WO2000059198A1 - Bill image generation - Google Patents
Bill image generation Download PDFInfo
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- WO2000059198A1 WO2000059198A1 PCT/GB2000/001077 GB0001077W WO0059198A1 WO 2000059198 A1 WO2000059198 A1 WO 2000059198A1 GB 0001077 W GB0001077 W GB 0001077W WO 0059198 A1 WO0059198 A1 WO 0059198A1
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- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- usage
- bill image
- records
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- record
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Classifications
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
- H04M15/70—Administration or customization aspects; Counter-checking correct charges
- H04M15/745—Customizing according to wishes of subscriber, e.g. friends or family
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
- H04M15/41—Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
- H04M15/43—Billing software details
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
- H04M15/44—Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
- H04M15/53—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP using mediation
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
- H04M15/80—Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects
- H04M15/8083—Rating or billing plans; Tariff determination aspects involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions or volume discounts
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
- H04M2215/01—Details of billing arrangements
- H04M2215/0104—Augmented, consolidated or itemised billing statement, e.g. additional billing information, bill presentation, layout, format, e-mail, fax, printout, itemised bill per service or per account, cumulative billing, consolidated billing
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
- H04M2215/01—Details of billing arrangements
- H04M2215/0108—Customization according to wishes of subscriber, e.g. customer preferences, friends and family, selecting services or billing options, Personal Communication Systems [PCS]
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
- H04M2215/01—Details of billing arrangements
- H04M2215/0164—Billing record, e.g. Call Data Record [CDR], Toll Ticket[TT], Automatic Message Accounting [AMA], Call Line Identifier [CLI], details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
- H04M2215/01—Details of billing arrangements
- H04M2215/0172—Mediation, i.e. device or program to reformat CDRS from one or more switches in order to adapt to one or more billing programs formats
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M2215/00—Metering arrangements; Time controlling arrangements; Time indicating arrangements
- H04M2215/01—Details of billing arrangements
- H04M2215/0184—Details of billing arrangements involving reduced rates or discounts, e.g. time-of-day reductions, volume discounts, cell discounts, group billing, frequent calling destination(s) or user history list
Definitions
- the present invention relates to a method of generating a bill image and also to a computer- implemented billing system.
- a private customer may have a standard telephone line, a cardphone account and possibly access to network facilities such as call minding and 3-way calling, all of which may have to be billed to a single account.
- a business customer may have many more services such as ISDN, permanent leased data connections, or multiple lines connected to a single number.
- Each service type to be charged needs to be clearly and logically laid out on the printed bill so that the customer can easily determine what he is being charged for.
- Discounting products or schemes may need to be supported. These may be introduced as promotions to all or selected customers, sold as a product to a customer or subject to the customer requesting to join the scheme. Examples of discounting products marketed by British Telecommunications public limited company include discounted Saturday calls, PremierLine and Friends & Family. A further discounting product offered, particularly to business users, is volume threshold discounting.
- US-A-5884284 discloses an integrated telecommunications user account management system to create, maintain and analyse individual telecommunications user account information. Although the specification is quite long and detailed, rather little is said about the generation of bills.
- the database for that subscriber is accessed to obtain data on current unbilled usage, historical data (such as balances forwarded and recent payments yet to be credited) and any other information to be included on the bill (such as announcements and advertising).
- a bill is then prepared for that subscriber in the standard format.
- the bill image is then sent to a printing house where they are printed, enveloped and posted to the subscriber. Then the system is updated accordingly (particularly regarding indications of what has been billed and is now an account receivable).
- WO-A-9849825 describes a method of processing "call detailed records" (CDRs) which are used in the generation of bills.
- CDRs call detailed records
- a graphical user interface is used to enable a user to select the data fields which are to be used to provide the data from which a bill is to be produced. Only such data as corresponds to the fields which have been selected will pass from the home telephone exchange to the billing centre.
