overview of revenue assurance and fraud management systems
TRANSCRIPT
Overview of Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management
Systems
Revenue Assurance(RA)
• Increased focus on RA due to– Regulatory pressure of reporting revenue – Increasing pressure to show more profit– Struggle for existing revenue management
systems to keep with technological breakthrough(introduction of new network elements in the network)
– Complex revenue management systems
Revenue Leakage
• Revenue leakage is the difference between revenue supposed to be earned and the actual revenue (actual cash) realized.
• Causes of revenue leakage– Incomplete customer records– Accumulated CDR errors– Incorrect rating– CDR late to mediation– Corrupt CDRs– Failure to create CDRs
Possible leakage points• Signaling errors on switch• System capacity mismatches (Overflow)• Misaligned processing or logic rules• Failure to activate or provision the customer correctly• Failure to track customer activity properly• Improper registration and management of network inventory• Mediation related
– Failure to filter records correctly– Incorrect application of customer Identifiers– Incorrect formatting of CDRs– Dropped records– Duplicate records• Billing related
• Usage beyond billing stop• Incorrect Call plans• Billing errors• Late billing• Over Discounting
Possible leakage points
• Collections Dunning Related– Failure to track old accounts– Misapplication of credits– Inefficient and ineffective dunning practices– Failure to feed back the dunning lessons to Marketing ,
sales and product planning groupsProvisioning and customer service related leakages• Physical circuits not ceased when account terminated• Over Provisioning• Improper update of customer status• Provisioning without notification of billing start
RA defined
• Revenue management Chain: The systems and operations that are concerned with the direct capture ,processing and collection of revenues
• Revenue Assurance: The process of guaranteeing that the revenue management chain is functioning as specified Or
• Revenue assurance is a business process to detect ,probe correct revenue leakage, to minimize opportunity loss, to minimize/ avoid costs.
- 7 -
RA- Solution ArchitectureProvisioning System
Others Adapters
Profile Adapters
DC Engine/DC BusDC Repository
Real time KPIs and Alarm
Analysis Engine Rule EngineAnalysis Server
Data Capture Layer
Adapters
Subscriber Records
Subscriber Order Status
Data Capture
DC Adapter
Reports Engine
IN
Postpaid Subscriber Records
Third party content Provider
Content Usage Records
Postpaid Usage Records
PMS
Payment Records
Usage Records
Subscriber Records
Rating Configuration Data
Postpaid Billing System
Configuration Data
Interconnect Billing System
Interconnect Usage Records
Payment Records
UsageRecords
CRM
Subscriber Records
Network Element
Usage Records
Configuration Data & Business Rule
Mediation Inventory Management System
Accessory Details
CDR Adapter
RA Functional ScopeThe primary scope for RA is mentioned below:
Subscriber Profile Verification across • Network Element• Intelligent Network• CRM • Post-paid Billing System
Usage Verification across • Switch• Mediation• Post-paid Billing• Interconnect Billing• Third party contents
Payment Verification between PMS and Post-paid billing system. Configuration Verification
• Network Element• Mediation • Interconnect billing
Call Testing System – to verify rating output of Post-paid Billing System. Configuration of Alarms and KPI Reports
Subscriber Reconciliation• Subscriber Instance and Services reconciliation between CRM & Postpaid
Billing• The Purpose of reconciliation of subscriber records between CRM and
Postpaid Billing is • Subscriber Instance reconciliation • Identify Subscribers present in CRM and not present in Postpaid Billing• Identify Subscribers present in Postpaid Billing and not present in CRM• Subscriber Services reconciliation• Identify Subscriber services present in CRM and not present in Postpaid Billing• Identify Subscriber services present in Postpaid Billing and not present in CRM
Subscriber Reconciliation• Subscriber Instance and service reconciliation between Network Element and
Postpaid Billing The Purpose of reconciliation of subscriber instance Network Element and Postpaid
Billing is • Subscriber Instance reconciliation • Identify Subscribers present in Network Element and not present in Postpaid Billing• Identify Subscribers present in Postpaid Billing and not present in Network Element. • Subscriber Services reconciliation• Identify Subscriber services present in Network Element and not present in Postpaid
Billing• Identify Subscriber services present in Postpaid Billing and not present in Network
Element.
