Interconnection Billing System of Grameenphone Ltd. Essay Example for Free

Interconnection Billing System of Grameenphone Ltd. Paper 1.0 Introduction In mid 2008, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) declared that rearrangement of the country’s telecom interconnection design according to International Long Distance Telecommunication Services (ILDTS) Policy 2007 must be finished by the mid of August, 2008 (BTRC, 2008a). This declaration by the telecom controller committed significant telecom administrators (for example portable and fixed systems) to take important measures to finish the re-association task inside the cutoff time while guaranteeing there is no or least supporter bother and income spillage because of this redesign. Grameenphone Ltd., the biggest mobile phone administrator of the nation having an endorser base of around 17 Million at that period (BTRC, 2008b), needed to move toward this administrative order with incredible significance as interconnection end charge is the wellspring of second biggest income stream for the organization (Grameenphone Annual Reports, 2008 †2011). It propelled a cross-useful undertaking to finish the interconnection rebuild task easily. This Project Team distinguished winning interconnection charging procedures and frameworks of the association as one of the key improvement zones. It was felt that current in-house created instruments came up short on the adaptability to oblige the adjustment in arrange design. The board needed substitution of manual charging related undertakings through completely robotized frameworks to guarantee quicker exchanges and age of modified reports. After through appraisal of different choices inside the apportioned financial plan by specialists from significant cross-utilitarian groups, Intec Interconnection Billing System (IIBS) was secured from one of the main sellers of the world, Intec Systems Ltd. (CSGI, 2012). This paper centers around the assessment of IIBS, a hello there tech data framework and its commitment to Grameenphone Ltd., an innovation based association. Significant wellsprings of data are my encounters as an individual from this charging framework usage venture group and later use it for around 03 years; and meetings and email trade with center specialized people and different partners of IIBS. In certain regions, preparing materials gave by the charging framework seller and web sections have been counseled too. 2.0 Overview of Intec Interconnection Billing System 2.1 Telecom Interconnect and Related Facts: Bangladesh Context â€Å"The term Interconnect in the media transmission world methods a plan of action where distinctive contending communication suppliers exist together and interconnect to each other† (4gbilling Inc., 2012). According to Bangladesh Telecommunication Act-2001, any telecom administrator must guarantee ‘any-to-any’ network so its subscriber(s) can helpfully speak with the subscriber(s) of other telecom operator(s) (BTRC, 2001c); therefore, telecom administrators interconnect each other straightforwardly or through interconnection trades (it is the situation in Bangladesh after revamping of national interconnection engineering in 2008) and furthermore set up availability with outside administrators through global doors. Figure 1: Block graph of Interconnectivity (adjusted from ILDTS Policy’07, BTRC 2008a) After foundation of between availability, telecom administrators pay each other interconnection get to charges for the traffic (for example voice call, SMS, MMS) produced by its subscriber(s) to the next at a rate commonly arranged or authorized by the controller. This interconnection installment and related errands, for example count of interconnect traffic volume began and got, age of solicitations, and approval of other operators’ solicitations are directed by their shared interconnection understandings and additionally important mandates from the telecom controllers (Interconnection Regulations, 2004). 2.2 Interconnect Billing Systems With the overall pattern of telecom de-guideline, interconnectivity becomes busy and telecom administrators are needing interconnection charging framework offering itemized investigation of interconnection. The target, obviously, is to settle on â€Å"smart and all around educated business choices to improve income streams† (4gbilling Inc., 2012). The significant undertakings achieved by utilizing Interconnect Billing framework are: - Inter-administrator settlement for traffic traded with different administrators, - Resolution of interconnection charging questions, - Generation of different reports; - Detection of different telecom fakes and aid the board of those. 