Overview of Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management Systems

1. Overview of Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management Systems

2. Revenue Assurance(RA) • Increased focus on RA due to • Regulatory pressure of reporting revenue • Increasing pressure to show more profit • Struggle for existing revenue management systems to keep with technological breakthrough(introduction of new network elements in the network) • Complex revenue management systems

3. Revenue Leakage • Revenue leakage is the difference between revenue supposed to be earned and the actual revenue (actual cash) realized. • Causes of revenue leakage • Incomplete customer records • Accumulated CDR errors • Incorrect rating • CDR late to mediation • Corrupt CDRs • Failure to create CDRs

4. Possible leakage points • Signaling errors on switch • System capacity mismatches (Overflow) • Misaligned processing or logic rules • Failure to activate or provision the customer correctly • Failure to track customer activity properly • Improper registration and management of network inventory • Mediation related • Failure to filter records correctly • Incorrect application of customer Identifiers • Incorrect formatting of CDRs • Dropped records • Duplicate records • Billing related • Usage beyond billing stop • Incorrect Call plans • Billing errors • Late billing • Over Discounting

5. Possible leakage points • Collections Dunning Related • Failure to track old accounts • Misapplication of credits • Inefficient and ineffective dunning practices • Failure to feed back the dunning lessons to Marketing , sales and product planning groups Provisioning and customer service related leakages • Physical circuits not ceased when account terminated • Over Provisioning • Improper update of customer status • Provisioning without notification of billing start

6. RA defined • Revenue management Chain: The systems and operations that are concerned with the direct capture ,processing and collection of revenues • Revenue Assurance: The process of guaranteeing that the revenue management chain is functioning as specified Or • Revenue assurance is a business process to detect ,probe correct revenue leakage, to minimize opportunity loss, to minimize/ avoid costs.

7. RA- Solution Architecture IN Third party content Provider Inventory Management System Mediation Provisioning System PMS CRM Postpaid Billing System Interconnect Billing System Network Element Subscriber Records Payment Records Subscriber Records Interconnect Usage Records Usage Records Payment Records Subscriber Records Accessory Details Postpaid Subscriber Records Usage Records Rating Configuration Data Subscriber Order Status Content Usage Records Usage Records Configuration Data & Business Rule Configuration Data Postpaid Usage Records Data Capture Layer Adapters Data Capture DC Engine/DC Bus Others Adapters Profile Adapters DC Adapter CDR Adapter DC Repository Analysis Server Analysis Engine Rule Engine Reports Engine Real time KPIs and Alarm

8. RA Functional Scope The primary scope for RA is mentioned below: • Subscriber Profile Verification across • Network Element • Intelligent Network • CRM • Post-paid Billing System • Usage Verification across • Switch • Mediation • Post-paid Billing • Interconnect Billing • Third party contents • Payment Verification between PMS and Post-paid billing system. • Configuration Verification • Network Element • Mediation • Interconnect billing • Call Testing System – to verify rating output of Post-paid Billing System. • Configuration of Alarms and KPI Reports

9. Subscriber Reconciliation • Subscriber Instance and Services reconciliation between CRM & Postpaid Billing • The Purpose of reconciliation of subscriber records between CRM and Postpaid Billing is   • Subscriber Instance reconciliation • Identify Subscribers present in CRM and not present in Postpaid Billing • Identify Subscribers present in Postpaid Billing and not present in CRM • Subscriber Services reconciliation • Identify Subscriber services present in CRM and not present in Postpaid Billing • Identify Subscriber services present in Postpaid Billing and not present in CRM

10. Subscriber Reconciliation • Subscriber Instance and service reconciliation between Network Element and Postpaid Billing  The Purpose of reconciliation of subscriber instance Network Element and Postpaid Billing is   • Subscriber Instance reconciliation • Identify Subscribers present in Network Element and not present in Postpaid Billing • Identify Subscribers present in Postpaid Billing and not present in Network Element.  • Subscriber Services reconciliation • Identify Subscriber services present in Network Element and not present in Postpaid Billing • Identify Subscriber services present in Postpaid Billing and not present in Network Element.

