Revenue Management

Revenue management is a Business support systems (BSS) process, and refers to those processes in a communications service provider (CSP) that are concerned with collecting, making and assuring payments for services supplied or received. There are two main processes: collection of payments from customers (consumers and businesses) and collection of payments from partners.

Revenue management encompasses technologies and processes such as: Billing, Charging and Settlement; Revenue assurance and Fraud management; Mediation; Rating; Payment.

In addition to vendors of Commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS), revenue management processes are also supported by custom-built systems (built in-house or by third parties), providers of Managed services and other types of outsourced services and solutions (such as Software as a service).

A specialist form of outsourced services in this area is provided by Clearing houses, which support roaming and interconnect partnerships, as well as data exchange and financial settlement between partners.

BSS OSS Revisited

Business support systems (BSS) is a collective term for the telecoms software solutions used to support customers. The term encompasses software that supports billing & charging; customer management; product design & management; sales & marketing; order & order activation.

BSS contrasts with the related term Operational support systems (OSS), which are network-facing solutions.

In reality the two sets of solutions are closely related and increasingly need to work together, thus the terms BSS/OSS, OSS/BSS, BSSOSS and BOSS are often used. Although there is broad agreement over what BSS encompasses, some types of software sit between the BSS and OSS, and the emphasis on "flow through" processes means the separation of systems into BSS and OSS layers is becoming somewhat artificial. Historically, however, this separation was because two separate departments handled these processes - BSS being handled by IT and OSS by networks. Likewise two sets of vendors supported the layers. As time has gone on many vendors have broadened their portfolios to encompass both BSS and OSS.

BSS support four key processes:

• Revenue management - which encompasses Billing, Charging and Settlement, Mediation, Rating, Revenue assurance and Fraud management, Payments.

• Customer management - encompasses Customer relationship management (CRM) - also known as customer care - Customer experience management, Call centre technology, and Partner relationship management (PRM)

• Product management - is concerned with the development, sales and management of products, offers and bundles to businesses and mass-market customers. It includes Service creation, Service Development Platforms (SDPs), Product catalogs and Marketing solutions.

• Order management - involves taking and handling the customer order. This is now often included as part of the customer management solution and involves a close integration with OSS solutions.

Each of these processes is inter-related, and also increasingly closely aligned to allied OSS processes. Although a process may be technically distinct, it is often from an operational or business perspective embedded in another process or closely aligned to it. Thus order management, for example, is an integral part of customer management, the business driver for the OSS process of Service fulfillment, and closely aligned to Revenue management (since it is imperative to ensure that an ordered service is billed for).

Hush Little Baby - AVANI's Favourite Lullaby :)

When Abhi's away, herez what I sing to AVANI and she loves it! :)

Hush, little baby, don't say a word,
Mama's going to buy you a mockingbird.

If that mockingbird won't sing,
Mama's going to buy you a diamond ring.

If that diamond ring turns brass,
Mama's going to buy you a looking glass.

If that looking glass gets broke,
Mama's going to buy you a billy goat.

If that billy goat won't pull,
Mama's going to buy you a cart and bull.

If that cart and bull turn over,
Mama's going to buy you a dog named Rover.

If that dog named Rover won't bark,
Mama's going to buy you a horse and cart.

If that horse and cart fall down,
You'll still be the sweetest little Girl in town.

So hush little baby, don't you cry,
Daddy loves you and so do I.