Charging Ahead with Online Charging

The run-up to this year’s Team Action Week, held in Baltimore last month, was tinged with a little trepidation. What with travel cutbacks and H1N1 influenza fears, we were not sure how many would turn up and if those attending would be fired up enough to get things going. Any fears were quickly dispelled on Day One with numbers exceeding our Lisbon event in January and opening sessions marked with lively debate on a broad range of topics.

The Revenue Management and Revenue Assurance teams were not only well attended, and by many new faces, but were also highly productive. The main focus of the RM Team centered on Online Charging and trying to enhance the Business Process Framework (eTOM) with all the processes involved, bringing it into line with the Application Framework (TAM).

Most of the preparatory work was done by stalwarts, Henk Ensing and Prof. George Huitema of TNO in The Netherlands, and although they were unable to attend they provided the core of activities for those there. In the last revision of eTOM (Release 8.0), we had redefined Charging and associated processes, but these were mainly to do with Offline Charging and relevant to postpaid rating and billing activities. The transformation of networks to IP, digital content delivery, issues around “bill shock” and the ability to process much more in real-time is driving uptake of online charging, and we definitely needed to clearly define or update the processes.

The bulk of the suggested changes/additions to eTOM v8.5 are around a new Level 2 Hierarchy named “Manage Balances” and four new Level 3s – “Manage Balance Containers,” “Manage Balance Policies,” “Manage Balance Operations” and “Authorize Service/Product Based on Balance”.   It is also being proposed to merge Charging Level 3 process – “Apply Rate Level Discounts” – into “Perform Rating” and apply a new definition (note that “bottom of bill discounting” is defined at Level 2 “Bill Invoice Management”) and introduce a new process in this space – “Manage Customer Charging Hierarchy”.

The proposed modifications, in PowerPoint format, can be downloaded from the Revenue Management Online Community, and you are welcome to contribute to the discussion already in full swing.

Special thanks must also go to the following for providing debate and input at Team Action Week in Baltimore - Ian Emsley, David Gibson and John Myers from Subex; Jerome Guionnet and Brian Pawlus from Oracle; Edd Patterson and Andrew Colby from Netezza; Tayo Carvalhal from Ericsson; Jyrki Marrtti from NSN and Josh Salomon from Amdocs. 

Now it’s your turn to get involved.  No excuses!