- charge type identifiers nor to the editing of bill images. Rather, the invention seems to be addressing problems of excess data (including blank fields) in a variety of formats being passed between telephone exchanges and billing centres; difficulties of adding or removing fields from CDRs; and the need for the suppliers of telephone exchange equipment to be notified as
- US-A-5218632 concerns a telecommunications billing record software system which permits the company operating a telephone exchange to interface with and define the criteria for
- the company can also define the criteria for specifying the billing record data to be included within the billing records which are
- the invention described in '632 is in effect concerned with a method of configuring a telephone exchange to capture data of the desired type for use in billing, the invention providing a means for an operating company to change, at will, what items will be charged for.
- the disclosure is not concerned with the use of charge type identifiers nor with the processing of usage records in dependence upon charge type identifiers.
- the tool is able to provide decision support for the bill design process.
- the tool is also able to generate the formatting parameters requires by the operational systems to implement revised bill designs.
- a method of generating a bill image in a computer implemented billing system comprises the steps of assigning a charge type identifier (CTI) to each of a number of usage records and processing each usage record in dependence on its assigned CTI to produce a bill image.
- CTI charge type identifier
- the format of the bill image being dependent on the CTI of the usage records.
- a CTI is assigned to each usage record in accordance with a set of rules.
- the processing of each usage record includes the step of assigning a unique sort key to the usage record in dependence on its CTI for defining the relative position of the usage record in the bill image.
- the sort key is generated in dependence on the CTI and a number of fields associated with the usage record.
- the sort key is generated in accordance with a set of rules.
- the usage records are subsequently sorted according to their respective sort keys to create a sorted list. More preferably, the sorted list is processed to generate, when appropriate, and in dependence on the CTIs of the usage records, a number of text inserts to precede or follow a usage record or group of usage records in the bill image.
- each CTI is associated with a position in a text map, in which a change in position in the text map triggers the generation of a text insert, and in which generating the text inserts comprises the steps of determining the text map position for a usage records CTI, comparing the position with that determined for the previous usage record, and inserting an appropriate text insert if a change in position in the text map occurs.
- the text map is a tree hierarchically defining the order in which text inserts are to appear in the bill image.
- the text map position for each CTI is a leaf node in the tree.
- each branch between a parent node and a child node in the tree represents text to be inserted in the bill image.
- the method includes the step of generating a bill image record in the bill image
- each bill image record is generated for a plurality of usage records having a common CTI.
- a number of hidden records are generated in the bill image, the hidden records containing data used to create the bill image. More preferably, the data contained in the hidden records enables the disassembly, modification and reassembly of the bill image to create a fresh bill image.
- the method further comprises the steps of generating a time line over at least a part of which a discount scheme applies, dividing the time line into a number of segments each of which corresponds to a period during which a respective version of the discount scheme is operative, accumulating charges from usage records for calls made during each segment, calculating an appropriate discount from each of the accumulated charges, generating a usage record for each discount, and subsequently assigning a CTI to each of the generated usage records to create a number of discount usage records.
- called usage records are accumulated by call type, the call type being obtained for
- a memory comprises a data structure stored in the memory defining an electronic bill image having a number of records, each record having an assigned charge type identifier, in which the format of the bill image is dependent on the charge type identifiers of the respective records.
- the bill image is created in accordance with the method of the first aspect of the present invention.
- a computer implemented billing system comprises at least one computer readable memory storing computer executable instructions for performing the method of the first aspect of the present invention.
- the system comprises a computer readable memory storing a set of rules used to assign a CTI to a usage records.
- the system comprises a computer readable memory storing a set of rules used to generate a sort key for a usage record.
- the present invention provides a data driven bill processing system which readily permits
- Figure 1 is a functional block diagram of an example of an exchange forming part of a telecommunications network and bill generation system in accordance with the present invention
- Figure 2 is a tree showing the processing flow of the bill generation system of Figure 1;
- Figure 3 is the tree of Figure 2 highlighting processes of the bill generation system specific to the assembly of a bill;
- Figure 4 is a portion of a text map used in the bill generation system in accordance with the present invention.
