White Paper
Interconnect Billing and Content Partner Management as a Managed Service Nick Wennekers | August 2010
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Interconnect billing and partner management as a managed service
A Growing Need for Managed Services
Dealing with a Fast Moving Interconnect Market
Today’s global, competitive and complex telecommunications
Wireless and wireline retail pricing is decreasing fast, as are
environment requires operators to focus more and more on their
wholesale prices. Interconnect and roaming margins are under
core business competences. The traditional environment of
constant pressure. This leads to more attention to cost prices
voice interconnection is changing and will continue to evolve
and in many call scenarios the cost price is (besides the cost of
even further with the advent of new IP-based services.
the
Wholesale
interconnect price for the call, SMS or other inter-network
competition
is
intensifying;
short
term
rate
agreements are emerging, which require more rapid billing
internal
network
infrastructure)
determined
by
the
content transaction.
implementations and partner management (Stratecast, 2009). With a shift of focus to cost savings, including interconnection At the same time, in the current economic climate, operators are
costs, this market starts behaving differently. Although some
challenged by the high cost of ownership of in-house
operators may not be actively transiting traffic or trading
interconnect billing software solutions and the resources
minutes, this type of business is growing and affecting the way
allocated to these solutions. Lower cost of ownership and
operators
simpler integration options are driving a growth in SaaS
settlement amongst each other. Discount deals and volume
propositions (Shane, 2010) and managed services.
commitments are the rule rather than the exception.
While the growing complexity of interconnection and content
This leads to more frequent price, numbering plan and partner
settlement markets are putting increasing pressure on resources
data updates and puts a high pressure on internal resources to
and costs for operators, as indicated above, new technology
update the interconnect billing and partner management
options also hold out the promise of new lower cost solutions.
systems - time that could be better spent on business analysis
are
exchanging
offers,
numbering
plans
and
and negotiating better deals. This white paper describes the Wholesale Service Bureau, provided by MACH. MACH’s Wholesale Service Bureau re-
Besides the fact that the pressure on internal resources is
aligns your interconnect billing, content partner management
growing, the complexity of the business is also growing.
and settlement business as a managed service, where MACH
Operators are connecting more interconnect partners to their
processes all your records and maintains your partner set-ups.
network in order to route their traffic to the most optimal route
This approach allows you to focus more of your time on
and are having multiple service agreements with the same
managing the fast moving interconnect and content markets and
partner.
closing the best deals, while spending less time worrying about software systems and processes.
With the advent of new IP and RCS1 services, Interconnect based services are growing, new business models are being introduced and partner maintenance is becoming increasingly important. The interconnect billing and partner settlement systems needed to maintain all these relations are growing in importance and the overhead costs associated with maintenance of these systems are increasing by the day.
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MACH Wholesale Service Bureau
GSMA Rich Communication Suite
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Interconnect billing and partner management as a managed service
Strong Content Market Growth
Low Cost of Ownership
Interconnect billing and content partner settlement are closely
MACH’s Wholesale Service Bureau is a managed service and
related processes. Content partner settlement requires partner
therefore comes without license, maintenance or hardware fees.
relationship management, event rating (voice, SMS, IP services,
The cost structure for the Wholesale Service Bureau is based on
content)
OPEX only relating to the number of transactions and
and
settlement
between
operators
and
their
interconnect partners and content partners.
agreements maintained. This results in a very low Total Cost of Ownership for an interconnect billing and partner management
While partner management and settlement is growing in
system.
complexity, the revenue is also becoming more important for operators. The expected growth for mobile content and data
Managed Service
service is around 100% in the period 2009-2014 to an expected
The Wholesale Service Bureau is run as a managed service,
US $400 billion (Informa, 2010).
which means that MACH operates one centralized system where all the clients are connected. A dedicated MACH service team is available to help all customers to manage their partners and to make sure that wholesale rating, billing and reporting is all completed without any errors. Reference Data One of the biggest challenges for any operator is maintaining all the
changes
in
the
reference
data
and
successfully
implementing these changes on-time in the in-house billing system. This is a key advantage of the MACH solution. MACH implements all reference data on behalf of the operator and
Source (Informa, 2010)
constantly monitors the correct processing of CDRs to make sure that the number of errors committed, due to missing reference data or incorrect data, is minimized.
