White paper Ti-Rate billing and real-time rating slutin. Versin 1.0
Yu need mdern BSS slutins t adpt t new reality Ti-Rate slutin n etom map Billing shuld nt be hard and cmplicated High Cncurrent Lad handling, Scalability and high availability Easy System and Prduct Catalg cnfiguratin DevOps-like supprt Multi-tenant supprt - Clud ready Pluggable business schemas Architecture Page 2
Yu need mdern BSS slutins t adpt t new reality Telecmmunicatin market is under big transfrmatin t fit custmer requirements in fast digitalisatin wrld. Telc cmpanies are under increasing pressure frm custmers regarding quality f services. Mst f the demand cmes frm requirements t quality f data services. Traditinal cnnectivity services, which were histrically mnplised by telc cmpanies, becme increasingly cmmditised. At the same time, ver-the-tp players like Ggle and Amazn expanding prpsal fr mid- and small-size businesses wrldwide, which increases risk lsing revenue and market share fr telecm prviders. Thse facts require mre effrts frm telecm industry t deliver custmised digital services fr each custmer. As a result, telc cmpanies will be required t rethink their prduct prtfli t fulfil new requirements. In additin, telc need t rethink current custmers landscape t becme fcused n key market segments based n new reality. And this is nt the ne-time actin. This is a new wrld: cntinuus transfrmatin t adapt prpsal new requirements f custmers. T be ready fr this marathn, telecm needs abslutely new BSS slutins, ready t cntinuus adaptatin. Thse slutins shuld be flexible enugh t make the prcess f transfrmatin as fast and cst-efficient as pssible. In Ti-Rate billing and real-time rating slutin we are fcused n: Accunt management with supprt f custmer segmentatin and flexible life cycles autmatin fr different type f subscribers; Prduct management with shrt time ttime-t-market fr new prducts and fcus n persnalised services; Invicing with pssibility t use differentiate different invice/dcuments templates, based n needs f different grups f custmers; Real-time rating (nline charging) with advanced setup t prvide custmers with payas-yu-g apprach. Page 3
Ti-Rate slutin n etom map Based n implementatin experience, system functinality fits the fllwing functinal areas f etom map. Page 4
Billing shuld nt be hard and cmplicated Peple used t think that telecm billing is smething hard and cmplicated. With Ti-Rate it is changed: Ti-Rate has multiple precnfigured business flws and mdels Billing prcesses are built, nt cded, with Flw Building Framewrk which makes them readable, understandable and self-explainable Cmplicated billing prcesses are designed t lk easy and are hidden frm mst f the users, thugh still reachable if needed Ti-Rate makes billing easy, as it shuld be. High Cncurrent Lad handling, Scalability and high availability Mdern Billing systems fr medium and large business are required t wrk under heavy lad with maximum availability. Ti-Rate was designed t fulfil this criteria. Ndes in clusters rganisatin f prcesses fr parallel prcessing ut f the bx slutin fr hrizntal scalability just by adding ndes int cluster Symmetric multiprcessing (SMP) built-in feature fr vertical scaling with adding the number f CPUs n ne nde Fault recvery each nde in the cluster als autmatically tracks availability f ther ndes in rder t becme aware f nn-respnsive ndes; the advantages f asynchrnus message passing in systems running n a nde is extended t systems running in cluster, as replies can be received alngside with errrs and timeuts Mnitring "let it crash" apprach, OTP will restart mnitred prcesses that die; the mnitrs and errr reprting allw yu t build cmplex supervisin hierarchies with builtin fault recvery Cde upgrade in runtime n need t take the system dwn in rder t apply sme fixes, update, upgrade r add new features; new applicatin versin is deplyed t envirnment and then yu can switch frm Old versin t New versin in Runtime withut prcesses terminatin, keeping all states and variables; this prvides 99.999% uptime including upgrades and maintenance. Ti-Rate is fast and reliable billing system. Easy System and Prduct Catalg cnfiguratin Prduct Catalg is usually easy when peple talk abut it but becmes hard trying t cnfigure it. Prduct time-t-market (frm initial idea t ready-t-sell prduct) in telc cmpanies takes frm weeks t mnths. Ti-Rate is ging t change this and make bth talks and cnfiguratin easy. Page 5