- Figures 5a to 5e illustrate the steps in generating a bill image from a set of usage records using the text map of Figure 4;
- Figure 6 is a flow chart showing the processes of the bill generation system specific to applying discounts and the like;
- Figure 7a and b illustrate time lines generated for applying discounts to usage records;
- Figure 8 is a flow chart of processes performed in disassembling and editing an existing bill image in accordance with the present invention.
- Figure 9 is the tree of Figure 2 highlighting processes of the bill generation system used in reassembling bill images. Detailed Description
- a service provider In a telecommunications network, a service provider normally bills its customers on a regular monthly or quarterly basis.
- a usage record is produced in a telecommunications exchange 10.
- the usage records are transmitted, in batches, to a pricing system 20.
- Each usage record is priced according to the provider's current scale of charges and stored in a data store 30 in a file associated with the customer.
- the billing date At a predetermined billing date, the
- the billing system 40 processes each usage record in sequence to determine which service type it relates to, for example long distance, chargecard calls or operator services, and the records are then sorted into groups according to service type and fed into a bill generator 60.
- the bill generator outputs each group of sorted records and any necessary headers and footers for that service as an electronic bill image 50.
- the bill generator 60 has an ordered list of service types which co ⁇ esponds to the order into which the records are pre-grouped. Each element in the list is associated with text headers and footers that will appear on the printed bill. For each group of sorted records, the bill generator 60 compares the service type of the records to that which it is expecting in its list. If these match then the associated headers and footers are outputted. Otherwise the bill generator 60 moves onto the next service in its list.
- FIG. 1 is a ⁇ anged so that in addition to sorting the usage records according to service type, they are also processed by a discounting engine 70 which sorts the usage records into groups according to service type and also according to whether they qualify for discounts. A discount is calculated from those records that q ⁇ alify which is then applied to the charge produced by the bill processing system 40.
- the pricing system 20 may be implemented by one computer, whilst the bill processing system 40, bill generator 60, and the discounting engine 70 may be implemented by another computer.
- Each computer is of a well known construction and comprises a central processing unit, a store in the form of a random access memory, a read only memory and a hard disk, a visual display unit, a keyboard and input and output ports. The programs for controlling the operation of the computer are held in the store.
- Figure 2 is a tree showing an example of the information processing flow of a bill generation system in accordance with the present invention.
- the tree should be read from top to bottom and left to right.
- An asterisk (*) in a block indicates that the process of the block is repeated a number of times.
- each call or use of a chargeable service made by a customer generates a usage record which is priced and stored in a data store in a file associated with the customer.
- the bill generation system is run.
- Initialisation processes 100 and 110 are performed to respectively initialise discounting modules of the system and load from an external database a series of data processing rules and tables used by the system.
- an account processor prepares a bill for each customer to be billed on that date.
- process 130 a number of time lines are created for use in determining any discounts from discounting products which are applicable to the customer over the period to be billed.
- a number of accumulators are also created and associated with the time lines for summing charges for subsequent use in calculating discounts.
- Each accumulator may relate to a chargeable service type such as direct-dialled calls.
- CTI charge type identifier
- UBD unsorted bill details
- a discounting engine processes the filled accumulators in process 190 to determine, according to the discounting products initialised in process 130, whether any discounts should be given.
- Each discounting product applicable to the customer may generate one or more discount records which are also passed to processes 150 to 180 to have a CTI and sort key assigned and to be added to the UBD.
- the bill assembly control process 200 is called. This produces a bill summary according to the summed call charges less any applicable discounts in process 210.
- the UBD are sorted using the assigned sort keys to produce a list of sorted bill details which is stored in a sorted bill details (SBD) database.
- SBD sorted bill details
- a bill image is a representation of a bill and is stored in a database from which the bill can be printed.
- a breakdown listing and/or a total charge in addition to explanatory text in the form of headers and/or footers for that subset is produced by processes 230 and 250 and added to the bill image in the appropriate position.
- the bill summary generated by process 210 is added to the bill image in process 260.
- Process 300 then prints the bill image to be sent out to the customer.
- Figure 3 is the tree of Figure 2 highlighting processes of the bill generation system specific to the assembly of a bill.
