products customers orders billing finance R6 Integration Platform

Transcription

1 R6 Functional Overview products customers orders billing finance Integration Platform R6 Integration Platform Based on JavaEE the R6 Integration Platform is providing a powerful Workflow Management, Notification Management, Task Management, Rule Management and Web Administration Framework as a fundamental and essential pre-condition for ambitious goals.

2 Table of Contents 1. R6 Integration Platform Workflow Management Workflow Process Definition Management Workflow Runtime Management Task Management Task Management BASE Task Management SPECIFIC Notification Management WebAC Framework Screen Framework Operator Management Operators Permissions Workgroups and Rights-Groups Label Management Authentication Broadcast Messages (Newsflash) Auditing ImpEx (Import Export Service) R6 Integration Platform ii

3 1. R6 Integration Platform Service Providers are more and more required to include next-generation services in the product portfolios to boost their revenues and profit margins. To fully capitalize on this requirement and opportunity, BSS transformation is increasingly becoming crucial. A fundamental pre-condition for such an ambitious goal is a next-generation integration platform. It forms the basis of any IT application and increases business flexibility through industry standards like XML, SOA and a powerful Workflow Management. The R6 Integration Platform is an Application Framework based on Java EE. For internal as well as external integration, the solution is aligned to the SOA principles. The R6 Integration Platform contains the following technical and functional capabilities: Workflow Management handles and automates all process steps associated with operating R6 and customers business processes. Notification Management delivers account related messages to customers (e.g. via SMS or ). Task Management creates and handles tasks within R6. ImpEx manages file import and export. Operator Management to create and administrate operator profile data and login credentials. WebAC Framework ensures the proper operation of the R6 graphical user interface (GUI). It provides functionality to configure and manage R6, to broadcast internal messages, and to manage WebAC users (CSRs). 1.1 Workflow Management R6 Business Process Management (R6 BPM) enables the creation of business processes that coordinate the activities of people, applications and services. For example: ordering of new products, change of service features, addition of new CSRs, etc. Business processes (workflows) are decomposed into steps (nodes) which execute actions and/or manage transitions between nodes. This allows a versioned process management (with graphical and/or xml representations), supports hierarchical process structures, also with concurrent execution paths, as well as manual intervention tasks or asynchronous continuations (wait-states). Additionally it has a request/response mechanism for easy interfacing with asynchronous external interfaces including manual SLA violation tasks and scheduled execution of service calls. R6 Integration Platform 3

4 Select table or structure view Structured workflow view Figure 1: Example for Workflow Structure View The objective of the R6 BPM is to interact with various external systems as well as with internal modules and the customer/operator interface. The main tasks of R6 BPM include scheduling different time periods, such as SLA response times, generating calls for manual tasks and managing asynchronous requests. The status of process tasks along with possible task instances and context variables are maintained in the core database. R6 BPM supports the following processes and features: Atomic core operations with rollback functionality Facilitate and monitor in-order and on-time execution and delivery of process steps Unlimited number of process steps Enable dependencies between process steps Support parallel event chains Assignment of process and step owners Process definition templates and profiles Provide status information such as: Progress indicator Blocking points R6 Integration Platform 4

5 Warnings Errors Ongoing/final status Work order number/date/owner Task step date / owner Delay Task step For communication between the different components Workflow Management is fitted with following services: Workflow Process Definition Management It holds the workflow definitions and provides the methods for creating, deploying, retrieving, deleting and versioning of workflow definitions. Workflow Runtime Management (synchronous/asynchronous) It manages the workflow instances. This interface is used to start, stop, continue or retrieve workflow instances as well as create, modify, execute or resolve tasks Workflow Process Definition Management The Workflow Process Definition Management includes following features: Deploy Process Deploys new processes to the database by XML formatted process definitions and graphical representations. Retrieve Process Definition Searches process definitions by name, category and version (latest or specified version). Delete Process Definition Deletes a process definition, if no running instances are using the definition. Versioning of Workflows Allows the deployment of new processes (with the name of already existing ones). In such cases a new process is created and the existing one is versioned. Thus running old process versions continue to use the old definitions as well as new versions of the process may use old definitions if desired. R6 Integration Platform 5