11. Subscriber Reconciliation • Subscriber Instance and service reconciliation between Network Element and CRM • The Purpose of reconciliation of subscriber instance between Network Element and CRM is • Subscriber Instance reconciliation • Identify Subscribers present in Network Element and not present in CRM • Identify Subscribers present in CRM and not present in Network Element. • Subscriber Services reconciliation • Identify Subscriber services present in Network Element and not present in CRM • Identify Subscriber services present in CRM and not present in Network Element.

12. Fulfillment of new orders • Timely Fulfillment of new orders  • The Purpose is to ensure timely fulfillment of new orders without any delay • Identify the orders which are failed at provisioning due to some problem • Identify the orders which are pending at provisioning

13. Usage Reconciliation • Objective of Usage Reconciliation module is to reduce/remove revenue leakage due to CDRs not transmitted successfully across Network Element to Billing System • Usage Reconciliation Between Different Systems • Following usage reconciliations are carried out in this module:  • Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Network Element and Mediation • Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Mediation and Postpaid Billing • Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Mediation and Interconnect Billing • Rated CDR level reconciliation between Retail Billing and Interconnect Billing • xDR level reconciliation between Postpaid Billing and Third Party Content Provider • Call type and specific destination wise control Log Level report from Mediation • Control Log Level Traffic analysis • Control Log level and CDR level Rejected CDR analysis at Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing • Missing CDR file sequence at Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing • Aging of rejected CDRs at Postpaid billing • Aging of rejected CDRs at Mediation • Aging of rejected CDRs at Interconnect Billing

14. Usage Reconciliation • Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Network Element and Mediation • The Purpose of usage reconciliation between Network Element and Mediation is: • Identify discrepancy in CDR count, MoU between files received from Network Element and Mediation through control log reconciliation • For selected files, • Identify CDRs present in Network Element and not in Mediation • Identify CDRs present in both Network Element and Mediation, but have different MoU

15. Usage Reconciliation • Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Mediation and Postpaid Billing • The Purpose of usage reconciliation between Mediation and Post Paid Billing System is: • Identify discrepancy in CDR count, MoU between files received from Mediation and Post Paid Billing System through control log reconciliation • For selected files, • Identify CDRs present in Mediation and not in Post Paid Billing System • Identify CDRs present in both Mediation, and Post Paid Billing System but have different MoU

16. Usage Reconciliation • Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Mediation and Interconnect Billing • The Purpose of usage reconciliation between Mediation and Interconnect Billing System is: • Identify discrepancy in CDR count, MoU between files received from Mediation and Interconnect Billing System through control log reconciliation • For selected files, • Identify CDRs present in Mediation and not in Interconnect Billing System • Identify CDRs present in both Mediation, and Interconnect Billing System but have different MoU

17. Usage Reconciliation • Rated CDR level reconciliation between Retail Billing and Interconnect Billing • The Purpose of Rated CDR reconciliation between Retail Billing and Interconnect Billing System is: • For Sample CDRs • Identify Rated CDRs for which operator is being paid but subscriber is not charged. • Identify Rated CDRs for which subscriber is charged but operator is not being paid.

18. Usage Reconciliation • xDR level reconciliation between Postpaid Billing and Third Party Content Provider • The Purpose of xDR reconciliation between Postpaid Billing and Third Party Content Provider is: • For sample xDRs • Identify xDRs present in Postpaid Billing and not in Third Party Content Provider. • Identify xDRs present in Third Party Content Provider and not in Postpaid Billing.

19. Reject CDR analysis • Control Log level and CDR level Rejected CDR analysis at Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing  • The Purpose of this module is to identify the CDRs rejected at the Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing due to wrong format (addition of new field in the CDR format) or abnormal situation.

20. Missing CDR files • Missing CDR file sequence at Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing • Purpose  • To identify the CDR files • Sent by Network Element but missing at Mediation • Sent by Mediation but missing at Post Paid Billing System • Sent by Mediation but missing at Interconnect Billing System

21. Payment reconciliation • Objective • The objective of payment reconciliation module is to reduce/remove revenue leakage due to discrepancies across different system and to achieve this, perform reconciliation/verification of payment information across different systems. • Payment reconciliation between Payment Management System (PMS) and Postpaid Billing System  • The Purpose of reconciliation of payment records between PMS and Postpaid Billing is • Identify payment records present in PMS and not present in Postpaid Billing System • Identify payment records present in Postpaid Billing System and not present in PMS • Identify payment records having different values in Postpaid Billing System and PMS