Subscriber Reconciliation• Subscriber Instance and service reconciliation between Network Element and
CRM • The Purpose of reconciliation of subscriber instance between Network Element and
CRM is • Subscriber Instance reconciliation • Identify Subscribers present in Network Element and not present in CRM• Identify Subscribers present in CRM and not present in Network Element. • Subscriber Services reconciliation• Identify Subscriber services present in Network Element and not present in CRM• Identify Subscriber services present in CRM and not present in Network Element.
Fulfillment of new orders
• Timely Fulfillment of new orders • The Purpose is to ensure timely fulfillment of
new orders without any delay• Identify the orders which are failed at
provisioning due to some problem• Identify the orders which are pending at
provisioning
Usage Reconciliation• Objective of Usage Reconciliation module is to reduce/remove revenue leakage due to
CDRs not transmitted successfully across Network Element to Billing System • Usage Reconciliation Between Different Systems• Following usage reconciliations are carried out in this module: • Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Network Element and Mediation• Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Mediation and Postpaid Billing• Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Mediation and Interconnect
Billing• Rated CDR level reconciliation between Retail Billing and Interconnect Billing• xDR level reconciliation between Postpaid Billing and Third Party Content Provider• Call type and specific destination wise control Log Level report from Mediation• Control Log Level Traffic analysis• Control Log level and CDR level Rejected CDR analysis at Mediation, Postpaid billing
and Interconnect billing• Missing CDR file sequence at Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing• Aging of rejected CDRs at Postpaid billing• Aging of rejected CDRs at Mediation• Aging of rejected CDRs at Interconnect Billing
Usage Reconciliation• Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Network
Element and Mediation• The Purpose of usage reconciliation between Network Element and
Mediation is:• Identify discrepancy in CDR count, MoU between files received from
Network Element and Mediation through control log reconciliation• For selected files,
– Identify CDRs present in Network Element and not in Mediation– Identify CDRs present in both Network Element and Mediation,
but have different MoU
Usage Reconciliation• Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between
Mediation and Postpaid Billing
• The Purpose of usage reconciliation between Mediation and Post Paid Billing System is:
• Identify discrepancy in CDR count, MoU between files received from Mediation and Post Paid Billing System through control log reconciliation
• For selected files, • Identify CDRs present in Mediation and not in Post Paid
Billing System• Identify CDRs present in both Mediation, and Post Paid
Billing System but have different MoU
Usage Reconciliation• Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between
Mediation and Interconnect Billing • The Purpose of usage reconciliation between Mediation
and Interconnect Billing System is:• Identify discrepancy in CDR count, MoU between files
received from Mediation and Interconnect Billing System through control log reconciliation
• For selected files, • Identify CDRs present in Mediation and not in
Interconnect Billing System• Identify CDRs present in both Mediation, and
Interconnect Billing System but have different MoU
Usage Reconciliation• Rated CDR level reconciliation between Retail Billing
and Interconnect Billing • The Purpose of Rated CDR reconciliation between
Retail Billing and Interconnect Billing System is:• For Sample CDRs• Identify Rated CDRs for which operator is being paid
but subscriber is not charged.• Identify Rated CDRs for which subscriber is charged
but operator is not being paid.
Usage Reconciliation
• xDR level reconciliation between Postpaid Billing and Third Party Content Provider
• The Purpose of xDR reconciliation between Postpaid Billing and Third Party Content Provider is:
• For sample xDRs• Identify xDRs present in Postpaid Billing and not in
Third Party Content Provider.• Identify xDRs present in Third Party Content Provider
and not in Postpaid Billing.
Reject CDR analysis
• Control Log level and CDR level Rejected CDR analysis at Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing
• The Purpose of this module is to identify the CDRs rejected at the Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing due to wrong format (addition of new field in the CDR format) or abnormal situation.
Missing CDR files• Missing CDR file sequence at Mediation,
Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing• Purpose • To identify the CDR files • Sent by Network Element but missing at
Mediation• Sent by Mediation but missing at Post Paid
Billing System• Sent by Mediation but missing at Interconnect
Billing System
Payment reconciliation
• Objective• The objective of payment reconciliation module is to reduce/remove revenue leakage
due to discrepancies across different system and to achieve this, perform reconciliation/verification of payment information across different systems.