6 Figure 2: Process Definitions in Workflow Management Workflow Runtime Management The Workflow Runtime Management has following features: Start Process Instance Starts a process by using one of the deployed definitions. Query Process Instance Retrieves the state and history of a running or finished process instance. This includes all current and past steps in a tabular/graphical representation, all context variable values and paths (retries, splits, joins). Search parameters are name, category, ID and status (running or finished). Continue Process Instance Continues a waiting process. The continuation can either be triggered by components like ImpEx, the graphical user interface (GUI) or the Task Management component. Create Task Creates a task. This feature uses by the Task Management component to raise tasks manually. Resolve Task Resolves a task. Commonly used by the Task Management component to resolve a task which had to be resolved manually. Create SLA (service level agreement) violation task Creates a SLA violation task if process defined external service response times have not been met. Execute Timer Executes an action if the scheduled execution time is reached, which may be defined within a process. This feature periodically triggers the ImpEx scheduling mechanism (scheduler) to check if timers are due for execution. R6 Integration Platform 6

7 Change Context Variable Add/delete/modify context variables for running processes. 1.2 Task Management Task Management enables creation, updating and modification of component-specific tasks in R6. To create, assign, take on, update and resolve tasks CSRs are using R6 WebAC. If a task is raised by a workflow step in the R6 Order Management process for example, the task is assigned to a CSR. These tasks are only visible to the assignees. After resolving this task, the system updates the task list in WebAC, the status 'Task Resolved' is displayed and the workflow is triggered to go forward in the order process automatically. Task Management provides functionality for two task types, automatic and manual. Automatic tasks are created by the system, when, for example, an error occurs and actions from a CRD are required. Tasks can be raised by components like ImpEx, Accounts Receivable, Billing Support Systems or Workflow Management. Detailed task information Task description Figure 3: Task Management Details Task Management holds the following services: Task Management BASE Task Management SPECIFIC R6 Integration Platform 7

8 Figure 4: Task Management Overview Task Management BASE The BASE Task Management service has base functionality to view, create and modify tasks separated to include two main features parts: Task Administration Retrieve tasks Retrieve task using custom filter values Retrieve task details Retrieve all values (details) for a specific task Create, update task Create new task from various components. Already stored task can be updated with specific states. Update task parameters Update some of the task parameters within existing task Task Configuration Defines features for accessing the configuration of tasks as well as configures the task state. Configuration data are e.g.: status, priority, categories, task definition, groups Task Management SPECIFIC While the BASE part of the component covers all basic functionality, the SPECIFIC Task Management s features are designed to fit a project s special structure. Specific Task Management holds the following Features: Retrieve specific task Tasks are retrieving with filtering on project specific parts. Filter is highly configurable when searching for tasks. R6 Integration Platform 8

9 1.3 Notification Management The main purpose of Notification Management is to provide a pluggable framework for matching data to the given parameters and forwarding the messages to the different transport layers, which are then sending the message to the appropriate recipient. Notifications are based on templates. For delivering notifications to the recipient, these templates can be supplemented with a variety of parameters (e.g. name, bill-date, order date, etc.) to create personalized messages. R6 enables users to perform changes of the template text and exchanges of parameters via the Content Management System. This allows easy and fast adjustments to specific use cases. Notification Management also provides different types of templates. Currently, the formats HTML, XML, TXT and WAV are supported. Notification Management has following features: Set Template Method to set the template DAO to be used in the bean. Send Message Sends a message. The transport method depends on the implementation. Send a message specified by templatedefinitionkey to recipients defined by the data collector. The data adapter is used to transform the given message to a template message, which is then sent. Retrieve Templates Retrieve all notification templates for a given template definition key and the current VSO. Function will find all records in table Template for specified key (templatedefinitionkey) value. If there is no record found then result is null. Retrieve templates by transport method Retrieve all notification templates for a given template definition key and the current VSO assorted by transport method Retrieve parameters Retrieve all allowed parameters for a template definition Update template Update the text of a template in the database. Method for changing value of template text in template entity. Template entity is uniquely determined by key (templatedefinitionkey) and transportmethod values. Retrieve preferred transfer methods Retrieves the preferred transport methods for a template and the current VSO. Retrieve transfer methods Retrieves all possible transport methods for a template and the current VSO. Fetches the transport methods with key and display name. Returns a sorted map containing key and display name Send message by order Stores the message in the queue. Takes the orderid to collect related data (information about the customer and transmission data) at sending time. R6 Integration Platform 9

