Sky Dance Billing

Client, Provider, Destination, Bilateral Agreements, Rates, Least Cost Routing, Prepaid, Custom Report

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 7 MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS 8 GET STARTED 9 THE MAIN MENU BAR 11 1 SUMMARY 11 2 CLIENT 11 2.1 CUSTOMIZATION FIELDS 13 2.2 GENERAL REPORT 15 2.2.1 EXPAND ALL / COLLAPSE ALL 15 2.2.2 TRAFFIC TYPE 15 2.2.3 IMPORTANCE 16 2.2.4 EVOLUTION 21 2.2.5 CALLS 25 2.2.6 CLIENT MINUTES 25 2.2.7 ALOC 25 2.2.8 CURRENCY 25 2.2.9 INCOME 25 2.2.10 COST 25 2.2.11 PROFIT 25 2.2.12 % PROFIT / INCOME 25 3 PROVIDER 26 4 DESTINATION 30 5 BILATERAL AGREEMENTS 34 6 RATES 37 7 LEAST COST ROUTING 40 8 ROUTING 41 8.1 AUTOMATIC ROUTING 41 8.2 BLACK LIST 43 9 PREPAID 44 10 CUSTOM REPORT 47 11 MEDIATION 51 11.1 SUMMARY 51 11.2 CALL TYPE 52 11.3 CALLS WITHOUT SUBSCRIPTION 54 11.4 DETAIL BY FILE 54 12 ADMINISTRATION 55 12.1 ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT 55 12.1.1 ACCOUNT INFO 60 12.1.2 CONTACT INFO 61 12.1.3 COMMERCIAL INFO 61 12.1.4 FINANCIAL INFO 62 12.1.5 SPECIAL CONDITIONS 65 12.1.6 CONTACT INFO 65 12.1.7 SUBSCRIPTIONS 66 12.1.8 INVOICES 67 12.1.9 DOCUMENTS 68 12.1.10 NOTES 68 12.2 TRUNK MANAGEMENT 68 12.3 USERS 69 13 LOGOUT 72

Table of Figures

Figure 1. Login Window. 9 Figure 2. Opening Screen - Summary. 10 Figure 3. The Main Menu Bar. 11 Figure 4. Clients General Report. 12 Figure 5. Search by Date Window. 13 Figure 6. General Report Custom Search. 13 Figure 7. Currency Rates Window. 14 Figure 8. Currency Rates Expanded Window. 15 Figure 9. Clients General Report. 15 Figure 10. Details of a Specific Client Report. 17 Figure 11. Example of a Client Report. 18 Figure 12. Client Detail Report – Levels. 21 Figure 13. Client’s Evolution Report. 22 Figure 14. Client’s Evolution Graph. 23 Figure 15. Client’s Evolution Report. 24 Figure 16. Provider General Report. 27 Figure 17. Details of a Specific Provider Report. 28 Figure 18. Provider Evolution Report. 30 Figure 19. Destination Customization Option. 31 Figure 20. Destination Customization Fields. 32 Figure 21. Customized Report by Destination. 33 Figure 22. Bilateral Agreements Option. 34 Figure 23. Customized Report by Destination. 38 Figure 24. Rates Report Customization Window. 38 Figure 25. Rates Report. 39 Figure 26. Least Cost Routing – Report Customization. 40 Figure 27. Customized Least Cost Routing Report. 41 Figure 28. Automatic Routing Clients Management. 42 Figure 29. Client Addition in the Automatic Routing Table. 43 Figure 30. Client Addition in the Automatic Routing Table. 43 Figure 31. Prepaid Customers Report. 45 Figure 32. Prepaid Customers Report Example. 46 Figure 33. Custom Report Generation. 48 Figure 34. Armenia – Colombia Customization Parameters. 50 Figure 35. Armenia – Colombia Custom Client Report. 50 Figure 36. Search by Date Window. 51 Figure 37. Summary. 52 Figure 38. Billing Codes and Table of Events. 53 Figure 39. Routes Presenting Billing Problems. 54 Figure 40. Calls Without Subscription. 54 Figure 41. Detail by File. 55 Figure 42. Account Management. 56 Figure 43. Credit Limit. 57 Figure 44. Cash Flow Forecast. 58 Figure 45. Last Notes. 59 Figure 46. New Account window. 59 Figure 47. Account Info. 60 Figure 48. Contact Info. 61 Figure 49. Commercial Info. 62 Figure 50. Financial Info. 62 Figure 51. Detailed Balance window. 64 Figure 52. Transaction Addition. 64 Figure 53. Special Conditions. 65 Figure 54. Contacts. 65 Figure 55. Subscriptions. 66 Figure 56. Invoices. 67 Figure 57. Documents. 68 Figure 58. Notes. 68 Figure 59. Trunk Management Window. 69 Figure 60. User Management. 69 Figure 61. User Creation. 70 Figure 62. User Group Information Window 71 Figure 63. User Edition. 72

Introduction

Minimum Requirements

BILLING runs on a customized Linux server. The hardware configuration has been designed to fit your specific needs.

Being a web application, BILLING runs on all the major browser: Firefox Google Chrome Internet Explorer Safari

The communication channel between your switch and the LAN where the web application will be running has to be IP. Several standard protocols can be used, SCP, NFS, FTP, etc. It is always recommended to use an encrypted connection and have enough bandwidth to avoid delays importing files.

Get Started

To begin a session in BILLING type the URL of the application that is assigned to your network in the address bar of your browser. This address will have the following format:

http://billing.yourcomapanyname.com

Your screen will display the Login window (Figure 1). Type your Username and Password to initiate the application. Your administrator is responsible for creating the user accounts and defining your profile, based on a role and permission security.

Figure 1. Login Window.

Note: Your Username will be restricted after three unsuccessful login attempts.