2.3 Technological Features of Intec Interconnect Billing System (IIBS) IIBS lies at the downstream of Mediation Server in the telecom arrange engineering. It works under customer server model. The servers are controlled by HP-UX (Hewlett-Packard, 2011). It has double server: one houses Database different runs Application (Intec Training Material, 2008). Figure 2: Network Diagram of IIBS (adjusted from 4Gbilling Inc., 2012) In the customer side PCs, there are various modules for receipt age, detailing, and compromise of CDRs from other administrator, and so forth. These customers are associated with the IBS application server utilizing LAN (Local Area Network). Customer PCs may run Microsoft Windows working frameworks. The customers can get to IIBS’s application through Graphical User Interface (GUI) or through electronic Oracle Discoverer (a redid apparatus) says Mr. Raiyan Karim, System Engineer, IBS of Grameenphone Ltd. (Karim, 2012). A group inside the Information Technology division are relegated the assignment to design and work IIBS while the clients are spread everywhere throughout the association running from Finance to Regulatory Affairs capacities. 2.4 Categorisation of IIBS as Information System As a data framework, Intec Interconnect Billing System (IIBS) can be sorted in a few viewpoints. From equipment point of view (Bocij et al, 2008: Chapter 3), IIBS has the essential catch/input innovation being used is the LAN availability with an upstream application server, extremely amazing CPU as processor, 25 Terabyte online attractive circle stockpiling and yield can be taken through either screen show, e-report or printed papers. From programming point of view (Bocij et al, 2008: Chapter 4), IIBS is an application programming, to be explicit, application to process enormous databases containing CDRs. From the executives level points of view (Laudon and Laudon, 2012), IIBS can be sorted principally as an exchange handling framework as it manages examples of interconnection traffic traded (for example call/SMS/MMS made to got from different administrators). This framework serves prerequisites of operational administration and at the same time, the yields from this framework has a more extensive dissemination to various administration levels even up to top officials basically because of significance of related business action (interconnectivity) for media transmission industry. From hierarchical capacity (Laudon and laudon, 2006) points of view, IIBS is an Information Technology business zone explicit data framework. It handles computerized client call records for age of interconnection charging subtleties. From the points of view of reach (Boddy et al, 2005: 37-38), IIBS is distinguished as an intra-hierarchical May be. In spite of the fact that its center use exists in the IT division of Grameenphone, this framework is as often as possible got to from different pieces of the associations for example Fund, Marketing, Regulatory Affairs, and so forth. Also, as IIBS adds to accomplish generally hierarchical objectives for example dependable settlement of interconnection income, help in creating market contributions, it can without much of a stretch be named as an intra-hierarchical Seems to be. 3.0 Supported Organizational Processes The authoritative procedures bolstered by IIBS can be examined by utilizing two methodologies: a) CIPSODAR model of data framework (Heeks, 2011a) and b) use and utilizations of PC based IS by hierarchical level (Bocij et al, 2008: P 45). 3.1 CIPSODAR on IIBS IIBS catches handled CDR (Call Detail Records) from Mediation server (â€Å"a framework used to change over information of certain datatypes to different datatypes, for the most part for charging purposes†, Wikipedia, 2012). These interceded CDRs are feed into IIBS as sources of info. Figure 3: IIBS on CIPSODAR model (adjusted from Heeks, 2011a) The caught CDRs need to contain in any event 06 data fields which are in numeric structure (Intec Systems, 2008): i.Unique CDR recognizable proof no. related with each call made to got from different administrators, ii.phone no. of call beginning supporter, iii.phone no. of call beneficiary supporter, iv.call start time, v.call length, vi.Intelligent arrange checking used to distinguish post-paid or prepaid supporter. These intervened CDRs are additionally prepared by IIBS, for example ordering dependent on different pre-set standards for example paid ahead of time, post-paid, beginning administrator, ending administrator; arranging thereof dependent on every standard, lastly incorporating. IIBS has surprising preparing limit as it handles around 70 Million CDRs in like clockwork (Karim, 2012). IIBS utilizes two kinds of capacity: one is online which has immense capacity ability to store CDRS for back to back 04 months and another is more established CDRs which are moved to attractive tapes for documenting. Yield from IIBS is charging subtleties classified dependent on interconnect administrator, approaching call stream, active call stream, or span for example day-wise or month-wise. Beneficiaries can create receipt to be given to different administrators or altered reports utilizing the customer side invoicing or revealing modules of IIBS. The yields created from IIBS information help the association to choose its interconnection business system for example incorporate extra interconnect limit with some administrator or detail strategy for example elevate calls to different administrators by bringing down client charge. Activities incorporate usage of inner business methodology or legally binding commitments of interconnection understanding. The res