- the MALNL ⁇ NE-ID field contains the telephone line number to which the call should be assigned for charging whilst the NET-SV-LD contains the number from which the call was made.
- DD stands for " direct dialled"
- a set of rules loaded in process 110 from the external database are used m process 160 to determine which of the set of CTIs should be assigned to each respective usage record
- the rules associate the usage records with CTIs such that an assigned CTI uniquely identifies the type of the usage record
- Each usage record is processed in turn using data from, in particular, the DEST No (number called) field and NET-SV-ID field.
- Non-telephone call usage records are processed using other fields (not shown in the above example).
- Rule 1 the type of charge is identified using the Descriptor field of the record.
- the output consists of an element of a charge identifier and a next action in the form of the next rule to be parsed or a command to exit as processing has either been completed or an exception has been raised.
- rule 1 determines that the record relates to a direct dialled call and outputs a 1 before proceeding to parse rule 2. It is determined that the call was not made using a cardphone and a 2 is output and rule 3 is parsed. According to the customer's requirements and default system settings, this type of charge may be bulked, that is
- the value 1221 121 is output from the rule parsing. This is cross referenced with the table below to give a CTI of 35.
- a sort key for each usage record is generated according to the following
- mainline key the telephone number to be processed
- Each usage record and its assigned CTI and sort key is stored in the UBD.
- Some usage records may take much longer to reach the service provider than those for a local call and could therefore be out of time order sequence. The usage record may even be from a previous billing period.
- Process 210 generates a bill summary for the customer.
- the summary contains the customer account number and address for billing as well as the total charges accumulated in process 170 less any applicable discounts.
- the UBD are sorted numerically by the assigned sort keys to produce a sorted bill details (SBD) which are stored in a SBD database.
- SBD are parsed in processes 230 and 250 to generate an electronic bill image containing the records to be printed from the
- Process 260 takes the bill summary produced in
- process 210 and adds it to the electronic bill image.
- Processes 270 and 280 add the records from the SBD and other customer data to the electronic bill image that, whilst not printed on the bill, would be needed for reference in determining how the bill was generated or when amending the bill.
- Non-itemised usage records are assigned a different CTI to itemised usage records which results in them not being individually displayed on the bill.
- Process 270 passes each hidden record of the SBD to process 280 which adds it to the electronic bill image on a hidden page which is not printed by process 300.
- Other types of hidden records added here are discussed in further detail with reference to Figure 6.
- the electronic bill image is then passed to process 300 for printing and dispatch to the
- Process 300 reads each line of the bill image and, using data tables loaded in process 110, converts the records and codes into lines of formatted text and places it into a print file.
- the data tables contain details on the font, text size and format of a line according to its CTI.
- the data tables also contain cross references from text codes to textual description lines to be added to, around, before, or after a bill image line.
- a bill image record may be of the form: CTI 34 I £2.00
- Process 300 retrieves the text relating to code 00123 ("You have chosen to opt for Friends & Family and you will be charged ⁇ VAL> per month"), the format relating to CTI 34 (Times
- the print file is sent to a printer to be output.
- An example of a print file to be output is shown below: Regional & national calls
- Figure 4 depicts a portion of a tree of a text map used in the generation and formatting of an
- the tree defines the relationships between sections of the bill, such that each node of the tree represents a section.
- the hierarchy of the tree is such that lower level nodes represent subsections of higher level nodes.
- Each CTI is mapped to a leaf node in the tree.
- CTI mappings shown in Figure 4 are expressed in the form CTI-XXX, where XXX is the CTI number.
- each usage record its immediate heading is obtained by following the mapping of the usage record's assigned CTI to a leaf node which defines the heading for that CTI type.
- the identifier of that heading is written to the first element of the heading a ⁇ ay.
- the heading identifier of the parent section is obtained by following the branch of the leaf node up one level in the tree. This is stored in the second element of the a ⁇ ay, and so on up the tree until the root is reached.
- an SBD having usage records with respective CTIs of 35, 35, 37 and 56 is passed to process 250.