Once your username and password have been authenticated, you will see “Welcome, ‘your username’” in the upper-right corner of the main menu bar, and the opening screen with the following graphs.

Figure 2. Opening Screen - Summary.

These charts summarize the income and profit for the prior day, UTC±00:00. The currency used by default is USD.

• Income by Traffic Type This is the first pie chart to the left. Scroll over the divisions of the pie and you will see a text box showing the income for that division of the chart compared to the total income for the day, i.e., 108,621.06 of 714,310.92.

• Countries with Higher Profit This is pie chart to the right. Scroll over the divisions of the pie to see details of a specific country. The text box displays the profit of the country compared to the total profit for the day, i.e., 6,495.45 of 40,389.45.

• Evolution This is the bar chart located at the bottom of the screen. It summarizes the traffic volume (minutes) and profit behavior over the past 15 days. Scroll over a specific bar to display the exact value.

The Main Menu Bar

In this bar (figure 3) you will find every resource you need to understand in detail your business performance versus your traffic volumes.

Figure 3. The Main Menu Bar.

1 SUMMARY

The icon will take you back to the Summary Charts that shows the income, profit and volumes of traffic for the prior day.

2 CLIENT

This option of the Main Menu Bar is dedicated to your customers performance in terms of traffic volume, income and profit.

The levels of detail of this functionality are represented in figure 4.

Figure 4. Clients General Report.

Following is a description of the tables and windows in the option “Client” of the Main Menu Bar.

Note: You can customize any table of BILLING by clicking on the right corner of any cell. This action will display the following window:

Figure 5. Search by Date Window.

Click on “Columns” to display the list of parameters and check mark on those you want to see on the table.

2.1 Customization Fields

Figure 6 shows the customization fields that are used to generate a report that reflects your specific needs of information. By default, the BILLING module will display the performance of all the group of companies for the prior day.

Figure 6. General Report Custom Search.

• Company This field is used when different companies, business units or subsidiaries carry on your business. You can see the performance of the entire group or select the company/business unit of your interest.

• Subscription Type

With this field you can select between client (incoming traffic) and provider (outgoing traffic). The data will load accordingly. This field is an alternate way to go to Client and Provider in the Main Menu Bar.

• From - To

You can customize your search by date using these fields. The commands < and > are used to move your search one day back or forth separately. With these commands, you can define a timeframe of more than one day.

The commands << and >> are used to move the complete time frame back and forth. For example using < and > you can define a timeframe of three days like this: From 2012-12-07, To 2012-12-09. Using << you move the same timeframe, three days back: From 2012-12-04, To 2012-12-06. Using >> you move the same timeframe, three days forth: From 2012-12-10, To 2012-12-12.

• Time Zone

There are three options in this field. Internal time refers to the time set as a reference by your organization, usually UTC. Client time refers to the time specified by the customer as a reference for billing purposes. Provider time refers to the time specified by the provider as a reference for billing purposes.

• Currency

By default, the currency used for the Cost and to calculate the Income, Profit, % Profit / Income, and % Profit / Cost, is USD. If you switch to EUR, you will see these values calculated in Euros, according to the reference values of the window located in the top right corner (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Currency Rates Window.

Click on to get detailed information of the currency exchange rates used for the prior week (figure 8).

Figure 8. Currency Rates Expanded Window.

• Next

Your customized report will be displayed with this command. Figure 9 is an example of the data displayed by default.

Figure 9. Clients General Report.

2.2 General Report

The Client General Report is a complete summary of your customer’s performance. Following is a description of the fields.

Note: Most of the tables in BILLING can be exported using various formats: CSV, Excel, Xml.

2.2.1 Expand All / Collapse All

The table data is divided by traffic type. Use to see details by customer or to see just the subtotals.

2.2.2 Traffic Type

The data is organized by traffic type -access, direct, hubbing, etc. Use or lo expand or collapse data for a specific traffic type. The type of traffic can be defined when the account is configured in the BILLING module.

2.2.3 Importance

To determine the importance of a customer (or Provider), the system performs an algorithm based on the daily billing and the historical profit of the previous 30 days. The algorithm takes into account the profit, the turnover and the margin for each destination of this account with respect of other accounts.

Client is the carrier that is sending traffic to your network. Figure 10 shows the levels of detail of this option for a specific customer.

Figure 10. Details of a Specific Client Report.

Click on a client of the General Report to see detailed information about the traffic. Figure 11 is an example for customer Algerie Tel.

Figure 11. Example of a Client Report.

In the first part of this screen you can find the following fields to customize your Client Detail Report:

• Subscription Type Since you are in the option “Client” of the Main Menu Bar, this option will show by default, Client. You can switch to Provider if you want to see the list of carriers that terminate the traffic that this customer is sending.

• Area Code Type For your customer certain destination comprises codes that you might define as a separate destination. To clarify this aspect, you have three options in the Area code Type: Client Area Code is used to present the traffic according to your customer’s definition of destinations. Provider Area Code is used to see the traffic according to your provider’s definition of destinations, and the Internal Area Code is used to present the traffic according to the codes defined per destination by your organization.

• From – To You can customize your search by date using these fields.

• Time Zone As previously described.

• Destination You can include the destination of the traffic in your customization.

• Area Code You can customize the client’s report by including a specific area code where your customer sends traffic.

• Currency This field allows you to choose the currency you want the data to be displayed.

• Rows You can select the amount of files you want to see in the screen: 50, 100 or all.

• Next Your customized search will be displayed with this command.

The client detail report contains the following fields:

• Expand All / Collapse All

• Subscription A carrier can have two different types of subscriptions: one as provider and one as client. The subscription defines each of the products which you have a relationship with your customer or supplier. For example, if you sell a carrier one product “gold” and one product “silver”, each product would have a subscription.

