Telecom Billing OSS - Why Telecom Billing System Is Important

May.20, 2010 in Computers

A technologically important creation is the Telecom Billing System. The world telecommunication industry is speeding towards growth. It has become essential to have an organized Telecom Billing System to manage the services used by consumers. The system needs to be good enough to convert the services used by these millions of customers into a billable format.

The data utilized by consumers needs to be categorized by the telecom OSS. This system will track the customer use and accordingly help the billing department to present a detailed account of their usage with the bill. In this world, the customer support and billing section of a company work together to give customers better services.

Let us find out how a billing system is created. In a standard system, a customer will apply for the services with the relevant documents. The credibility of the person is checked and the wireless service will be provided. The customer preferences are saved and their account is activated.

The unique customer ID will save all the usage records of the particular customer. The system will use the chosen tariff plan by the customer and update the bill as per the Call Detail Records (CDR). Long distance call charges and roaming charges will be added to the system once the outside supporting telecom operators send in the details.

Wireless internet usage data will be charged separately depending on the data usage tariff plan. Details like call duration, caller number, call start time and call end time will be recorded In the Call Detail Records of the customer. In a similar way, outgoing calls are also saved. These details are reflected in the bills as well. Whenever a customer calls a customer support number, the call details are recorded. These details can lead to manual changes in the billing system, such as errors reported, discounts offered or description of the complaint for future reference. The complaint history of a customer and call history can help the telecom company in case it is needed in the future for solving issues.

Every month a computer generated invoice is sent to the customer in the form of a bill. Customers whose records show no payment processed for the earlier month/s are sent a warning message or their service will be temporarily deactivated.

At the end of the month, the invoice is generated, taking into account the usage, automatic invoices generated, reported errors, past payments and payments under process. If the payments are not processed on time, the account holder will receive alert messages or the account may get discontinued temporarily. If the customer has chosen an auto-debit service, then the payment will be automatically processed.

The entire Telecom Billing Software depends on various factors like the billing costs and billing standards. Network Data Management, Automatic Message Accounting, Interim Standard 124, etc., are some of the billing standards. The system costs include the call center, collections, hardware and software costs and billing Cycles. These days e-bills are sent, but there are still customers who prefer printed bill copies. So, the printing cost of bills and other mails are also including in the billing system costs. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an important part in the billing process. These days there is stiff competition among telecom companies in the market so better services are available to consumers. Services like real time billing and multi-lingual support is provided to customers. Application support and flexible billing services are available. The future of Telecom Billing OSS is going to re-define the term ‘convenience’ to consumers.