All system and business cnfiguratin, including Prduct Catalg, is managed by Flw Building Framewrk initially designed fr IT. That is why billing and rating prcesses are built, nt cded, which makes them readable, understandable and easy t mdify: brwser-based flw editr that makes it easy t wire tgether flws using the wide range f ndes in palette; flws are built graphically with drag-n-drp; flws are deplyed in runtime with a single-click. With Ti-Rate cnfiguring billing system yu can fcus n business needs instead f IT-related limitatins. DevOps-like supprt Telecm billing systems used t require big number f IT prfessinal t supprt it. With Ti-Rate this can be changed. Cnfiguratin and business prcesses definitin is dne with Nde-RED (n cding), infrastructure is maintained by the Clud. Running, maintaining and perating Ti-Rate is actively supprted by the system itself: system mnitring is n bard; system self-recvery is a part f architecture; hardware resizing ges smth applicatin is scaling hrizntally and vertically by itself n fly; sftware maintenance time can be drastically decreased by applying changes n fly; mid-level IT wrkers are sufficient fr business supprt business and system cnfiguratin is dne with Flw Building Framewrk, that has intuitive drag-ndrp interface and des nt require deep technical expertise. Running Ti-Rate des nt require big IT team. It can be supprted by small DevOps team. Multi-tenant supprt - Clud ready Mdern IT systems tend t wrk in the Clud and supprt multiple business clients n a single running system. Ti-Rate cvers this tendency with multi-tenant supprt. Multi-tenancy supprt allws t run several businesses n the same billing system. N need t start separate instances f all applicatins in rder t achieve the gal. All businesses are fully allcated, independent and islated. Tgether with the Clud readiness, multi-tenancy gives a pssibility t BaaS (Billing-as-a-Service) sell billing services t SMEs, r give a pssibility t big players t re-sell their services (e.g. MNO t MVNO). Multi-tenant apprach ensures separatin n Page 6
Data level (databases) Access and Authrisatin cntrl Business Prduct Catalg Custm tenant specific business prcesses and cnfiguratin while using system-wide interfaces, APIs and business prcesses. Be ready fr clud with Ti-Rate. Pluggable business schemas Extending business needs usually leads t purchase f new systems and start f lng-running integratin prjects. Ti-Rate will change this apprach. Ti-Rate supprts pluggable business schemas that allw t extend business needs n the same billing system. N extra billing systems and crss integratins required. Page 7
Traditinal apprach Ti-Rate apprach 1 develp Telecm business have a specialised Billing system that this business wrks n Ti-Rate billing system using Telc schema 2 expand t ISP business adding specialised Billing system and related infrastructure t cver ISP business keep wrking with Ti-Rate billing system and plug n ISP schema 3 expand t IP TV business adding specialised Billing system and related infrastructure t cver IP TV business needs still keep wrking with the same Ti-Rate billing system and plug n additinally IP TV schema 4 decided t prvide cnvergent services implementing Enterprise Business Bass r ther slutins merge Ti-Rate pluggable schemas 5 Result 1. Set f billing systems with duplicatin f data (accunts, balances, etc...) > wasted cmpany resurces (DB, servers, supprt teams). 2. Cmplicated prcesses f cmmunicatin with ther BSS slutins (like CRM r Prduct Catalg) > high cst f supprt and develpment 1. Single slutin with centralised supprt > saved mney n infrastructure and peple 2. Prcesses f cmmunicatin with ther BSS slutins (like CRM r Prduct Catalg) evlved. Less pint f integratins > lw cst f supprt and develpment Pluggable schema cntains full package f flws, prcesses and cnfiguratin: Data Mdel Business prcesses System and business cnfiguratin Access and Authrisatin Interfaces and APIs Ti-Rate pluggable schemas help t extend business needs cheaper and faster. Page 8
Architecture Ti-Rate was designed as flexible slutin fr fast integratin in-t existing infrastructure. Page 9