- CTI 35 is mapped to leaf 412 in the tree.
- the first and second records generate a heading branch array of [400 410 411 412].
- the third record generates a heading branch array of [400 410 414 415] and the last record generates a heading branch a ⁇ ay of [400 430 435 436].
- one or more trigger variables may also be stored, each variable can trigger the output of a section header at any one of the heading identifiers in the heading a ⁇ ay structure.
- a change of value of trigger variable causes new section information to be written to the electronic bill image for that section.
- a trigger variable may be, for example, a change in the telephone line to be displayed. If a bill is to be generated for 2 or more telephone lines, each may have usage records for direct dialled local calls (each record will have the same CTI) and these may be outputted to the bill image in the same section. However, the CTI for direct dialled local calls may have a trigger variable of change in line, in which case when the line identifier changes, a header and possibly a footer may be outputted to the cu ⁇ ent section of the electronic bill image to differentiate between charges from the different lines. Trigger variables are obtained from a trigger table loaded by the system in process 110 and stored in the trigger variable a ⁇ ay.
- process 250 determines whether any header or footer information in the form of text codes need to be output. Firstly, the heading identifier for the first entry in each of the current and previous charge structures is compared. If these values are the same, the co ⁇ esponding trigger variables stored against those heading identifiers are compared. This is repeated for each heading identifier value and trigger variable until a change is noticed, at which point the level of change is recorded. If no change occurs, then no change in header information is required and the usage record can be output to the bill
- the electronic bill image illustrated in Figure 5 a is generated by processing the first record and its co ⁇ esponding array. Headers opening respective sections 400, 410, 411 and 412 are
- the a ⁇ ay co ⁇ esponding to the last record differs from the previous record at the second element [400 430 435 436]. This difference causes sections 410, 414 and 415 to be closed by outputting footers prior to headers opening respective sections 430, 435 and 436 being output.
- the last record 580 is then output to the electronic bill image, as illustrated in Figure 5d. As there are no more records to process, the remaining open sections 400, 430, 435 and 436 are closed by outputting footers completing generation of the bill image, as illustrated in
- the heading a ⁇ ays need not be generated all at once and could be generated one at a time as the electronic bill image is being created as long as a copy of the previous header a ⁇ ay was retained for use in determining differences in heading sections.
- usage record is applied to call records.
- the invention may be applied to other forms of usage records relevant to, for example, discounting products (see below), and rental charges for equipment or other facilities.
- Figure 6 is a flow chart in which processes 100, 130, 170 and 190 of the bill generation system specific to applying discounts and the like are described in further detail.
- Each discounting product will have one or more qualification criteria defined. For example, for PremierLine provided by British Telecommunications pic most call charges qualify for a discount (charges for calls to mobile telephones or premium rate numbers are normally excluded), whilst for Friends & Family provided by British Telecommunications pic, only call charges on calls to a group of selected numbers qualify for a discount.
- the qualification criteria for each discounting product are loaded into the system in step 600 from an external data store (process 100).
- a CTI to call type mapping is also loaded from an external data
- step 600 In order to allow discounting products to be applicable for only a part of a billing period, discounting products subscribed to by the customer and the dates on which they were active during the billing period are stored in a customer account database.
- step 610 process 130.
- the customer's selected set of numbers are obtained from the customer account database and are added to the qualification criteria for the Friends & Family discounting product.
- a time line for each discounting product subscribed to is generated in step 620.
- a timeline consists of one or more segments, each segment representing a period in which the discounting product was active and unchanged, i.e. the discount rate or circumstances in which discounts apply do not change.
- Each segment has a number of accumulators for storing charges of usage records that qualify for the discounting product during the time period of the segment.
- each segment of a time line is dependent on the discounting product. For Friends & Family, each segment has an accumulator for each number from the customer's selected group, whilst for the other products each segment has a number of accumulators, one for each of a fixed number of call types, in which details of any qualifying usage record for that segment are stored.
- the accumulators are created in process 130, as previously discussed with reference to Figure 2.
