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Ericsson convergent charging and billingEricsson’s convergent charging and billing solution supports prepaid as well as postpaid payment options for all user services.ROBERT TÖRNKVIST RALPH SCHUBERT The growing range of multimedia services represents an oppor-tunity to tap into new revenue streams. In order to realize them, however, operators need a single, convergent charging and bill-ing solution — one that supports both prepaid and postpaid pay-ment options for all user servic-es. The solution must integrate the management of subscribers, orders, and products and be able to rate and manage balances in real time. It must also allow oper-ators to adjust their prices, offer promotions and discounts, cre-ate bundles with new products, and enhance their service offer-ings.Combining two leaders in real-time charging and billing Ericsson’s acquisition of LHS further s t r e n g t h e n e d i t s m a r k e t p o s i t i o n i n r e v -enue management and put the compa-ny in a unique position to offer conver-gent charging and billing solutions that enable operators to handle all users and services in the same way independent of payment options or access (for instance, prepaid or postpaid, fi xed, mobile, broadband, or TV). Today, more than 810 million subscribers are charged and billed via solutions from Ericsson and LHS. Ericsson’s real-time charging solu-tions are the most widely deployed in telecom networks worldwide — cater-ing to more than 700 million subscrib-ers at over 155 operators. LHS is a lead-ing provider of customer care and bill-ing with 132 installations serving more than 110 million subscribers.Past experience shaping the future In the past, the corporate segment shaped billing systems to correspond to the need for advanced rating and multi-ple unique agreements. Today, the evo-lution of billing systems is increasingly driven by new multimedia services for consumers, of whom 71 percent global-ly are prepaid subscribers. Consumers demand spending control and person-alization, and operators want to pro-vide the full range of services to all sub-scribers independent of their payment option.To create an attractive multimedia services offering, operators must be quick to market and have simple price plans and understandable bills. Real-time capability is the key to meeting consumers’ needs to control spending; and operators’ needs to manage credit risks and share revenues with multiple part-ners, including advertisers.Transformation is not just about hard-ware and software; it is also about busi-ness processes. One cannot have silo offerings for fi xed, mobile, internet, and TV. Instead, operators need to look at their processes and bring together the marketing departments for the dif-ferent propositions in order to maxi-mize the benefi t of an access-converged offering.Current convergent charging and billing solutions Today’s convergent charging and bill-ing solutions are based on two approach-es: the IT-based and the telecom-based. Each is a viable option with its own set of advantages and challenges. Ericsson provides complete solutions for both approaches and one set of enablers that fi ts every operator regardless of its start-ing point (Figure 1).The solutions give operators a single Telecom-based convergenceAny billingsystemAny session-control systemChargingSystemChargingSystemChargingcontrol nodeOpen APIsOpen APIsOpen APIsOpen APIsOpen APIsOpen APIsOpen APIsPre-integratedPre-integratedOpen APIsBSCS iXCustomercareBillingChargingMediationSessioncontrolBSCS iXBSCS iXIT-based convergence FIGURE 1 T he fi ve functional layers required to realize a convergent charging and billing solution, and overview of Ericsson’s implementation alternatives available today.4E R I C S S O N R E V I E W • 1 2009Vinjett4Improved marketing, reduced cost, secure revenue
place for defi ning and maintaining a complete product portfolio, includ-ing in-house services, partner servic-es, and advertising-sponsored services. Operators can easily confi gure pricing and product offers, which reduces lead times and dependencies on external suppliers. The result is improved mar-keting fl exibility, lower operating and management costs, and secure revenue streams.Five functional layers A convergent charging and billing solu-tion consists of fi ve functional layers based on common technology:The customer care layer provides a 360-degree view of all subscribers and services, including self-care. The billing layer provides a single bill and statement for all communication servic-es — fi xed, mobile, broadband, and TV — to increase convenience for subscribers.The charging layer provides real-time rating, bonuses, and promotions as well as notifi cations to subscribers in real time. This stimulates usage and increas-es customer intimacy and loyalty.The mediation layer reduces revenue leakage by providing online bidirectional transport of charging information between network and service elements for real-time charging.The session control layer enforces credit and spending control by providing net-work and service elements that can noti-fy users and stop services when real-time charging indicates that credit has been depleted.Each layer requires unique conver-gent capabilities and should work inter-dependently. In addition, the conver-gent charging and billing solution must havethe ability to confi gure new price plans, services, and products quickly;highly confi gurable business rules to ensure that requirements are met with minimum need for customization; andhigh availability and scalability, preveri-fi ed and lab tested (this is not something a n o p e r a to r c a n af fo r d to i n te g r a te i n th e fi eld).Convergence based on Charging System and BSCS The convergent charging and bill-ing solution, which is based on BSCS and Charging System, provides a pre-integrated end-to-end solution that gives operators quick time to market and low implementation risk.The solution integrates the fi ve func-tional layers described above using prov-en products. The main building blocks are BSCS iX and Charging System. This approach makes it possible to separate customer care and billing from charg-ing, mediation, and session control, pro-viding good scalability and performance of the complete solution while incorpo-rating the unique characteristics of the different layers (Figure 2).BSCS is used to implement the cus-tomer care and billing layers. BSCS func-tionality includes product and custom-er defi nition, order management, order fulfi llment, billing, and debt manage-m e n t . I t a l s o i n t e g r a t e s w i t h t h e g e n e r a l ledger for legal accounting. BSCS is thus the interface for customer care and any fi nancial follow-up. Charging System is used to imple-ment the charging, mediation, and session control layers. The system acti-vates services in the network and the real-time account. One of its main func-tions is real-time rating and manage-ment of account balances. Charging System must thus supervise sessions. It also handles real-time user commu-nication.Ericsson’s solution provides a single place for product and customer defi ni-tion, irrespective of payment method.Operator scenarios Ericsson’s convergent charging and bill-ing solution can be used for all products, customer administration and rating, and charging, regardless of payment method. The following cases give a bet-ter understanding of how it works.Use case: Product and off er development Product and offer development starts with the product management and mar-keting departments, which outline the sellable product offerings. They decide on pricing-relevant information such as time of day, peak/off-peak, time interval, ori-gins, and destinations, and outline a price plan for every offering. Each price plan corresponds to a service package and can be complemented with additional offer-i ng s suc h a s pr omot ion pac k ages.Product defi nitions are confi gured in the billing and charging layers. The charging layer “owns” all usage-related confi guration and charges; the billing layer “owns” all other charges.Operators use a graphical user inter-face (GUI) to confi gure usage tariffs, and they may use built-in tools to test the tariffs before they put them into live operation.The ability to defi ne all products BSCS iXCustomer careServiceactivationAccountsreceivableInvoicingCharging SystemRatingAccount balancemanagement Sessioncontrol Service networkCore networkMediation FIGURE 2 Solution architecture for a convergent charging and billing solution based on BSCS and Charging System.5ERICSSON REVIEW • 1 2009