• Client If, for example, you retrieve information of a retail customer, this field will show the name of the product (calling card).

• Destination Destination refers to the network where the call is intended to terminate.

• Area Code This column will show the area code according to your requirements in the customization fields “Area Code Type”, and “Area Code.”

• Provider This is the carrier that is terminating your customer’s traffic.

• Calls These are the connected calls that this customer sent for you to terminate in the destinations.

• Client Minutes This refers to the total minutes per call to be billed. The contract specifies the way your customer’s calls should be billed in terms of incremental intervals.

When you export the client report, you will also see the Providers Minutes which refer to the amount of minutes measured depending on your provider’s methods of billing (incremental intervals). You also have the Internal Minutes, which refers to your methods of billing in terms of minute rounding.

• ALOC Average Length of Call.

• Sell Rate The rate that is specified in the contract.

• Income The Sell Rate multiplied by the Client Minutes.

• Cost Rate The rate per minute that the terminating carrier charges.

• Cost The Cost Rate multiplied by the Provider Minutes.

• Profit This is the Income minus the Cost.

• % Profit / Income This is your net profit percentage.

When you export the table, you also have the % Profit / Cost which is your profit percentage.

The following figure shows that by clicking on one of the clients, you can see the specific activity for the destinations.

Figure 12. Client Detail Report – Levels.

2.2.4 Evolution

Now, going back to Client in the Main Menu Bar, the next column in the General Report is Evolution. Click on and you will load a customizable graph that shows the traffic performance for the customer. Figure 18 shows the topology of this window.

Figure 13. Client’s Evolution Report.

By default, the graph will show a bar chart for the Income, and a line chart for the Profit. Both charts are developed over the last week. The scale for the Income is on the right side of the graph and the scale for the Profit is on the left side of the graph. Hover the cursor over the bars or the line chart to see the exact value (figure 14).

Figure 14. Client’s Evolution Graph.

The graph can be customized using the following fields:

• From and To The commands < and > will add one day to your graph, either at the beginning or at the end of the time frame. The commands << and >> are used to move the complete time frame back and forth.

• Time period You can change the scale of the horizontal axis to Month, Weeks and Days, depending on the length of your time frame. You can also see the performance of your customer’s traffic for a specific day of the week. For example, if you select Sunday, you will see the bar chart and the line chart for every Sunday in the time frame you specified in the From and To fields.

• Line Field With this window you can choose the line chart to represent Calls, Minutes, Income, Cost, Retail Income, or Profit.

• Bar Field With this window you can choose the bar chart to represent Calls, Minutes, Income, Cost, Retail Income, or Profit.

• Rows By default the Evolution window will show all the registers for the last week. You can chose to load only 50 or 100 rows.

• Currency This window allows you to choose the currency you want the data to be displayed.

• Display Your customized graph will be displayed with this command.

By default, the Evolution window will also show a table with all the registers for the last week (figure 15).

Figure 115. Client’s Evolution Report.

The Client’s Evolution Report has the following fields:

• Destination This is a customizable field that shows the destination of your customer’s traffic. By default it will show the complete list of all the destinations that your client is sending traffic.

• Area Code This is a customizable field that determines the area code of your customer’s calls.

• Date This field is determined by the To and From fields.

• Calls The amount of connected calls to the specific destination, area code, and date.

• Client Minutes This is the total amount of minutes for the specific destination, area code and date. These minutes are measured according to the contractual specifications.

• Aloc This is the Average Length of Call.

• Cost The cost per minute is specified in the contract.

• Profit This is the daily profit for the specific destination.

• %Prof / Income This is your daily net profit percentage for the specific destination.

2.2.5 Calls Now, going back to Client in the Main Menu Bar, the next column in the General Report is Calls. The first row right after the header contains the total values for each measurable column. The column calls represents the connected calls that the customer sent to your network to direct it to the destinations.

2.2.6 Client Minutes As previously described.

2.2.7 ALOC This is the Average Length of Call.

2.2.8 Currency This column shows the contractual currency used for billing purposes.

2.2.9 Income As previously described. 2.2.10 Cost As previously described. 2.2.11 Profit As previously described. 2.2.12 % Profit / Income As previously described.

3 PROVIDER

This option of the Main Menu Bar is dedicated to the income and profit you get from the traffic that you receive from your clients and is that terminated by your providers.

This option and the option “Client” of the Main Menu Bar have the same structure. The screens present the same customization fields, and the reports contain the same basic configuration.

The levels of detail of the option “Provider” are represented in figure 16. Figure 17 shows the report for a specific Provider and figure 18 shows the traffic behavior of a specific Provider over a specific time frame.

Figure 16. Provider General Report.

Figure 17. Details of a Specific Provider Report.

Figure 18. Provider Evolution Report.

4 DESTINATION

This option is dedicated to the search of data by destination. Figure 19 shows the topology of this window.

Figure 19. Destination Customization Option.

Following is an explanation of the fields to customize your search.

Figure 20. Destination Customization Fields.

• Company As previously described in chapter 3.

• Subscription Type Here you define if you want to retrieve information about the traffic per destination your clients are sending to your network (Client), or the traffic per destination your providers are receiving (Provider).

• Area Code Type As stated before, Client Area Code is used to present the traffic according to your customer’s definition of destinations. Provider Area Code is used to see the traffic according to your provider’s definition of destinations. Internal Area Code is used to present the traffic according to the codes per destination defined by your organization. And the option Country is used to present all the destinations per country.

• From – To As previously described.

• Rows You can select the amount of files you want to see in the screen: All, 100, 500, 1000.

• Destination Type here the destination where your customers are sending traffic.

• Area Code Enter here the dial code you want to retrieve data from. The type is defined in the Area Code Type field.

• Client / Provider Enter here the name of the customer or provider you want to retrieve data from.