• Payment reconciliation between Payment Management System (PMS) and Postpaid Billing System
• The Purpose of reconciliation of payment records between PMS and Postpaid Billing is • Identify payment records present in PMS and not present in Postpaid Billing System• Identify payment records present in Postpaid Billing System and not present in PMS• Identify payment records having different values in Postpaid Billing System and PMS
RA Runtime Schedule
Fraud Management system
• Telecom Fraud• Telecommunications fraud is an act of obtaining telecommunication services and/or the instruments, equipment or devices with no intention of paying for them or abuse of services. Fraudsters’ motivation is either to make money or to use services at no or reduced cost or to acquire anonymity to mask criminal activities or obtain the sheer thrill of challenging the telecom’s network security
Fraud
•Fraud is broadly categories as:– Usage Frauds: Frauds that are committed for the
purpose of using services without intention of paying for them are categorized under Usage Frauds.
– Subscription Frauds: Some subscribers obtain subscription for services using false identity with no intent to pay.
- 25 -
Minotaur FMS – Functional Architecture
Suspect Behavior Alert
Candidate Fraud Detector & High Usage DetectorRules, Thresholds, Lists, Profiling etc.
Usage Data
Event Data Server Customer Data ServerPartitioning, Filtering, Validation
Case History Builder & Internal Alarm AnalysisAlarms Collection, Case History Management, Case Outcome Analysis
Case ManagerAdministration, CM Configuration, Investigation Management
Tickets
Reports
Case Outcom
e Server
Fraud Detection Engine (FDE)
Fraud Analyst
FDE
Configuration M
anagerSubscriber Data
Possible Fraud Scenarios• Usage Fraud
– Misuse of another Subscriber’s services– Misuse of operator’s services– Running unauthorized private exchange– Electronic device fraud– Security issuesUsage data (i.e. EDRs) and usage pattern resulting from any such
activities is analyzed by FMS and input data is matched against defined rule conditions and associated thresholds. Any deviation to defined values / rules will generate alarms for the further investigations. There is no limitation on number of rules that can be defined in FMS. As per the requirement user can define any number of rules / thresholds
Fraud Scenarios• Subscription Frauds • Activation fraud• Adjustment in discounts or credits for a subscriber• Manipulation of credit limit for a subscriber• Change of applicable tariff plan• Incorrect application of payments• Subscriber data anomalies between Network Elements and Billing• Removal of suspensions, adding unauthorized services/lines• Fraudulent Subscriptions normally result in very high or abnormal usage
of services. This is alerted through usage alarms by setting various rules on usage data as mentioned earlier. FMS has functionality to build and store the profile of subscriber along with billing information. It also stores the profiles previously classified as fraudsters. FMS also evaluates Log files from the various systems (if they would be fed to FMS in required format) like the CRM and Billing for suspect activity as it also profiled user / system level activities
Resolution of Fraud Tickets• The Intelligent alarm Analysis (IAA) server, will generate a ticket based on
the SBA’s, Behavioral History pertaining to the Services used by the entity and scorecard
• The Ticket will be passed onto the Case Manager Server, where it is redirected to users with particular roles. Here the type of fraud, priority and workflow is taken into consideration while assigning the tickets
• The User / Subscriber Analyst with the appropriate role and privilege will accept the ticket and classify it as either a fraudulent case or a non fraudulent one.
• If the ticket is identified as a non fraudulent one, the User / Subscriber Analyst will close the ticket marking it as a non fraud ticket closure. Here the Case Outcome Server will update the entity profile in the CFD by adaptive feedback to neural models, rules and known fraud case histories. This will help in increasing the accuracy while checking the profile violations against the defined rules.
Resolution• The user / subscriber analyst task is to analyze and investigate each case and then
make a fraud or non fraud decision. It is general practice to have a set of basic questions which if applied will give the user/analyst an idea of what has occurred and also the ability to quantify the problem being investigated. A checklist of questions would be as follows;
• Who is the subscriber?– New or Old subscriber , Residential, Business or VIP– What combination of lines/services are installed – Account history – when activated, any bills issued, paid, outstanding, unbilled– Subscriber details linked to BSNL employees– Any links to previous identified fraud accounts– Obtain contracts for further examination – Additional call/reverse analysis to identify if subscriber linked to BSNL
employee – Cross reference known fraudsters database
•
Resolution
• Not Fraud– Make a note of the concerns on the FMS, If the usage
pattern recurs it should be investigated further• Fraud– Make a note of the concerns on the FMS, even if finally
determined to be non-fraudulent– Take appropriate action such as call barring or
disconnection, in line with company guidelines– Subject fraudulent account to post detection analysis
FMS Run time Schedule
THANK YOU