IST Billing

[Former Member]

Hi,

I wanted to know if I could use the IS-U billing functionality in IS-T, so instead of using an external billing system (EBS) to use directly billing in IS-T. From the documentation I went through it is not clear to me if IS-U billing can be used in Tellecommunications companies.

Thanks in advance,

Iordanis Sarioglou

SAP SD Consultant

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I moved the thread to the Industry Solution forum, as your chance to get an answer is higher.

Mario

[Former Member]

Sorry, I should have written 'Wouldn't have thought it to be fit for purpose!

[Former Member]

This is a large topic, but I have time for only a short-ish answer... First, we must distinguish between what Telcos call "Rating" = Initial pricing (similar to pricing in the SD order/quote), & Billing (similar to billing/re-pricing in the SD Bill). Rating/Pricing is done at the time the service is consumed; Billing is done some time after, when a whole group of services have been consumed. Hence, in utilities, Rating/pricing is not so relevant as the calculation only need to be done every month, when the bill is sent. Hence, Util's do the pricing & the Billing together in IS-U Billing. This model is no good for Telcos & the price must typically be done in real time, eg for pay-as-you-go mobile phone. For this telcos have hi-vol, hi-price, specialist rating engines. (Hence, IS-U billing is not suitable & NOT supported for IS-T!)

From above, as, for Telcos, all calls would typically arrive in SAP pre-rated, Telco Billing is more typically just adding the pre-rated calls together & then presenting the bill(s) on a convergent invoice. The convergent invoicing part is already delivered in ERP2005 within "Contract Acct" solutions IS-U, IS-T's RM-CA & PubSect's PSCD (IS-PS-CA). The Telco (EDR) Billing is expected to be delivered in late 2007 (This is not a commitment to SAP's future delivery!). This will include processing all of the individual EventDataRecords, eg calls, within the ERP Billing run - huge volumes!

If you want to use hi-volume mass complex-pricing/billing capabilities, but NOT linked to an installed IS-T ERP or CRM instance, then 2 supported choices are IS-U billing & Public Sector Billing in PSCD (uses BRF, so can do complex-pricing-calculations).

Good Luck (Please reward points if found useful!)!

Message was edited by: Mike Woodward

[Former Member]

Could anyone explain situations where the need arises, to use an external billing system, aprt from an IS-T billing system?

Regards,

Madhwesh

Edited by: Madhwesh PS on Aug 20, 2009 1:54 PM

[Former Member]

How would you collect and bill the call minutes? The problem with telecoms is the variation on prices in such a competative market. I'm not familiar with IS-U but would expect it to be fit for purpose or other firms would be using it too.

For fixed price items, you could use SD to bill, but I don;t think IS-U is the best route....