• Currency This field allows you to choose the currency you want the data to be displayed.

• Display Your customized search will be displayed with this command.

Figure 21. Customized Report by Destination.

Figure 21 is an example of a customized report of Customers sending traffic to the destination of Uruguay. Click on a Client and you will see the list of providers terminating the traffic on that destination.

5 BILATERAL AGREEMENTS

This option is dedicated to the traffic exchange agreements between your company and another carrier.

Figure 22. Bilateral Agreements Option.

The table at the top of figure 22 represents a summary of the valid bilateral agreements to date. The field Select Account is used together with New Bilateral Agreement, to create a new row in the Bilateral Agreements table. The fields Description and From – To will appear for you to complete.

You can also customize your search using the field Destination. With this window you will generate a table with the agreements that compromise the destination you are looking for.

Following is a description of the fields.

• Acronym This is the abbreviated name of the client with whom you have a bilateral agreement.

• Bilateral Agreement This field gives you a brief description of what the bilateral agreement is about.

• From – To These fields denote the effective date of the agreement.

• Profit This field indicates the performance of the contract in terms of profit. Red indicates negative profit

• Balance Balance refers to the difference between the real profit and the forecasted profit of the bilateral agreement. Red indicates negative balance.

Click on one of the Acronyms to retrieve detailed information about the commitments and performance of the bilateral agreement. These are the fields of the table.

• Bilateral Agreement This field gives a brief description of the bilateral agreement.

• Id This is the internal identification for the agreement target.

• Type It has two categories: Provider refers to the carrier as a destination of the traffic in the agreed amount (volume). Client refers to the carrier as a customer that sends traffic to your network in the agreed amount (volume).

• Volume This is the agreed amount of traffic sent and received.

• Destination This is the network where the traffic is to be terminated.

• Agreed Rate

• Bilateral Agreement o Minutes: This is the amount of minutes sent (Provider) or received (Client) to date. o MRPD: Minutes Remaining Per Day. The average amount of minutes that have to be sent or received daily to fulfill the agreement. o Complete: Percentage of fulfillment of the volumes agreed. o Days %: Percentage of days that have passed since the beginning of the period established in the agreement. o Excess Days: A negative number represents the amount of delay days in the fulfillment of the commitments. A positive number reflects the number of days in advance you will have when fulfilling your commitments. The amount of days on both cases is calculated prorating the days that have gone by and the volume of traffic. o Calls: Amount of calls to date. o Income: Income calculated to date. o Sell Rate: The sell rate with regards to the clients that send traffic and the rates that they have in a provider’s bilateral agreement, and the sell rate in case of a client’s bilateral agreement. o Cost: Cost calculated to date. o Cost Rate: This is the rate you pay in a provider’s bilateral agreement, or the cost of the traffic we terminate in a client’s bilateral agreement. o Profit: This is calculated to date.

• Other Traffic o Calls: Amount of calls to the same destinations outside this agreement. o Minutes: Amount of minutes to the same destinations outside this agreement. o Income: Income to the same destination outside this agreement. o Cost: Cost outside this agreement. o Sell Rate: This is the sell rate outside this agreement. o Cost Rate: This is the cost rate outside this agreement.

• Estimated o Profit: This is the profit of the bilateral agreement to date. o Balance: This is the difference between the money received from the incoming traffic and the money spent from the outgoing traffic.

Back to figure 22, if you click on a Bilateral Agreement cell you will access a screen where you can edit the following parameters of the bilateral agreement:

• Description

• From – To

• Target You can add a target or edit the type of subscription, overflow (it is zero by default), and volumes of traffic to be reached under the agreement. The field Enable indicates if the agreement is enabled for automatic routing. You can save or discard the changes made on these fields.

The automatic routing uses the field Overflow to calculate the traffic to be sent daily to fulfill the bilateral agreement before or after the deadline. If this field is 3, the automatic routing will do the calculations to finish with three days in advance. If the overflow field is -3, the automatic routing will do the calculations to finish three days later.

• Destination You can add a destination, edit the rate, and edit minimum customer rate. This parameter help prevent routing traffic that do not comply with the minimum sell rate of the destination.

6 RATES

This option is dedicated to the rates report generation. The fields of this option are shown in figure 23.

Figure 23. Customized Report by Destination.

Following is an explanation of the customization window.

Figure 24. Rates Report Customization Window.

• Subscription Type Here you define if you want to retrieve the rates per client or provider.

• View There are two options: Destination and Carrier. Choosing Destination allows you to write the name of the carrier in the field Carrier. The option Carrier will display a list of them in the field Carrier. With the option Destination you can see all the carriers (customers or suppliers) to those destinations (that can be multiple destinations separated by commas). If the option selected is "Carrier" you can see the carrier rates to all destinations or to the selected destinations.

• Carrier Depending on your choice of the field View you can either write the name of the carrier, or select it from a list.

• Rows You can select the amount of files you want to see in the screen: All, 100, 500, 1000.

• Destination In this field you can type country, city, carrier name, or network.

• Area code Enter here the dial code you want to retrieve data from.

• Display Your customized search will be displayed with this command.

Figure 25. Rates Report.

Figure 25 is an example of a customized report. You can see here the rates for a customer (Comcel GT) and the rates per destination. A ✓in the field “In LCR” –Least Cost Routing- means that the traffic to that destination is being routed to one of the best options cost-wise. The field Effective represents the date of validity of the rate.

7 LEAST COST ROUTING

This functionality is useful to locate the least cost routing per destination. Following is an explanation of the customization window.

Figure 26. Least Cost Routing – Report Customization.

