating and Billing Applications

Infinys Rating and Billing provides its range of functionality through a combination of user applications and volume processing applications. This section introduces the Infinys Rating and Billing applications and their roles in the business process.


Slide 7: Infinys Rating and Billing Functional Areas

Introduction

Slide 8: Review

1. Name three Infinys Rating and Billing user applications.

2. Name three Infinys Rating and Billing volume processing applications.

System Setup

Confidential and Proprietary 11

System Setup

Slide 9: System Setup

This section introduces the Infinys Rating and Billing applications that are used to set up the system.


12 Confidential and Proprietary

Slide 10: System Setup Applications

System Setup


Slide 11: Product Configuration

Product: An item that a customer can purchase or lease. It may be a real object, for example a physical

handset, a service that is delivered, for example a telephone line rental, or something more abstract such as a discount or a service level agreement.

Product family: A group of related products. For example, a telephony product family could contain line

rental, call barring, and any other fixed line telephony products. These groupings are optional and are

determined by the IRB operator.

Subscription type: A classification of subscriptions that can be configured for each installation of Infinys

Rating and Billing. A subscription is a sub-account grouping that links a set of products and packages

together for the purposes of bill presentation, discounting, and financial reporting.



Slide 12: Product Configuration Functions

Parent product: A product that can be purchased without any dependencies.

Child product: A product, the purchase of which is dependent upon the purchase of another product (the

parent product).

System Setup


Slide 13: Scenario — Stage One



Slide 14: Rating and Billing Catalogs – The Difference

System Setup


Slide 15: Billing Catalogs

Billing Catalogs are created using Billing Catalog Maintenance.



Slide 16: Billing Catalog Maintenance Tabs

Root price plan: A price plan that defines the basic prices for the products within a product family.

Child price plan: A price plan that is derived from another price plan (the parent price plan) and may

contain prices set relative to the parent price plan.

Package: A defined group of products that are sold together as a unit at a predefined price.

System Setup


Slide 17: Price Plans Tab



Slide 18: Scenario — Stage Two

System Setup


Slide 19: Rating Catalogs

Rating catalog: A collection of rate plans.

Infinys Rating and Billing allows parallel catalogs to be maintained, imported, and exported. This allows an Infinys Rating and Billing operator the flexibility to develop a rating catalog in a test database and then

import it for use on the live database.

The Rating Catalogs allow the Active Rating Engine to cost individual events.



Slide 20: Rating Catalog Maintenance Tabs

System Setup


Slide 21: Rate Plans Tab



Slide 22: Scenario — Stage Three

System Setup


Slide 23: Rating and Billing Configuration (1)



Slide 24: Rating and Billing Configuration (2)

System Setup


Slide 25: Access Control View



Slide 26: Bill Formatting View

System Setup


Slide 27: Catalog Configuration View



Slide 28: Currency View

System Setup


Slide 29: Customer View



Slide 30: Event Definition View

System Setup


Slide 31: Finance and Billing View



Slide 32: Interfaces View

System Setup


Slide 33: Languages View



Slide 34: Managed Files View

System Setup


Slide 35: Payment View



Slide 36: PlugIn Definition View

System Setup


Slide 37: Rating Configuration View



Slide 38: Receivables Management View

System Setup


Slide 39: Tax View

An invoicing company can be used to model the portion of an Infinys operator that is operational in a particular tax jurisdiction. It can also be used to model service providers.



Slide 40: Thresholds View

The thresholds that may be crossed are based on one of the following:

• Account available credit.

• Credit exposure.

• Unpaid spend.

• Unbilled usage.

System Setup


Slide 41: Other Configuration Tools

Some predefined table sets are supplied with Infinys Rating and Billing, mainly relating to the following areas:

• Customers

• Products

• Price plans

• Rate plans



Slide 42: Review

1. What is a product family?

2. At which stages during the catalog life cycle can a catalog be modified?

3. What is the difference between a billing catalog and a rating catalog?

4. Where are events defined in Infinys Rating and Billing?

5. List some of the advantages of using Configuration Data Transfer.

System Setup




Customer Setup

Slide 43: Customer Setup

This section introduces Customer Account Maintenance, which is used to set up:

• Customers.

• Accounts.

• Budget centers.

• Products.

Customer Setup


Slide 44: Customer Setup Application



Slide 45: Customer Account Maintenance

Customer Setup


Slide 46: Customer Account Maintenance Main Window

Account: The entity that is invoiced.

Customer: A grouping entity for accounts. It is a legal person, that is, a person or company. A customer

takes packages, subscriptions, and products that are billed on one or more accounts. A customer may be

related to another customer for the purpose of issuing statements.



Slide 47: Customer View

Customer Setup


Slide 48: Account for Customer View



Slide 49: Product for Customer View

Customer Setup


Slide 50: Scenario — Stage Four



Slide 51: Review

1. What are the elements of a customer hierarchy, as shown on the main window of Customer Account

Maintenance?

2. Once you have associated an instance of a product with an account, what further steps should you

take?

Customer Setup




System Monitor

Slide 52: System Monitor

This section introduces the Infinys Rating and Billing applications that are used to monitor the system, namely:

• System Monitor.

• Task Master.

The Task Master can be used to automate all Infinys Rating and Billing volume processes, which can be linked together as sequences of processes.

System Monitor


Slide 53: System Monitor



Slide 54: System Monitor Introduction

System Monitor


Slide 55: View Tab



Slide 56: Logs Tab

System Monitor


Slide 57: Review

1. Name the UNIX process that runs the Infinys Rating and Billing volume processing applications and is

monitored in real-time by System Monitor.

2. Is the System Monitor used to control scheduled processes or start processes on demand?



Pricing

Slide 58: Pricing

This section introduces the Active Rating Engine and the Billing Engine, both of which are used in the pricing process, and Rejected Event Maintenance, which is used in the management of events that

cannot be rated.

Pricing


Slide 59: Pricing Applications and System Processes



Slide 60: Pricing and Bill Publishing Processes

Pricing


Slide 61: Rating



Slide 62: Event Attributes

Pricing


Slide 63: The Rating Process



Slide 64: Management of Rejected Events

Rejected event: Any event that cannot be rated. An event may be rejected because the event source

cannot be found or because the event record is corrupt.

Pricing


Slide 65: Principal Billing Processes



Slide 66: The Billing Engine

Pricing


Slide 67: Review

1. Which table stores rated events in the Infinys Rating and Billing database?

2. Describe the stages of the process required to produce a bill.

3. Describe how Rejected Event Maintenance is used in the management of events that fail rating.



Bill Publishing

Slide 68: Bill Publishing

Bill Publishing


Slide 69: Bill Publishing (1)



Slide 70: Bill Publishing (2)

Bill Publishing


Slide 71: The Bill Formatting Engine



Slide 72: Review

1. Once the Billing Engine has generated bill data, what are the two routes that bill formatting can take?

2. Which UNIX process is used to output bill data to a managed file?

Bill Publishing




Money Management

Slide 73: Money Management

This section introduces the Infinys Rating and Billing applications that are used in the money management process:

• Accounts Receivable.

• Batch Payment Entry.

• The Debt Escalation Engine.

• The Dunning Letter Engine.

1_applications overview participant guide

Documents

dunning letter engine

debt escalation engine

plugin definition view

batch payment entry

bill formatting engine

active rating engine

parent price plan

billing functional areas