Billing Concepts

Customer In this lesson you will learn about the various attributes of the customer and learn about the concepts related to customer accounts, subscription and product/services. Note: In some billing systems there Is an account hierarchy Instead of customer hierarchy. Customer Customer Hierarchy Legal person/ Company who orders, uses and pays for the telecommunications services Customer is either an Individual or a Company who purchases services Used to model real world hierarchy Customer can have one or more child customers A customer may be related to another customer in the hierarchy for the purpose of issuing statements www.prolearninghub.com

Customer Hierarchical Structure Given here is an example of a customer hierarchical structure. Head Office 1 Regional Office 1 Branch 1 Branch 2 Regional Office 2 Branch 3 Branch 4 www.prolearninghub.com

Corporate Customer Representation Company President (Subscriber) Marketing Retail Sales Representative VP Retail Sales Mass Merchants President of Sales (Subscriber) Production Accounting Accounts Payable Accountant Cleark Accounts Receivable Controller (Subscriber) Contract Corporate Customer Representation Given here is an example of a customer hierarchy in LHS BSCS IX. www.prolearninghub.com

Purchase Products/Services Get Invoice Make Payment Communicates with CSR Log Complaints What all Customer can do? Customer The customer is provided with many facilities. www.prolearninghub.com

Account The customer can: Purchase / Modify services / products, receive invoices and make payment Have one or more accounts Customer Account 1 Account 2 Account 3 Some billing systems use the concept of CONTRACT instead of ACCOUNT. In some Billing Systems, there is no notion of the either of them. Geneva, UNICORN: Concept of Customer and Account LHS BSCS: Concept of Customer and Contract AMDOCS Products: Only concept of Customer www.prolearninghub.com

Complex Hierarchy of Customer Accounts Here are some of the features of the hierarchy of Customs and Accounts; Customer can have zero, one or more accounts underneath. In some billing systems the account is flat, which means it does not have any hierarchy, one cannot have an account under an account. Example: Geneva In some billing systems, the account can be hierarchical in nature whereas the customer is single. Example: Unicorn In LHS, there are contracts instead of account. www.prolearninghub.com

A/C Customer www.prolearninghub.com

Attributes of Customer and Account Customer Type Residential, Business, VIP Customer/Account Credit Rating Credit Rating: Received from Internal logic or External Credit Control system Credit Class: Credit value Terms and Conditions Customer Segment Teenager, Old, Residential, Business Currency, Language Payment Method Cash, Cheque, Direct Debit, Credit Card Payment Responsibility Bill Cycle Mode of Invoice Paper, Fax, CD, Mail Date: Birth date, Anniversary Note: Based on attributes such as customer type, customer segment, visibility of products/services and their associated plans can be controlled. www.prolearninghub.com

Attributes of Customer and Account Attributes of Customer and Account (Contd.) Multiple contact addresses can be collected such as: Billing Address Product Insulation Contact Point Finance Contact Point Day-2-day Contact Paint Legal Contact Point The bill Is sent to one contact address and that Is termed as the billing contact address The summary or reports can be sent to more than one contact All these attributes of the customer and the account are captured in the CRM as a part of Order Management module www.prolearninghub.com

Value Added, Optional, Child Product Product / Service A Product or service represents a feature of service instance that can be provisioned to a customer. Optional Product Customer Account Voice Call Call Barring SMS Value Added, Optional, Child Product Standard Product Note: The billing system allows to add products / services directly under an account or a contract Parent, Child Relationship Mandatory and Optional Service. www.prolearninghub.com

Customer, Account and Service In the example given below, one account has three products: Customer Account GSM Cable Fixed Note: This products or services can be added to an account directly. www.prolearninghub.com

Customer Account Maintenance Parent Child Relationship Map complex customer hierarchies www.prolearninghub.com

Status: Customer, Account, Service Pending Active De-active Suspended During the lifecycle of a Customer, Account & Service, it can go through various states The states shown here are general in nature and may differ from COTS to COTS product www.prolearninghub.com

Plan / Tariff Customer Account GSM Fixed Cable Plan/Tariff Plan/Tariff contains Information about charging of services as well as Information about discount (optional) Typical Charges are: One Time charges Recurring charges Usage charges www.prolearninghub.com

Package A Package is a set of similar or dissimilar products bundled together. It is a marketing strategy. PSTN+Internet Combo Package Optional Product Email Voice Call Standard Product www Call Barring FTP Value Added, Optional, Child Product Note: There is an option available to define a product as mandatory or optional within a package A package can span the technology boundary thus lead to convergence. www.prolearninghub.com

Service Dependency Parent Product/Service No dependency on anybody Can be sold stand alone Child Product/Service Depends on Parent product for its existence Example: GSM Voice Call: Parent Product Calling Line Identifier: Child service Call Forwarding: Child service Call Waiting: Child service Itemized Bill: Child service Note: Hierarchy can go to any level, but usually it goes upto level 3. One cannot take a child product/service without taking a Parent Product/Service. This is applicable to packages also. www.prolearninghub.com