• View There are two options: Destination and Area Code. If you choose Destination, the platform calculates the Least Cost Routing per destination; a destination can comprise more than one area code. If you choose Area Code, the system calculates the Least Cost Routing per area code. For example in the option Destination, if you type Spain under Destination or 34 under Area Code, the system will display a list of the lowest rates per network. In the option Area Code, if you type Spain under Destination or 34 under Area Code, the system will display a list of the lowest rates per area code.

• Destination Type the name of the city or country.

• Area Code Type here the dial code of the destination you want the report to be generated.

• Rows You can select the amount of files you want to see in the screen: All, 100, 500, 1000.

• Display Your customized search will be displayed with this command.

Figure 27 is an example of a customized report for Sweden.

Figure 27. Customized Least Cost Routing Report.

In this example you can see all the providers you have interconnection, with the Area Code they cover and the valid rates ordered from lowest to highest.

8 ROUTING

This section explains the use of the automatic routing resources. 8.1 Automatic Routing

This option of the routing tab is used to enable or disable clients to route the traffic through the automatic routing resources of your network.

The Automatic Routing is software that reads the rates from the BILLING system and analyzes the quality of the providers to develop a custom routing table for the clients included in the Automatic Routing table (figure 28). All rates are read daily while the quality of calls and routes are computed every 15 minutes. The Automatic Routing software optimizes the routing routine resulting in a better financial performance.

In the algorithm the ALOC is the key indicator parameter, and is given a weight of 3.

Figure 28 shows an example of the table to manage the clients that make use of the automatic routing.

Figure 28. Automatic Routing Clients Management.

The fields of the table are:

• Partition A partition is a common resource pool to a destination or carrier. A partition groups the common routing for one or more customers, i.e., the wholesale clients are often appointed to the same partition. This partition comprises all the routes they need to direct their traffic.

• Description This is a brief description -sometimes the name of the carrier is enough- which refers to the client that is enabled to route the traffic in the automatic routing switch.

• Subscription The subscription defines the type of product for example wholesale, and traffic, for example hubbing or direct, per carrier. A carrier can have more than one subscription, for example one as client and one as provider. In the case of the automatic routing, the subscriptions are client subscriptions. This field is updated by the system once the acronym is entered.

• Acronym This is the abbreviated name of the client.

• ASR, ALOC, Rate In these three indicators is defined the importance each one have when the traffic is routed automatically. In the example of figure 28, the ALOC is the key indicator (3) to perform the automatic routing, meaning that the route with the best ALOC will be selected to route the customer’s traffic. Then ASR and Rate are taken into consideration with the same importance (1).

• Created This field denotes the date when the client was included in the automatic routing table. This field is filled automatically by the system. A custom search can be performed using the fields Subscription and/or Acronym and/or Description in the search window.

Click “Add” to include a customer in the automatic routing table. A new row will appear in the table. Enter the Partition, Description and Acronym. ASR, ALOC and Rate have fixed values of 1, 3 and 1 respectively. Click “Save” to confirm the addition of “Cancel” to discard it.

Figure 29. Client Addition in the Automatic Routing Table.

To disable one or more clients, mark the check box on the left of the table corresponding to the client you want to exclude from the automatic routing, and click “Delete”. 8.2 Black List

This option manages a list of providers that are not part of the automatic routing.

Figure 30. Client Addition in the Automatic Routing Table.

The fields of the table are:

• Subscription This is the subscription associated to the provider.

• Acronym This is the abbreviated name of the provider.

• Area Code This field corresponds to the area code that is not part of the automatic routing for that specific provider. In other words, traffic routed automatically will no be directed to this area code for this provider.

• Destination This is the destination corresponding to the area code listed in the table.

• Created This field denotes the date when the client was included in the black list. This field is filled automatically by the system.

A custom search can be performed using the fields Subscription and/or Acronym and/or Area Code and/or Destination, in the search window.

Click “Add” to include a customer in the black list. A new row will appear in the table. As you type the Acronym, a drop down list of will appear. Select the Acronym from the list or finish typing.

As you type the Area Code, a drop down list of options will appear. Select the Area Code from the list. The Destination, Subscriptions and Created fields will be filled automatically. Click “Save” to confirm the addition of “Cancel” to discard it.

To exclude one or more providers form the black list, mark the check box on the left corresponding to the provider you want to delete from the table, and click “Delete”.

9 PREPAID

With this option you retrieve information about your prepaid cards. Here the prepaid platform receives a call, the system sends the call to your network and from there it is routed to a provider.

The general topology of this option is as follows.

Figure 31. Prepaid Customers Report.

The commands < and > are used to move your search one day back or forth separately while the commands << and >> are used to move the complete time frame back and forth.

Figure 32. Prepaid Customers Report Example.

Figure 32 is an example of the customized report for eight days. Following is an explanation of this report:

• Card This is the name of the prepaid calling card.

• Evolution With the icon you will generate a graph and a report showing the performance of the customer in the timeframe specified at the beginning of your search. The graph will show, by default, the income in the bar chart, and the volume of calls in the line chart. These parameters are customizable as explained in section 2.2.5.

The table generated with the Evolution icon, represents all the destinations where the traffic of the calling card is terminated. It gives details about the area codes, connected calls, minutes, income and cost.

• Calls Total amount of connected calls for that prepaid card.

• Minutes Total amount of connected minutes for the prepaid card.

• Retail Income This income reflects what the prepaid platform charges to the prepaid customers, according to the BILLING platform rates.

• Income This income reflects what you charge per minute –usually at cost- to the prepaid platform traffic.

• Cost This cost reflects the cost per minute you pay to your providers.

• Profit You have two types of profit on this table, the prepaid platform profit and your profit as a carrier.

Going back to figure 32, click on the name of the card to retrieve a report of the traffic per destination.

10 CUSTOM REPORT

This option is dedicated to the generation of custom reports. The customization window is illustrated in figure 33.

Figure 33. Custom Report Generation.

