Interconnection Billing System of Grameenphone Ltd. Essay Example for Free

Interconnection Billing System of Grameenphone Ltd. Article 1.0 Introduction In mid 2008, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) declared that rearrangement of the country’s telecom interconnection engineering 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 applicable telecom administrators (for example versatile 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 revamping. Grameenphone Ltd., the biggest mobile phone administrator of the nation having a supporter base of around 17 Million at that period (BTRC, 2008b), needed to move toward this administrative mandate 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 devices did not have the adaptability to suit the adjustment in arrange design. The board needed substitution of manual charging related assignments through completely robotized frameworks to guarantee quicker exchanges and age of tweaked reports. After through appraisal of different options inside the assigned spending plan by specialists from applicable cross-practical groups, Intec Interconnection Billing System (IIBS) was acquired from one of the main sellers of the world, Intec Systems Ltd. (CSGI, 2012). This paper centers around the assessment of IIBS, a howdy 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 zones, preparing materials gave by the charging framework merchant and web sections have been counseled also. 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 coincide 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 advantageously speak with the subscriber(s) of other telecom operator(s) (BTRC, 2001c); subsequently, telecom administrators interconnect each other legitimately or through interconnection trades (it is the situation in Bangladesh after revamping of national interconnection engineering in 2008) and furthermore build up availability with remote administrators through worldwide portals. Figure 1: Block chart of Interconnectivity (adjusted from ILDTS Policy’07, BTRC 2008a) After foundation of between network, telecom administrators pay each other interconnection get to charges for the traffic (for example voice call, SMS, MMS) created by its subscriber(s) to the next at a rate commonly arranged or implemented by the controller. This interconnection installment and related undertakings, for example estimation of interconnect traffic volume started and got, age of solicitations, and approval of other operators’ solicitations are directed by their common interconnection understandings as well as significant orders 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 point by point 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 errands 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 executives of those. 2.3 Technological Features of Intec Interconnect Billing System (IIBS) IIBS lies at the downstream of Mediation Server in the telecom organize design. 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 on. 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 online Oracle Discoverer (a modified apparatus) says Mr. Raiyan Karim, System Engineer, IBS of Grameenphone Ltd. (Karim, 2012). A group inside the Information Technology office are alloted 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 arranged in a few points of view. From equipment viewpoint (Bocij et al, 2008: Chapter 3), IIBS has the essential catch/input innovation being used is the LAN network with an upstream application server, exceptionally ground-breaking CPU as processor, 25 Terabyte online attractive plate stockpiling and yield can be taken through either screen show, e-record 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 arranged for the most part as an exchange handling framework as it manages cases 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 course to various administration levels even up to top officials mostly because of significance of related business movement (interconnectivity) for media transmission industry. From authoritative capacity (Laudon and laudon, 2006) points of view, IIBS is an Information Technology business territory explicit data framework. It handles advanced client call records for age of interconnection charging subtleties. From the points of view of reach (Boddy et al, 2005: 37-38), IIBS is recognized as an intra-hierarchical May be. Despite the fact that its center use exists in the IT branch of Grameenphone, this framework is as often as possible got to from different pieces of the associations for example Account, Marketing, Regulatory Affairs, and so forth. Additionally, as IIBS adds to accomplish generally authoritative 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-authoritative Seems to be. 3.0 Supported Organizational Processes The authoritative procedures bolstered by IIBS can be investigated by utilizing two methodologies: a) CIPSODAR model of data framework (Heeks, 2011a) and b) use and uses 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, as a rule for charging purposes†, Wikipedia, 2012). These interceded CDRs are feed into IIBS as data sources. Figure 3: IIBS on CIPSODAR model (adjusted from Heeks, 2011a) The caught CDRs need to contain at any rate 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 endorser, iv.call start time, v.call span, vi.Intelligent arrange stamping used to distinguish post-paid or prepaid supporter. These interceded CDRs are additionally handled by IIBS, for example characterizing dependent on different pre-set measures for example paid ahead of time, post-paid, beginning administrator, ending administrator; arranging thereof dependent on every measure, lastly gathering. IIBS has astounding preparing limit as it handles around 70 Million CDRs in at regular intervals (Karim, 2012). IIBS utilizes two kinds of capacity: one is online which has enormous capacity ability to store CDRS for back to back 04 months and another is more established CDRs which are moved to attractive tapes for filing. Yield from IIBS is charging subtleties ordered dependent on interconnect administrator, approaching call stream, active call stream, or length for example day-wise or month-wise. Beneficiaries can create receipt to be given to different administrators or modified reports utilizing the customer side invoicing or detailing modules of IIBS. The yields produced from IIBS information help the association to settle on its interconnection business technique for example incorporate extra interconnect limit with some administrator or define marketable strategy for example elevate calls to different administrators by bringing down client charge. Activities incorporate execution of inside business procedure or legally binding commitments of interconnection understanding. The res