22. RA Runtime Schedule

23. Fraud Management system • Telecom Fraud • Telecommunications fraud is an act of obtaining telecommunication services and/or the instruments, equipment or devices with no intention of paying for them or abuse of services. Fraudsters’ motivation is either to make money or to use services at no or reduced cost or to acquire anonymity to mask criminal activities or obtain the sheer thrill of challenging the telecom’s network security

24. Fraud • Fraud is broadly categories as: • Usage Frauds: Frauds that are committed for the purpose of using services without intention of paying for them are categorized under Usage Frauds. • Subscription Frauds: Some subscribers obtain subscription for services using false identity with no intent to pay.

25. Minotaur FMS – Functional Architecture Subscriber Data Usage Data Event Data Server Customer Data Server Partitioning, Filtering, Validation Fraud Detection Engine (FDE) Candidate Fraud Detector & High Usage Detector Rules, Thresholds, Lists, Profiling etc. Case Outcome Server FDE Configuration Manager Suspect Behavior Alert Case History Builder & Internal Alarm Analysis Alarms Collection, Case History Management, Case Outcome Analysis Tickets Case Manager Administration, CM Configuration, Investigation Management Fraud Analyst Reports

26. Possible Fraud Scenarios • Usage Fraud • Misuse of another Subscriber’s services • Misuse of operator’s services • Running unauthorized private exchange • Electronic device fraud • Security issues Usage data (i.e. EDRs) and usage pattern resulting from any such activities is analyzed by FMS and input data is matched against defined rule conditions and associated thresholds. Any deviation to defined values / rules will generate alarms for the further investigations. There is no limitation on number of rules that can be defined in FMS. As per the requirement user can define any number of rules / thresholds

27. Fraud Scenarios • Subscription Frauds • Activation fraud • Adjustment in discounts or credits for a subscriber • Manipulation of credit limit for a subscriber • Change of applicable tariff plan • Incorrect application of payments • Subscriber data anomalies between Network Elements and Billing • Removal of suspensions, adding unauthorized services/lines • Fraudulent Subscriptions normally result in very high or abnormal usage of services. This is alerted through usage alarms by setting various rules on usage data as mentioned earlier. FMS has functionality to build and store the profile of subscriber along with billing information. It also stores the profiles previously classified as fraudsters. FMS also evaluates Log files from the various systems (if they would be fed to FMS in required format) like the CRM and Billing for suspect activity as it also profiled user / system level activities

28. Resolution of Fraud Tickets • The Intelligent alarm Analysis (IAA) server, will generate a ticket based on the SBA’s, Behavioral History pertaining to the Services used by the entity and scorecard • The Ticket will be passed onto the Case Manager Server, where it is redirected to users with particular roles. Here the type of fraud, priority and workflow is taken into consideration while assigning the tickets • The User / Subscriber Analyst with the appropriate role and privilege will accept the ticket and classify it as either a fraudulent case or a non fraudulent one. • If the ticket is identified as a non fraudulent one, the User / Subscriber Analyst will close the ticket marking it as a non fraud ticket closure. Here the Case Outcome Server will update the entity profile in the CFD by adaptive feedback to neural models, rules and known fraud case histories. This will help in increasing the accuracy while checking the profile violations against the defined rules.

29. Resolution • The user / subscriber analyst task is to analyze and investigate each case and then make a fraud or non fraud decision. It is general practice to have a set of basic questions which if applied will give the user/analyst an idea of what has occurred and also the ability to quantify the problem being investigated. A checklist of questions would be as follows; • Who is the subscriber? • New or Old subscriber , Residential, Business or VIP • What combination of lines/services are installed • Account history – when activated, any bills issued, paid, outstanding, unbilled • Subscriber details linked to BSNL employees • Any links to previous identified fraud accounts • Obtain contracts for further examination • Additional call/reverse analysis to identify if subscriber linked to BSNL employee • Cross reference known fraudsters database

30. Resolution • Not Fraud • Make a note of the concerns on the FMS, If the usage pattern recurs it should be investigated further • Fraud • Make a note of the concerns on the FMS, even if finally determined to be non-fraudulent • Take appropriate action such as call barring or disconnection, in line with company guidelines • Subject fraudulent account to post detection analysis

31. FMS Run time Schedule

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