The customization window is divided in three parts: Client, Provider, and the third part that includes the field Country. The field Display is used to enable or disable the deployment of the filter in the table. For example if you want to generate a report for a client where you want to see the traffic per area codes, check mark the box under Display for Dial Code.

The Client and Provider windows have the following fields:

• Company This field is used when different companies, business units or subsidiaries carry on your business. You can generate the report for the entire group or select the company/business unit of your interest.

• Traffic Type The traffic type depend on the type of service rendered: hubbing, retail, etc.

• Carrier Type here the name of the customer or provider.

• Destination Type here the name of the city or country. As you type a window with all the possible options will appear for you to select the destination.

• Area Code You can customize the report by including a specific area code.

• Manager You can generate a report to see the performance of the accounts of a particular Manager. Select the name of the Manager from the list.

• Currency Here you decide whether or not to show this field in the report.

The third part of the customization window includes the following fields:

• Country Type here the name of the country you want to retrieve data from.

• Internal Destination Type here the name of the City or network (p. e. cellular Avantel) you want to retrieve information. Note that in this field your internal destination assignation is followed.

• Internal Area Code Type the Area Code following your internal definition of area codes.

• Internal/Client/Provider Date Depending on the internal time followed by your business, your customers or providers, you might have differences in the date. This field helps clarify these differences.

• Output Select the format you want the report to be generated: html, csv, excel, xml.

• Reset Click Reset to clear all fields and start a new customization.

• Next Your customized report will be exported in the specified format.

Following is an example of a customized client report for the city of Armenia in Colombia, and for the 12/19/2012. Figure 34 shows the customization parameters.

Figure 34. Armenia – Colombia Customization Parameters.

The custom report generated in the example of figure 34 is shown in figure 35.

Figure 35. Armenia – Colombia Custom Client Report.

This report lists the customers sending traffic to Armenia. The fields of the report are:

• Client These are the customers sending traffic to Armenia.

• Client Destination The destination your customers require the traffic to be terminated.

• Client Currency The currency your customer’s billing is based.

• Calls This is the total amount of calls in the time frame.

• Internal Minutes You also have the Internal Minutes, which refers to your methods of billing in terms of minute rounding.

• ALOC

• Income As previously described.

• Sell Rate As previously described.

• Cost As previously described.

• Cost Rate As previously described.

• Profit As previously described.

• % Profit / Income As previously described.

11 MEDIATION

This window summarizes the activity of the switches, the distribution of calls by type, the routes with any billing trouble, and the detail of CDR files mediated between the switches and the BILLING module.

The displayed data corresponds, by default, to the information of the previous day. You can customize your search by date, using the field “From” of Figure 36. Or use the < and > to move one day forward and one day backward.

Figure 36. Search by Date Window.

11.1 Summary

The first table of the summary represents the number of files mediated between the BILLING module and the Switches.

The red cell denotes that the system has mediated fewer files than it should have.

Figure 37. Summary. 11.2 Call Type

The second part of the table in the Summary window is Call Type. Following is a description of the fields of this table.

Table 1. Call Type Definition Call Type Description Mediated This field refers to the amount of calls in terms of sets of messages (2 or more) comprising a call. Connected A call is successfully connected when there’s a ringing tone or the call is answered. A connected call is also a call that has to be billed Accepted A call that has been mediated successfully. Access Damaged The register has been corrupted and the call cannot be billed. Not Rated Calls that have not been rated by the BILLING module. Stuck These are calls which duration exceeds the configured length limit in the system. Errors Successfully Billed The number of accepted calls that have been billed by the platform minus the stuck calls. Billed Calls Should Be The number of connected calls that should be billed by the platform minus the stuck calls.

“Successfully Billed” and “Billed calls Should Be” numbers should match. A red cell denotes a problem if they don’t.

The second table in the screen summarizes the billing problems for the prior day. First, you will find the billing codification (figure 38) and then the details of the events per route (figure 39).

Figure 38. Billing Codes and Table of Events.

The following table explains the meaning of the billing codes.

Table 2. Billing Codes Description Billing Code Description Not Rated The call has not been rated due to some error in the processing. Rated The call is billed. If there are errors in the process, the other indicators will clarify. Default Rate Calls billed with a default configurable rate. Hourly The call is billed by the normal process that runs every hour after every mediation. No Client’s Rate The client’s rate does not exist in the rate registry. The system bills using the default rate. No Provider’s Rate The provider’s rate does not exist in the registry. The system bills using the default rate. Fixed This indicator denotes that there were damaged calls that were fixed and billed. Stuck Call These are calls which duration exceeds the configurable length limit. These calls are not billed. Not Billed Call Calls that could not be billed by the system.

The billing unusual events for the prior day are summarized in the following figure. It makes use of the billing codes to explain the nature of the event.

Figure 39. Routes Presenting Billing Problems.

The following table describes the heading fields of the billing events summary.

Table 3. Billing Events - Parameters Field Description Code This is the internal code for the carrier. Client This is the actual customer sending traffic to a destination through your switches. Org_sub Client’s identity that sends the call. Provider Provider’s identity that terminates the call. Dst_sub Destination provider’s identity that terminates the call. Tg_in This indicates the trunk group of the customer. Tg_out This indicates the trunk group of the provider. Cld Called_id. This is the called party number.

11.3 Calls Without Subscription

These are the calls that cannot be associated to a customer or provider.

Figure 40. Calls Without Subscription.

The field CIng refers to the calling party number.

11.4 Detail by File

This table contains details of the CDR files collected by the Agents and mediated in the platform.

Figure 41. Detail by File.

The following table explains the fields of the Detail by File window.