With this growing market on one hand and growing complexity on the other, many operators realize that the management of
The reference data, maintained by the MACH dedicated team of
their interconnect and content partners, wholesale rating and
experts, can be divided into two parts:
settlement of all records for these partners no longer represents their core competence. So they are looking for new ways of
1.
Technical reference data
managing this business while still being able to maintain
The operator needs to update MACH with the network
commercial control.
information that is required to identify the correct partner and service. This information is visible in the call records
MACH Wholesale Service Bureau
that are sent to MACH and is mapped with the correct
MACH operates a Wholesale Service Bureau that is already
reference data to the right partner and agreement.
helping many operators with their complete interconnect billing and content partner management processes. Within this
2.
Commercial reference data
Wholesale Service Bureau structure, MACH focuses on the
The commercial reference data contains the information
partner management and CDR processing, rating, reporting and
about the mapping to the correct destinations for voice or
settlement, while the operators can focus on the commercial
correct content for content downloads. The operator
negotiations with their interconnect and content partners, to
forwards the price-list they have received from their partner
make sure that they have the best commercial agreements.
to MACH and MACH updates the system on their behalf.
MACH Wholesale Service Bureau
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Interconnect billing and partner management as a managed service
Proactive Error Detection
the raw CDR into MBF records. MACH processes the traffic for
With margins getting thinner every day, particularly on voice
their entire customer base via the same system with the same
services, an operator must ensure that the rating and billing
CDR format.
system is as accurate as possible. Most prominent of the irregularities encountered with in-house systems is that price
2. Rating
updates or network changes are configured too late, or never at
MACH’s dedicated team of experts constantly monitors all price
all, resulting in an inaccurate bill.
updates, network changes or numbering plan updates to make sure that all data is processed correctly. The complete reference
Staff at the MACH Wholesale Service Bureau monitor all errors
data is inserted into the system by our experts. MACH’s
continuously and informs the operator immediately if error rates
interconnect system processes the CDRs, manages the correct
exceed a previously agreed threshold. The operator can send
agreement tracking and assigns the correct price to the CDR.
updated or missing reference data to MACH and MACH will update the system, to correct and recycle the CDRs. In order to
3. Reporting
minimize error percentages, all processes within the Wholesale
MACH provides a flexible reporting and business intelligence
Service Bureau are created at month end.
solution - MACH SMART. MACH SMART supports a zero client, online interface, where operators are able to access their data and review and analyse their rated interconnect and content traffic. Users are able to create their own reports based on the parameters they want to see (for example national vs. international, traffic per trunk, traffic per interconnect partner per day, downloads per day per partner, etc.). Reporting for traffic is available as soon as the traffic has been processed in MACH’s systems.
MACH understands that partners will sometimes send their
4. Financial Clearing
pricing too late to the operators and therefore the rating may
Operators can choose to use the financial clearing options,
have already taken place in the system. MACH developed the
provided by MACH to complete the ‘CDR-to-Cash’ process.
Wholesale Service Bureau in such a way that prices can always
MACH then sends out invoices and collects money on behalf of
be adjusted without any impact on the processing of CDRs.
the customer.
Price updates configured by MACH are effective immediately and become visible in all reporting systems as well, even if the price changes are retrospectively applied.
Content Partner Management On a wholesale level, operators want to save costs as much as
‘CDR-to-Cash’ principle
possible and therefore are connecting more and more
The MACH Wholesale Service Bureau works with the ‘CDR-to-
Interconnect partners to their systems for their international
Cash’ principle, which in short means that a client only needs to
voice services and connecting directly to their national partners.
send the CDRs and forward the reference data to MACH and
At the same time operators are also connecting to more and
MACH will do the rest. MACH not only processes the
more content partners, to make sure their subscribers have
interconnect data, but can also generate and settle invoices on
access to an extensive range of revenue generating content
behalf of the operator.
options.
