Unit 3 Customer Care & Billing Process

1. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. OSS Essentials by Kornel Terplan Unit 3Customer Care & Billing Process

2. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The Customer Care Type of Customers : Key Customers ( 1 – 3%) Importance to the service business Corporate Customers ( 5 – 10%) Increasing cost focus Expectation of account management Small / medium business customers (15 – 30%) Diverse customer profile Importance of reliable solutions Residential Customers ( 60 -70%) Distinct segment Assumption of reliability Price perception

3. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The Customer Care Answer telephone call in 6 rings (20 seconds) Respond letter / email in 10 / 5 working days Be punctual, polite & helpful Be a good listener Respond effectively & sensitively for his needs Keep yourself informed about the progress of the customer enquiries Learn from the customers Be open about policies and standards

4. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The Customer Care Keep the customer database updated. It is a key for each kind of analysis. Usually SP maintains more than one database which are not synchronised and can have dissimilar attributes in these relational databases Customer profile is usually Basics (name, address etc) Unique identifier Equipment inventory Customer preferences (bill cycle/frequency/currency etc) Rating and discounting attributes Equipment inventories Type of contract , customer complaint history etc….

5. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The Customer Care These multiple relational databases are combined to create specific links, such as Multiple service to one customer Multiple service to one account Multiple service classes to a service location Multiple usage types of a cellular class of service Multiple services to one contract Multiple guiding parameters to a usage (telephone no., IP address, calling card no. etc.)

6. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The Customer Interface Customer interface management is a distinct process which directly interacts with customers and translating customer requests into appropriate events such as creation of ticket no. or the adjustment of a bill and tracks the status accordingly. If customer has the direct access to the service management, this process ensures consistency of image across systems as well as security to prevent a customer from harming the network or those of other customers

7. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The Customer Interface Principle function includes Receive and record customer contact Register customer request Direct enquiries to appropriate processes Monitor and control status of enquiries & escalate Ensure a consistent image and secure use of system

8. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The Sales Process This process encompasses learning about the needs of each customer & educating him about various services available to meet those needs It includes working to create a match between the customer's expectations and the service provider's ability to deliver. Depending on the service provider process, it can be pure selling or can include various levels of support.

9. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The Sales Process The sales process may include pre order work and interfaces. The aim is to sell the correct service to suit the customer's need and to set appropriate level of expectations with the customer service level agreement (SLA) negotiation, request for proposal (RFP) management and negotiation are led from this process.

10. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The Sales Process Principal function includes : Learn about customer needs Educate customers about services available Match expectations to offering and products Arrange for appropriate options Manage SLA and RFP negotiations Help for pre sales support

11. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The problem handling process Responsible to receive service complaints from customers, resolve them to the customer's satisfaction, and provide meaningful status on repair or restoration activity. Responsible to be aware of any service-affecting problems, including notifying customers in the event of a disruption. The aim is to have problems proactively identified and communicated to the customer, and to resolve in the shortest time frame.

12. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The problem handling process Principal tasks include the following : Receive trouble notification Determine cause, isolate, resolve or refer Track progress of resolution Initiate action to reconfigure if needed Generate trouble tickets for suppliers Confirm trouble cleared & notify customer Schedule the planned maintenance & notify the customer accordingly

13. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The customer QoS management This process encompasses monitoring, managing, reporting quality of service (QoS) as defined in service descriptions, SLAs, and other service-related document. Aim of this process is to provide effective monitoring and automatic reporting to various service functions to achieve satisfactory performance to the customer It includes network performance, but also performance across all service parameters (e.g., orders completion on time)

14. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The customer QoS management Principal tasks include the following : Schedule customer reports Receive performance data Establish reports to be generated (web updation) Compile & deliver customer reports Manage SLA performance Determine & deliver QoS and SLA violation information

15. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The call rating and discounting process The process encompasses the following functional areas Applying the correct rating rules to usage data a customer-by-customer basis Applying any discount agreed Applying promotional discount and charges Applying outage credits Applying rebates ( SLAs were not met)‏ Resolving unidentified usage, fraud identification

16. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The invoicing and collection process This process encompasses sending invoices to customers and performing payment collections. It also handles customer bill enquiries & responsible to resolve billing problems to the customer’s satisfaction The aim is to provide a correct bill and, if there is a billing problem, resolve it quickly with the appropriate status report to the customer

17. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The invoicing and collection process Actual billing database has four principal segments Customer data : name, address, gender etc. Product/service data : product package, date, usage Historical data : payment history, ordered/cancelled products, term of contract etc. Call detail records : no. of calls, time of calls, origin, duration, destination

18. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. The invoicing and collection process The process coordinates all the functions responsible for updating the data. Principal functions include : Creation and distribution of invoices Bill payment, collection of the payments Handling customer account enquiries Debt management Billing on behalf of other providers Analysis of customer behaviour Relationship management

19. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. IP Billing • Standards • Open financial exchange (OFX) [SGML] • Open Financial Exchange is a unified specification for the exchange of electronic financial data over the Internet. Open Financial Exchange specification streamlines the process financial services companies must go through to connect to transactional Web sites, thin clients and personal financial management software. • Interactive financial exchange (IFX) [XML] • The Interactive Financial exchange (IFX) is a mature, well-designed XML-based, financial messaging protocol, built by financial industry and technology leaders incorporating decades of combined experience and best of breed design principles.

20. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. IP Billing Pricing Flat rate (most common)‏ Broadband internet connections (ADSL)‏ Usage based GPRS, voice traffic Session based Streaming media Per incident MP3 purchases

21. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. IP Billing IP-usage-based billing Cannot be done with current IP design Traffic tracking hard due to different formats of usage data. Needs proprietary interfaces Expensive Requires advances Security QoS Usage-based accounting Bandwidth Standard is needed. IP detail record (IPDR)‏ SS7 is a basic information source for CDR (call detail record)

22. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. SS7 in Accounting SS7 messages are used to collect call information SS7 messages are used to setup a call and to control it Contains all the information that is required to bill a customer or interconnecting operator Benefits Fast to implement Vendor independence New revenue streams Trouble-free integration with other billing systems (automatic message accounting AMA)‏

23. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. Convergence in Billing Multi level approach Multiple OSS applications process simultaneously, each one has different tariff and discounting packages‏ Different bills are fed into a billing mediation which generates a convergent bill Multiple call collection and mediation applications feed a rating aggregator which feeds a single discounting engine and consolidated billing application Multiple networks feed a single billing platform

24. Prof. N. P. Pathak - Dept. of I.T. Economics of billing Cost category High-level cost components Cost drivers General cost trends Software Significant cost early in life cycle; decreasing over time; costs in years 1 and 2 can be 6 times higher than those in years 3 to 6 Initial licence fees base software, annual fees, customization Negotiated price, schedule slippage, degree of customization required, extent of subscriber base Implementation Testing tools, conversion, integration, installation and configuration management, training, transition costs System complexity, schedule slippage, management ability, hardware costs, software quality Significant cost early in life cycle; costs in years 1 and 2 can be 6 times higher than those in years 3 to 6 Bill processing Staff (employees and contractors), output processing, subscriber fees, revenue assurance Extent and growth of subscriber base, economics of scale, SLAs, hardware, raw material, postage New operations need significant investments early in the life cycle; existing operations need minimal additional resources; increase over time as subscribers increase Data Center Client hardware, server hardware, system software Capacity of existing hardware, technological advances, growth of subscriber base, performance requirements, SLAs, economics of scale New operations need significant investments early in the life cycle; cost per subscriber will fall more slowly than hardware costs because of increased demand of processing Software maintenance and enhancements Software releases, ongoing software customization, table management System complexity, schedule slippage, regulatory requirements Minimal during early stages of life cycle; increasing over time; by year 6, costs may be greater than initial software costs in year 1 Network Network maintenance, network enhancements Growth of subscriber base, network capacity New operations need significant investments early in life cycle, existing operations need minimal additional resources