10 Send message by billing account Stores the message in the queue. Takes the billingaccountid to collect related data (information about the customer and transmission data) at sending time. Check template status Check if template definition is active 1.4 WebAC Framework The Web Administration Centre WebAC is a web application framework that provides functionality to configure and manage the R6 platform. This tool allows CSRs and system specialists to manage typical system administrative tasks and customer inquiry tasks for the system in production. To use WebAC, a CSR needs a CSR account and a personal computer based web browser. Security is enforced through personal and role-based authentication and a protected audit trail. The design of the WebAC provides inherent flexibility, as WebAC software components can be leveraged to develop customized system administration and customer service solutions if required for an overall solution. WebAC is used for managing the R6 billing, sales, provisioning and mediation system. It is completely web-based and works with every standard web browser. Navigation pane Tabs Application area Figure 5: Web Administration Centre The main benefits of the WebAC are: It provides the capability to access bills online which saves time and money R6 Integration Platform 10

11 It allows CSRs (Customer Service Representatives) to isolate customer problems by visualizing the provisioning and order status It eliminates the need for CSRs to learn multiple systems and databases by storing, retrieving and maintaining all customer account and billing data through one single interface It provides label management functionality to manage and maintain all labels and error messages that are displayed on any WebAC screen. This allows translation of labels and error messages into different languages. The key management features are: Order Management handles order entry and order tracking. It enables a CSR to create new customer accounts and service requests, displays the order status, and provides functionality to manage or change orders in a certain status. Customer and account management enables the CSR to manage and update the customer profile data, services and service features. It contains customer account data like profile information (name, addresses, phone numbers, subscribed services, contact methods), and authorized account contacts. Customer and account history is for tracking purposes and allows the CSR to check various histories. Changes applied to the customer's account data generate a record in the customer's history table in the database. This record contains date and a short description of the change, and the CSR's name. Product configuration enables the CSR to view basic information about tariffs, define and manage components and charge categories for all product offers (including, e.g., the grouping of offers so they can only be sold as packages), and the definition of other business-specific rules. Channels and partners configuration enables the admin to create affiliate partners and define rules to specify their area of activity in WebAC. Operator management contains WebAC operator profile data and login credentials. This area enables the CSR to update profile data, activate or deactivate operators, reset or change operator passwords, manage workgroups and right groups, assign access rights and run reports. Operator messaging system enables the broadcast of messages displayed on WebAC. Reporting ranges from operator, workgroup or right group reports for tracking purposes, to AR reports, for example General Ledger. Billing management handles all customer-related billing data in WebAC. The admin can create, update, run or simulate a bill run, and add and manage bill cycles. Mediation monitoring displays all errors that occur during mediation. WebAC enables the CSR to view, mark as disputes, or purge the erroneous feeds on file level. The Invoicing screens in WebAC enable the WebAC operator to view the selected customer's charges, disputes, and invoice history, request a paper invoice, or download the current paper invoice. On the Bill Formatting screens, the customer's latest charges can be downloaded (i.e. displayed or saved) in PDF format. R6 Integration Platform 11

12 Accounts Receivable contains functionality to, for example, enter single or bulk payments (credit card, cash, bank account, etc), change payment methods (e.g., Direct Debit), view reports, create payment arrangements, manage payment files, handle unsuccessful file transactions, or view financial transactions. The WebAC Framework is used to provide the fundamental framework for the WebAC with the following services: Screen Framework Operator Management Label Management Authentication Broadcast Messages Configuration Management Auditing Label Management Screen Framework Configuration Management Authentication Broadcast Messages Operator Management Auditing Figure 6: WebAC Framework Dataflow Direction Screen Framework The Screen framework provides basic functionality for building commonly used user interface components (login screen, menu tree, pagination, sorting and filtering of lists, online help, etc) R6 Integration Platform 12

13 UI Resource Management Address Management Screen Framework (in WebAC Framework) Authentication Operator Management User Interface related CSS Auditing Broadcast Messages Figure 7: Context Overview Screen Framework The following features are provided by the Screen Framework service: Login screen 'Change operator password' screen Definition of screen layout (colors, font, font-size etc.) Build and display of the menu tree List functionality (pagination, filtering, sorting, data export to MS Excel) Confirmation messages Print functionality Display of system information ('About') Online help functionality Data validation functionality Tool tip functionality Exception handling functionality Definition of global formats (date formats, text formats, address formats) Operator Management Operator Management allows the maintenance of all data related to the users of the Web Administration Center (WebAC) and is responsible to maintain four areas: Permission Management Right-Group Management R6 Integration Platform 13

