1. Billing Concepts

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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.

8. A/C
Customer

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. Customer Account Maintenance
Parent Child Relationship
Map complex customer hierarchies

14. 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

15. 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

16. Package
A Package is a set of similar or dissimilar products bundled together.
It is a marketing strategy.
PSTN+Internet Combo Package
Optional Product
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.

17. 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.