The MACH Wholesale Service Bureau uses the following steps
More partners and more options create a growing need for a
to process CDRs:
structured content partner management system that is up to date all the time. Updating the system with all the partner data
1. Mediation
and pricing takes more and more time from the operators.
MACH’s Wholesale Service Bureau processes MBF-formatted CDRs. (MBF = Mach Billing Format). Operators can send raw
Where business
CDRs coming from their switches to MACH and MACH will
commercials and the outcome of their agreements, they need to
implement a converter for their specific CDR format to translate
spend a lot of time on updating all the agreements and pricing.
MACH Wholesale Service Bureau
owners
want
the main focus
on the
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Interconnect billing and partner management as a managed service
When an operator chooses the MACH Wholesale Service
all the different carriers to this numbering plan. This allows
Bureau for their partner management and Interconnect and/or
operators to make a more valid traffic comparison.
content billing, their focus can shift back to managing their business strategy. MACH takes care of all the changes in the
Save Cost, Time and Effort with MACH Wholesale Service
agreements, ensuring that all partner data is up-to-date at all
Bureau
times. Business owners at the operator can access data and
MACH’s Wholesale Service Bureau addresses all partner
support 24x7 via MACH’s online portal MACH SMART.
management issues, because interconnect and content partner management processes are provided as a managed service. A
Business Advisory Reporting
dedicated team of experts helps each operator to run its
In addition to agreement tracking and rating of interconnect
business and makes sure that operators are free to focus on the
events, MACH also provides business advisory services, helping
commercial and strategic side of the business, while MACH
operators identify the most optimal routes they should choose
maintains the systems and runs all the processes. MACH’s
for their voice services, offering them the possibility to compare
Wholesale Service Bureau comes with a full set of business
traffic sent and received to and from different partners. The main
advisory tools, low risk and low total cost of ownership.
processes that are managed within the MACH Wholesale Service Bureau for Interconnect are represented in the figure below:
About MACH MACH
operates
communications
the
world’s
exchange,
leading uniting
hub-based the
mobile global
telecommunications marketplace. MACH HUB-XC® provides the platform for the efficient exchange of mobile traffic, of service validation, delivery and billing information, and of settlement transactions. MACH is the largest provider of data and financial clearing solutions for wireless roaming and operates the world’s largest
open
connectivity
roaming
hub,
Link2One.
Headquartered in Luxembourg, MACH has offices in 12 countries and employs more than 1,000 people worldwide. MACH serves more than 650 customers, including Orange, Telefonica, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Verizon Wireless and Microsoft, as well as enterprise messaging customers like KLM. For further information, visit www.mach.com.
MACH’s business advisory service changes the reporting system from being a reactive reporting tool to becoming a proactive business decision support solution. If an operator is connected to multiple international long distance carriers they continuously update their pricing and prefixes for all their international destinations. MACH business advisory compares all the different offers based on the standard numbering plan that can be chosen by the operator and advises each operator on the best way to route traffic. Based on the routing of traffic, MACH provides each operator with trading reports that show how the traffic was actually routed, via which carrier and what the cost per carrier is for a particular destination. Comparing carriers is difficult, because each carrier uses a different numbering plan. MACH’s advisory services allow operators to choose a reporting numbering plan and map the destinations of
MACH Wholesale Service Bureau
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Interconnect billing and partner management as a managed service
Bibliography Informa. (2010, may 5). Mobile Content & Services Interactive Forecast Tool 2009 - 2014. Shane, D. (2010, May 17). saas-uptake-poised-to-explodesays-gartner. Retrieved July 16, 2010, from www.information-age.com: http://www.informationage.com/channels/business-applications/perspectives-andtrends/1255133/saas-uptake-poised-to-explode-saysgartner.thtml Stratecast. (2009). Financial Settlement With Interconnect and Content Partners - Business needs are Rapidly Changing. Frost & Sullivan. Stratecast. (2009). Global CSP Billing Part 5: Interconnect & Settlements and Partner Management Sector Assesment. Frost & Sullivan.
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