14 Workgroup Management Operator Management Operator Management (in WebAC Framework) User Interface related Component related Autiting Adress Management Figure 8: Context Overview Operator Management The Operator Management provides the following features: Maintain the master data of the operator (like name, address, address etc.) Lock operators Reset passwords Assign workgroup to operators Maintain roles Maintain workgroups Maintain permissions Operators The operator (also called CSR; Call Centre Agent or Agent) is the user of the WebAC graphical user interface, who is allowed to see certain information in R6 or to perform actions/tasks. Each operator is identified by a username. In addition to the username, also some other data like the name, the address or the address is maintained in Operator Management. By assigning the operator to an appropriate right group and work group it can be managed which information an operator can see and which tasks/actions he can perform. R6 Integration Platform 14

15 Figure 9: Create an Operator in Operator Management Permissions Permissions can be defined to give an operator the right to perform different tasks or actions: Access control in WebAC screen levels areas of screens buttons Limit the visibility of data in WebAC only task of a certain category are visible to the operator only tickets of a certain category are visible to the operator Other restrictions in WebAC credit/debit limitations for one-off charges R6 Integration Platform 15

16 Operator (Agent, CSR) Administrator Workgroup (Operator) Right group Permission X Permission D WebAC Operator Workgroup (Administrator) Right group Permission D Permission A Figure 10: Operator Roles & Permissions An operator can be assigned to a workgroup and one or more right groups. Those right groups inherit permissions for WebAC Workgroups and Rights-Groups To simplify the administration s complexity of permissions, Operator Management includes a rights-group management and a workgroup management. The rights-group management can be used to build groups of permissions that can then be used to build workgroups or directly to assign workgroups to operators Workgroup management builds groups of right-groups that can be used to be assigned to the operator. n n n n n n 1 n Permission X Right Group Workgroup Operator Overview Each WebAC screen equals 1 to n permissions Group permissions according to (e.g.) menu structure Group Right Groups according to (e.g.) job descriptions (roles) Each WebAC user is set up as Operator Setup Data No setup in WebAC Permission(s) Right Group(s) Right Group(s) Workgroup Username / Password First Name / Last Name Examples WebAC Paths Operator Management/Operator/Create Customer/Profile/Personal View Customer/Profile/Personal Edit WebAC Paths Operator Management/OperateAll Customer/Profile All Carrier Vendor Billing Support Operator Management Jean Doe (phone ) John Doe (phone ) Figure 11: Group Management within Operator Management It is possible to assign multiple right-groups, but only one workgroup to an operator. By using workgroups and right-groups for operator management reusable groups of permissions can be defined based on the needs of a service provider/operator. Granting an operator access to the desired functionality of R6 simply can be done by assigning the needed rights-groups and work group to the operator. There is no need to define the set of permissions every time a new operator is set up in R6. R6 Integration Platform 16

17 1.4.3 Label Management Label Management is responsible to manage and maintain the labels and error messages that will be displayed in any WebAC screen including multi language support. Label Management provides the following features: Holds maintainable labels and error messages in the database Allows translation of labels and error messages into different languages Allows applying client specific translations to the labels and error messages Authentication The Authentication service is designed to deal with authentication and authorization of the WebAC users. Via the login screen provided by the Screen framework the login credentials of the operator are forwarded to the Authentication component. Figure 12: WebAC Login Screen The Authentication component then compares the provided login credentials with the stored login credentials and, after successful login, retrieves the workgroup information from the Operator Management (Authorization) assigned to the operator. In detail, the login process looks like following: R6 Integration Platform 17

18 Caption: Happy path Comment/Instruction Login Screen WebAC Message No Invalid username/ password Yes Username correct and not closed? WebAC screen System action Password correct? Reset wrong password counter Yes Operator inactive? Yes Your account has been deactivated Please contact. No Invalid username/ password Contact screen No 3x wrong password? Lock account 10 minutes Yes Unlock account via WebAC (checkbox Lock ) Your account has been locked Please contact. No Re-activate account via WebAC (change status to Active ) No Contact screen No Increase wrong password counter 6x wrong password? No 9x wrong password? Lock account 30 minutes Yes Unlock account via WebAC (checkbox Lock ) Lock account permanently Unlock account via WebAC (checkbox Lock ) Yes Password expired? Change password screen Yes No Scenarios: 1. Password forced change date (every 45 days) reached 2. First login after creation * 3. Password has been reset * Change successfully? Yes Log in in WebAC * Initial log in has been performed with temporary password created/reset via WebAC (sent to operator via ) Figure 13: WebAC Login Procedure On the Login screen the WebAC user enters his/her username (Username correct and not closed? Yes.) and password (Password correct? Yes.). This is where the authentication process starts. The system checks the password for validity and also verifies the active status of the WebAC user (operator). If the operator s account is still active (Operator inactive? No.), the password is checked for validity. In case this check is also completed positively (Password expired? No.) the operator is logged as a valid user on to the system Broadcast Messages (Newsflash) A Broadcast Message or a Newsflash is a one-way communication channel for WebAC operators to spread messages internally very easy. Any operator with the appropriate permission can create a message to be displayed in the header of the WebAC application. R6 Integration Platform 18