- Figure 7a illustrates an example of a time line generated for a discounting product in which a customer subscribes to the product part way through a billing period and a number of changes to the product are also made.
- the dates of the usage records in the UBD are checked to determine whether any record is from a previous billing period. If so, the billing period, for the purposes of generating time lines is extended to incorporate the date(s) of these records.
- the customer account database is accessed and the period(s) of the billing period during which the product was actually subscribed to are determined.
- a central discount product definition database is also accessed that contains data defining the product. Any changes made to the product during the billing period are obtained.
- a time line data structure 700 is generated consisting of one or more segment data structures 710-740.
- the time line data structure 700 is preferably formed as a linked list of segments, each segment representing a part of the billing period during which the discounting product was subscribed to by the customer and during which the product was not changed.
- a number of accumulator data structures, each represented by a single data store 760-790, are linked to each segment data structure.
- the customer subscribes to the product at point PI generating segment 710, the discount rate applicable to the discounting product is changed at point P2 generating segment 720, the customer changes options of the discounting product at point P3 generating segment 730, the customer cancels the subscription to the product at point P4 and resubscribes at point P5 generating segment 740.
- a call type for each usage record is determined in step 630 by cross-referencing its CTI with the table mapping CTI to call type loaded into the system in process 100 from an external data store.
- the table also contains a flag for each call type indicating whether a call type for the destination number of the usage record should be determined. If the flag is set then step 630 also determines a call type for the destination number of the usage record.
- step 640 for each discounting product in which each segment has a number of accumulators, one for each call type, the date and time the call was made or the service type used is checked against the segments of the time line. If the date and time falls within one of the segments, the charge of the usage record is added to the appropriate accumulator for that segment in step 650. For a discounting product such as Friends & Family each segment is divided into the numbers selected for Friends & Family, each of which will have an accumulator. In the step 660, the usage record is checked to determine if the call charge qualifies for a Friends & Family discount. If the number to which the call is made is one of the Friends & Family group, the call charge is added to the appropriate accumulator in step 670. Depending on the discounting products that are applicable to the customer, a call charge may be added to a number of accumulators each associated with different products. Steps 630 to 670 occur in process 170, described with reference to Figure 2.
- Figure 7b expands on the example of Figure 7a illustrating a number of usage records that qualify for the discounting product, the usage records having respective dates D1-D5. Date Dl occurs prior to the start of the billing period and the time line for the billing period is therefore artificially expanded to include this date according to data in the customer account
- the date of each usage record is compared with the time line data structure and if the date coincides with the period of one of the segments, the charge held in the usage record is added to the accumulator linked to that segment.
- the date Dl coincides with the period of segment 750 and the charge of the associated record is added to accumulator 800, and so on.
- the date D4 does not coincide with the period of any segment and therefore that
- Steps 680 to 690 occur in process 190, described with reference to Figure 2.
- Each discount record generated is then passed to process 150 to have a CTI and sort key assigned and to be added to the UBD.
- Process 170 is skipped when process 150 is called from process 190.
- the hidden records relating to the discounting system added to the electronic bill image by process 270 include a record for each discounting product containing the data used to generate the product's respective time line and a record for each product containing a copy of each segment and linked accumulator(s). For a product such as Friends & Family, the customer's chosen discounted numbers are also stored in a hidden record. Finally, a hidden record containing customer information not held elsewhere in the bill image is added to the bill image. Each type of hidden record has its own unique CTI assigned.
- Figure 8 is a flow chart of processes performed in disassembling and editing an existing bill image.
- a bill image to be edited is disassembled into a number of records, each record representing a particular entry in the bill image. These records can then be edited by a user through a
- the edited records are then used by portions of the bill generation system of Figure 1 to reassemble the bill image reflecting any changes made by the user.
- Each line of a bill image selected to be edited is processed to populate the following data structures:
- Control - holds data that appears on the bill once only including customer address, summary page totals, customer account number and bill serial number.
- the CTI field of each line is cross-referenced with a table giving mappings of CTIs to the relevant data structure(s) in step 800.
