Standard Billing Process Operation This figure shows a standard billing process.

In this diagram, the customer calls customer care or works with an activation agent to establish a new wireless account. the agent (customer care) enters the customer's service preferences into the system, checks for credit worthiness, and provides the customer with a phone number so that the customer may make and receive calls through the telephone network. As the customer makes calls, the connections made by the network (such as switches) create records of their activities. These records include the identification of the customer and other relevant information that are passed onto the billing system. The billing system also receives records from other carriers (such as a long distance service provider, or a roaming partner). The billing system now guides and updates these call detail records (CDRs) to their correct customer and rating information. As information about the customer is discovered (e.g. rate plan), the updated billing records are placed in a billing pool so that they may be combined into a single invoice that is sent to the customer. The customer then sends his payment to the telecom service provider. Payments are recorded in the billing system. History files are then updated for the use of customer service representatives (csrs) and auditing managers.

Call Detail Record (CDR) Structure This figure shows the basic structure of a call detail record (CDR). This diagram shows that a usage data report (UDR) contains a unique identification number, the originator of the call, the called number, the start and end time of the call. this diagram also shows an additional charge for operator assistance and that a UDR dynamically grows as more relevant information becomes available.

Table of Contents
Billing and Customer Care - Introduction to Billing - Types of Services - Standard Billing Process - Real Time Billing - Multilingual Support - Multiple currencies - Inter-Carrier Settlements Billing Process - Event Sources and Tracking - Mediation Devices - call Detail Records (cdrs) Major Billing Functions - The Rating Engine: Processing the Usage - The Invoicing Engine: Month-End Processing - Clearinghouse - Invoices - Management Reporting - Invoicing - Processing Payments - Posting to the Financial System Customer Relationship Management (crm) - Account Activation - Account Management Billing System Costs - Hardware and Software - Billing Cycles (Batching)

- Bill Printing and Mailing - Call center - Collections Billing Standards - Exchange Message Record (emr) - Automatic Message Accounting (ama) - Carrier Inter-Exchange Billing Exchange Record (Ciber) - Transferred Accounting Procedure (tap) - Network Data Management Usage (ndm-u) - Interim Standard 124 (is-124) The Future of Billing and Customer Care - Applications Service Providers (asps) - Local Number Portability (LNP) - Customer Self-Care

Description
Billing and customer care (BCC) systems convert the bits and bytes of digital information within a network into the money that will be received by the service provider. to accomplish this, these systems provide account activation and tracking, service feature selection, selection of billing rates for specific calls, invoice creation, payment entry and management of communication with the customer. This book is excerpted from the telecom made simple book provides the fundamentals for billing and customer service systems. the topics that are explained include: types of services, standard billing processes, real time billing, multilingual support, multiple currencies, inter-carrier settlements, event sources and tracking, mediation devices, call detail records (CDRs), call processing, cycle billing, clearinghouse, invoicing, management reporting, processing payments, and posting to the financial system. also included are the fundamentals of customer relationship management (CRM), account activation, account management, billing system costs, call center, collections, exchange message record (EMR), automatic message accounting (AMA), carrier inter-exchange billing exchange record (Ciber), transferred accounting process (tap), network data management-usage (ndm-u), interim standard 124 (is124), applications service providers (asps), local number portability (LNP), and customer selfcare. how billing systems operate the common terms used in billing systems basic formats of billing records popular billing industry standards the call rating process why companies use billing cycles

 the functions of bill clearinghouses billing for non-traditional products and services how billing integrates with customer care the transition to customer self care