Table 4. Details of the Mediated Files. Parameter Description Agent Switch where the CDR are collected. Description Name of the CDR file. The format contains the location, date and time. Mediated Files mediated by the BILLING module. Connected Connected calls. Accepted Accepted calls. Damaged The file has been corrupted and cannot be processed. Access Damaged

12 ADMINISTRATION

This option provides administrative information about the carriers and the contracts, and rates and billing management tools. 12.1 Account Management

This tab is dedicated to classifying administrative information related to the customers, providers, and valid agreements with them.

Figure 43 shows the general structure of this option. The first screen that you will see is a list of contracts with the different carriers.

Figure 42. Account Management.

Following is an explanation of the fields of this table.

• Company This field is useful to manage different companies of the same group that are interconnected with the carriers. You can see a specific company and its accounts by clicking on the right corner arrow of the header and then selecting “Filters”. This will display the list of companies that form the business conglomerate. Select the company or companies you want to see the accounts.

• Account This is the internal Id given to the account.

• Acronym This is the abbreviated name of the company with whom you have an agreement. You can see a specific account by clicking on the right corner arrow of the header and then selecting “Filters”. Type here the name of the carrier you want to find in the list.

• Status You can select the status of the agreement by clicking on the right corner arrow of the cell and selecting “Filters”. You can define the status as “ACTIVE” when the agreement is operational, “BLOCKED” when the incoming trunk groups are blocked, and “CANCELLED” when the agreement is not valid anymore.

• Credit Limit This field shows the maximum amount of credit that your company can extend to the carrier. You can use the filter on the header by defining a fixed amount or a range (see figure 43).

Figure 43. Credit Limit.

• Credit Currency This is the credit currency that is specified in the agreement.

• Automatic Cut If the Automatic Cut is activated, the system will block the route once the Credit Limit value is reached. Use the filter to list the accounts with automatic cut or without it.

Now back to figure 42 the button Cash Flow Forecast takes you to a window dedicated to provide information about the expected consolidated incomings and outgoings of cash per account.

Figure 44. Cash Flow Forecast.

This table compiles the cash flow forecast for the following 10 weeks. Make use of the field “From” to specify a different time frame you want to see the forecast. The table of figure 44 provides the following information:

• Company This is the business unit or subsidiary under which manages the account.

• Acronym This is the abbreviated name of the carrier.

• Period This refers to the billing period.

• Due Days The amount of days before the invoice has to be paid.

• Week Number This refers to the week on which the forecast is being made.

The first line of the table shows the consolidated total forecasted per week. Click on to see the incomings and outgoings specific account. To see the incomings and outgoings of all the accounts click “Expand All”.

Now, back to the Account Management window (figure 42), the button Last Notes take you to the following window:

Figure 45. Last Notes.

This window is useful to compile final notes regarding the performance of the agreement.

Again going back to figure 42, if you expand one of the companies, you will see the general address of the carrier and the financial contact information. If you click on one of the acronyms you will access detail information about the agreement: Account info, contact info, commercial info, financial info, special conditions, contact info, subscriptions, invoices, documents, and notes. Following is an explanation of these windows.

To add a new line in the Account Management table click on “New Account”. The following window will appear:

Figure 46. New Account window.

Fill in the information required and save the changes. Following is an explanation of the different tables of this window.

12.1.1 Account Info

In this window you see general information about the account. Figure 47 shows an example for a specific carrier.

Figure 47. Account Info.

The fields in this window are explained as follows:

• Company This is the business unit or subsidiary, which manages the account.

• Acronym This is the abbreviated name of the carrier.

• Account Name This is the full name of the carrier.

• TIN This is the Tax Identification Number of the carrier.

• Status This field denotes whether the agreement is active, blocked or cancelled.

• Manager This is the person in your company responsible for the relation with the carrier.

• Time Zone This is the time zone that has been settled in the agreement.

• Geographic Zone This is useful to define the geographic zone, such as Europe, Latin America, Asia, etc., to which the account belongs.

Note: To enable the edition of most of the fields of Account Info, Contact Info, and Financial info, use the button “Edit” located under the window of Special Conditions. After you make the changes, click “Save” to confirm the edition or “Cancel” to discard it.

12.1.2 Contact Info

This window gives you specific information about the contact person or department, and the physical location of the carrier. Figure 48 shows an example for a specific carrier.

Figure 48. Contact Info.

12.1.3 Commercial Info

This window shows details about the rates notification.

Figure 49. Commercial Info.

The fields in this window are explained as follows:

• Rates Notification Period This period is specified in the agreement. It tells the days in advance required to enforce a rate or code change.

• Rates Notification Subject Some customers accept rate changes through an email automatic upload module. This field specifies the subject of the email you must include to validate the reception of the amendments.

• Rates Notification Sender This field specifies the email address from which you must send the rate notifications.

12.1.4 Financial Info

This window provides general information about the financial status and the conditions agreed in the contract.

Figure 50. Financial Info.

These conditions are:

• Balance In case of a bilateral agreement, this field shows the difference between the traffic you receive and traffic you send to the carrier in terms of money.

• Currency The currency is as agreed in the contract.

• Bank This is the bank where all transactions are made.

• Payment Terms This is the amount of days that the customer or your company has to pay an invoice.

• Issue Invoice If this box is checked, it means that a physical invoice should be sent to the customer.

• Invoice Model This field helps clarify the case where multiple business units emit different invoice models.

• Invoice Subject This field specifies the subject of the email you must include to validate the reception of the invoice.

• VAT This field indicates the Value Added Tax applied in the invoice.

• Accounting ID This is the ID of the account.

• Credit Limit A zero in this field means that the customer does not need a credit to send traffic. A one in this field means that the offset value can’t be different to zero and further action should be taken. A different amount specified here represents the credit the customer has to send traffic.

• Insured This is the insurance policy coverage in the event that your company is unable to collect on the accounts receivable.

• Automatic Cut When this box is checked it means that the routes will be blocked once the credit reaches a zero value.