- the mappings associate each CTI with one of the above data structures and also contain rules used to convert the data from the bill image lines to the data structures.
- the mappings are used to export each line of the bill image to a record in the relevant data structure(s) in steps 810-850.
- An example of a record generated in the details data structure from a direct dialled call line in the bill image is as follows:
- the menu interface allows the records of the data structures to be edited in step 860. Using this interface, usage records can be altered, deleted or inserted; details of discounting products and dates on which they are subscribed to can be changed; and details of the customer and installation can be changed. Any change to the charge value of a usage record is reflected by an equivalent change to the total charge held in the accounting data structure.
- Figure 9 is the tree of Figure 2 in which the processes used in reassembling bill images are highlighted.
- a usage record For each record of the details data structure, a usage record is created. The CTI and sort key held for each record is copied to the usage record. The usage records are then assembled into a UBD. Any new usage records inserted using the menu interface must have a CTI and sort key assigned by being passed to processes 150-180.
- the data contained in the discounting data structure is used in process 130 to initialise discounting time lines and the total charge value held in the accounting data structure is used to replace the call charge that would be accumulated by process 170.
- the UBD is then passed into the system at process 190 and a new bill image is generated for the amended records according to processes 200-300.
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
EP00911129A EP1163790A1 (en) | 1999-03-25 | 2000-03-22 | Bill image generation |
AU33122/00A AU3312200A (en) | 1999-03-25 | 2000-03-22 | Bill image generation |
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
GBGB9906969.2A GB9906969D0 (en) | 1999-03-25 | 1999-03-25 | Bill image generation |
GB9906969.2 | 1999-03-25 |
Publications (1)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO2000059198A1 true WO2000059198A1 (en) | 2000-10-05 |
Family
ID=10850398
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/GB2000/001077 WO2000059198A1 (en) | 1999-03-25 | 2000-03-22 | Bill image generation |
Country Status (4)
Country | Link |
---|---|
EP (1) | EP1163790A1 (en) |
AU (1) | AU3312200A (en) |
GB (1) | GB9906969D0 (en) |
WO (1) | WO2000059198A1 (en) |
Citations (3)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5218632A (en) * | 1991-10-16 | 1993-06-08 | Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson | Flexible call detail recording system |
WO1998049825A1 (en) * | 1997-04-16 | 1998-11-05 | Nokia Telecommunications Oy | Extraction of desired data from data flow |
US5884284A (en) * | 1995-03-09 | 1999-03-16 | Continental Cablevision, Inc. | Telecommunication user account management system and method |
-
1999
- 1999-03-25 GB GBGB9906969.2A patent/GB9906969D0/en not_active Ceased
-
2000
- 2000-03-22 AU AU33122/00A patent/AU3312200A/en not_active Abandoned
- 2000-03-22 EP EP00911129A patent/EP1163790A1/en not_active Ceased
- 2000-03-22 WO PCT/GB2000/001077 patent/WO2000059198A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
Patent Citations (3)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5218632A (en) * | 1991-10-16 | 1993-06-08 | Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson | Flexible call detail recording system |
US5884284A (en) * | 1995-03-09 | 1999-03-16 | Continental Cablevision, Inc. | Telecommunication user account management system and method |
WO1998049825A1 (en) * | 1997-04-16 | 1998-11-05 | Nokia Telecommunications Oy | Extraction of desired data from data flow |
Non-Patent Citations (2)
Title |
---|
CROOKES J: "MULTISERVICE BILLING SYSTEM - A PLATFORM FOR THE FUTURE", BT TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL,GB,BT LABORATORIES, vol. 14, no. 3, pages 98-113, XP000198546, ISSN: 1358-3948 * |
UTTON P C ET AL: "A GRAPHICAL TOOL FOR BILL DESIGN", BT TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL,GB,BT LABORATORIES, vol. 12, no. 4, pages 85-91, XP000469143, ISSN: 1358-3948 * |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
GB9906969D0 (en) | 1999-05-19 |
AU3312200A (en) | 2000-10-16 |
EP1163790A1 (en) | 2001-12-19 |
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