19 Message spread to all users Figure 14: Broadcast Messages Auditing The Auditing component allows tracking of changes executed by operators (agents) in WebAC. The reports in Operator Management allow retrieving the stored auditing information from the database. 1.5 ImpEx (Import Export Service) The Import Export Service (ImpEx) was designed to shield R6 from the processing details of the import and export of billing feeds and provisioning data. It is a central service in R6 for managing file import and export and holds following functionalities: Import data files into the database to parse, analyze and process the data Export data files that were generated by R6 components and creates reports Execute predefined task at a programmable time Alert maintenance staff when files arrive late or out of schedule, Schedule management console to start and stop services. R6 Integration Platform 19

20 Data Input Data Output Observer Standalone Java Executable 1 Folder Incoming Observer ImpEx Outgoing Observer FTP server FTP server Observer Java Layer *_IN *_OUT INO_FILE_IF Schema Impex Set / Process transfer logic INFONOVA Billing System Schemas Oracle Database Figure 15: ImpEx Overview ImpEx consists of the following services: Interfaces / Extension Points Main objective of ImpEx is to serve as point of contact for incoming and outgoing files, therefore, the component provides various interfaces and extension points. Rating Billing Accounts Receivable Number Management Import Export Service (ImpEx) CRM PSM Notification Management Task Management Service & Resource Provisioning Workflow Management Figure 16: ImpEx internal Interfaces R6 Integration Platform 20

21 Standards Standard features are the main parts of the ImpEx application, they are also configurable to fit the customers needs, but are main functionalities Reporting the system allows generating reports from imported files in CSV and XLS format File Import, File Export Files are imported or exported from/to the system Archiving Data files that are imported/exported are archived (also in case errors occur or if they are rejected by the system for some reason) Configurable/ Programmable Secondary to the standard core features of ImpEx it offers some freely configurable processing sets or scheduling, to be configured to the specifications of 3 rd party interfaces and the R6 system environment File Processings Specialized processings handling the data files in the system internally are configured by processing sets Scheduling Tasks are triggered at a predefined point in time Alarms 'Watchdog' functionality; watches file transfers and raises alarms in case a file does not arrive at the predefined point in time ImpEx Import Observer for incoming data Reader Database Processor Observes storage area of external system (to be read) Reads from external source Fills database tables for Incoming data Processes data in the internal Infonova system Notifies Impex system of new data Processes and writes to interna database ImpEx Export Writer Observer Database Processor Reads from internal database 1 3 Observes storage area 2 Uses database tables for outgoing data 1 Receives data from processes of the internal Infonova system Processes and writes to external target system Notifies ImpEx system of new data Figure 17: ImpEx Processing R6 Integration Platform 21

22 ImpEx handles all incoming and outgoing data and is located on the solution's File Interface Layer. ImpEx is fully configurable to all types of data file formats, databases or every kind of item the customer needs to be imported / exported to/from the system. ImpEx has been designed as a standalone Java application. Though it is fully configurable / programmable ImpEx has some standard features implemented for the most general tasks. To ensure data consistency and reliability ImpEx offers various checks: Filename checking All filenames are checked for syntactically and semantically inconsistency upon arrival and during the processing. Checking for duplicates Duplicates hinder accurate data handling, therefore all data are checked for duplicate file names or content Checking the file sequence To enable proper file handling the file sequence is checked for erroneous properties. Parsing Checking the syntactical structure of the handled files. Checking the file against specification Files are compared to the specified file type definitions to reject erroneous files. File Conversion Some files need to be converted to different file types for further processing. R6 Integration Platform 22

23 Truly Transformational Solutions Infonova was founded in 1989 and delivers highly automated IT solutions for Telco, Media & Convergent as well as Utility companies. Infonova s BSS solutions have been implemented for incumbent, attacker and cable operators supporting triple & quadruple play service portfolios. Encapsulating decades of knowledge, Infonova s latest BSS product, Release 6 is a fully J2EE concept to cash platform that supports real multi-tenant concept to cash operations for fully convergent and complex business models. To learn more, visit our Web site at Contact For more information on Infonova lead to high performance, contact infonova@infonova.com. R6 Integration Platform 23