• Balance Offset When this box is checked it means that traffic routing is allowed even when the offset value is not zero.

• Alert The system sends an alert that indicates that the credit limit is reaching this value.

• Prepaid Client/Provider This field indicates if this is a client or provider prepaid account.

Going back to Balance, Click on to see the daily movement of consolidated incoming and outgoing invoices, and the balance. The following window will appear:

Figure 51. Detailed Balance window.

To create a bank transaction click “Add Transaction”:

Figure 52. Transaction Addition.

Select the type of operation -Consolidate, Incoming Payment, or Output Payment. Select the date, the amount, the currency, and type a brief description if required. Then click “Save” or “Cancel”.

To edit a bank transaction click and make use of the Operation, Date, Amount , Currency and Description, to make the edition.

12.1.5 Special Conditions

In this field you can document special financial conditions to be considered in the agreement.

Figure 53. Special Conditions.

12.1.6 Contact Info

This table summarizes the contact information of the different areas involved in the daily performance of the routes of the agreement You can add or delete contacts using the commands “Add Contact”, “Save”, “Cancel”.

Figure 54. Contacts.

Following is an explanation of this table:

• Delete To delete a contact, click on the x and then confirm the change by clicking on “Save”.

• Name, Email, Phone These are editable fields that contain detail information of the recipient or contact person.

• Rate, Balance, Automatic Cut, Alert, Invoice A checkmark on one of these columns indicates that the recipient or contact person is to receive the designated information.

12.1.7 Subscriptions

This table provides information about the existing subscriptions with the carrier. In the example of figure 55 there are two subscriptions with this carrier, one as provider and one as client.

Figure 55. Subscriptions.

Following is a description of the fields of the table:

• Id This is the account ID.

• Subscription This field describes the subscription.

• Type Here you see the nature of the subscription: Client or Provider.

• Traffic This field describes the type of traffic that’s being routed.

• Rate This identification takes you to the table of applicable rates for the subscription.

• Custom Rating This field indicates that the rates change according to specific conditions agreed. These conditions could be for example volume of minutes, time of the day when the calls are placed, etc.

• Billing Cycle These are the billing terms according to the agreement.

12.1.8 Invoices

This table summarizes the recent invoices sent to the customer. The system saves up to two months of invoicing.

Figure 56. Invoices.

• Id XXXX.

• Prefix This field gives an idea of what business unit in your company is invoicing the customer.

• Invoice This is the number of the invoice. The actual file is accessible by clicking on the number.

• Invoice Date This field is the date when the invoice was issued.

• Minutes The volume of traffic billed.

• Invoice Amount This is the amount due by the customer.

• Due Date The last date to submit payment

• Accounting Date

12.1.9 Documents

In this field you will find contractual documents or any document supporting the agreement.

Figure 57. Documents. 12.1.10 Notes

Here you will find information or comments of any nature that help clarify the spirit of the agreement.

Figure 58. Notes.

12.2 Trunk Management

Figure 59. Trunk Management Window.

[4/29/13 10:58:05 AM] jorge zeppenfeldt: el base on es la manera en que el billing identificara la llamada, en este caso dice incoming TG / Outgoing trunk, es decir que factura por TG ID [4/29/13 10:58:22 AM] jorge zeppenfeldt: hay otras opciones como DNI Prefix [4/29/13 10:58:55 AM] jorge zeppenfeldt: en esos casos va a una tabla predefinida donde pones prefijos de los DNI a los cuales asignas la subscripcion [4/29/13 10:59:01 AM] jorge zeppenfeldt: por ejemplo [4/29/13 10:59:46 AM] jorge zeppenfeldt: tu puedes poner que para todo lo que venga con el codigo 57 use una subscripcion y si viene con 1 otra y asi ...... [4/29/13 11:00:12 AM] jorge zeppenfeldt: si le dices incoming tg , te pone la subscripcion a todo lo que venga con el TG x [4/29/13 11:00:48 AM] Pilar Saavedra: oook capto. Abajo en esa misma ventana se definen los casos de DNI y ANI [4/29/13 11:01:00 AM] jorge zeppenfeldt: recuedo que tambien habia ANI prefix [4/29/13 11:01:01 AM] jorge zeppenfeldt: si [4/29/13 11:01:27 AM] jorge zeppenfeldt: el ANI prefix es coo DNI prefix pero en base al ANI [4/29/13 11:01:47 AM] jorge zeppenfeldt: eso lo que te dice es como aplicar la subscripcion

12.3 Users

This section explains the user access management to the platform functionalities.

Figure 60. User Management.

The Users main screen gives you a complete list that you, as an Administrator, will need to manage the profile and permissions of every user. You have access to the following information:

• Username This is user identification accessing the platform.

• Group This field defines the group the username belongs to. The Administrator creates a group based on a role and responsibility matrix of users.

• Phone, Cellular Phone Number, Email This is the contact information of the user.

• Op Click to enable or disable a user.

To add a new user, click on “Create New User”. The following window will open:

Figure 61. User Creation.

Enter essential data –Username, First Name, Last Name, Phone, Cellular, Email- and password. Select the Group the user will belong to from a drop-down list.

To access detailed information about the groups that are created in the system, click on User Groups. The following window will open:

Figure 62. User Group Information Window

Click on a group to retrieve specific information of it. You can see the following fields:

• Group Name. • Group Description • Security - Users Groups • Reports – The access to the different features of the platform is described here. Each group has access to specific options of the menu depending on the user profile and permissions.

Now, if you want to edit data from an existing user, click on the username. The following window will open.

Figure 63. User Edition.

In this window you can:

• Edit contact information -Username, First Name, Phone, Cellular, Email. • Edit password. • Edit group - Add or remove the user from a group. 13 LOGOUT

Clicking on Logout will take you to the login window of figure 1.