Telephonic communications – With usage measurement – Call traffic recording by computer or control processor
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-15
2002-01-08
Tieu, Binh (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
With usage measurement
Call traffic recording by computer or control processor
C379S114100, C379S120000, C379S121020
Reexamination Certificate
active
06337901
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of customer billing software, and in particular, to an architecture and method for compiling customer billing information from multiple billing systems and service regions, for presenting consolidated views of the revenue derived from customers, and for creating and monitoring terms and conditions based on customer billing relationships illustrated in the consolidated views.
2. Background of the Invention
Before 1984, the Bell telephone system consisted of 22 local Bell telephone companies that were owned by American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T). AT&T and the local Bell companies sold local, domestic U.S., and international long distance services, as well as customer premises telephone hardware. Customers had one point of contact for all of their telecommunications requirements and AT&T effectively held a monopoly on all telephone services. To meet the accounting needs of this monopoly during this period, AT&T developed billing information technologies and applications that tracked telephone service usage and billing records. These early software and database technologies were relatively primitive and did not allow for the complete integration of billing information across different types of customer accounts, customer operating units (e.g., consumer or small business), and geographic locations (e.g., regional accounting offices). Today, these early billing technologies are referred to as legacy technologies.
In 1984, the United States government ordered the divestiture of AT&T, requiring AT&T to transfer ownership of the 22 local phone companies to seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs). The seven RBOCs retained the “Bell” logo and the right to sell local and toll calling within local areas. Further, the RBOCs continued to use the legacy technologies to administer customer accounts and track billing activities within their individual regions. During this period, because minimal competition existed within the regions of the RBOCs, the RBOCs held monopolies within their individual regions, giving them little incentive to pursue customers by analyzing customer value across the region and developing targeted marketing programs. Essentially, RBOCs had guaranteed customers who would use the RBOC regardless of discounting or other promotional programs.
However, in 1996, the United States Congress enacted the Telecommunications Act of 1996, opening the Bell territories to competition from long distance vendors, cable companies, local access providers, utility companies, and other RBOCs. As a result, telecommunications service providers (collectively, “Telcos”) could compete in each other's markets and develop and market new products and services for a wider customer base. Thus, for the first time, RBOCs found it necessary to understand and analyze customer accounts and billing activity within the different RBOC regions and the different legacy systems. Armed with this information, RBOCs could develop customer-specific discount programs and promotions based on the revenue derived from that particular customer. With increased competition, the RBOCs needed to analyze customer value and offer discount programs that encouraged customer use while maximizing RBOC profit.
To analyze customer value within a service region, RBOCs must consolidate revenue information across the “artificial boundaries” in a RBOC region. These artificial boundaries are defined by the original legacy systems developed by AT&T, the customer operations units (COUs) established by the RBOC to handle specific customer types, and the regional accounting offices (RAOs) within the RBOC region formed to distribute the administrative and accounting functions of the RBOC. Each of these entities maintains information on customers in separate databases. Thus, when a customer falls under more than one customer type and/or within more than one artificial boundary, that customer's billing information is strewn across several individual databases. Therefore, to completely understand a customer's value to the Telco within the overall region, the information must be consolidated and summarized.
In analyzing customer revenue, the two principal legacy systems are the Customer Records Information System (CRIS) and the Carrier Access Billing System (CABS). CRIS maintains billing records for all retail RBOC telephone customers, including residential and business customers. CRIS produces billing records for each telephone line connected to the network. Typically, the Telco sends a billing statement to the retail customers, or “end-users,” on a monthly basis.
CABS maintains billing records for wholesale customers who purchase large blocks of telephone capacity from the RBOCs, usually at rates discounted from retail prices. Typical wholesale customers include large corporate clients or blocks of consumers seeking lower rates through high volume usage of the system as well as businesses that purchase telephone capacity for resale to individual consumers.
AT&T developed CRIS and CABS legacy systems as independent applications, without means for integrating and summarizing the information they contain. Thus, to understand a customer's potential value, Telcos must consult several different billing systems, analyze the data, and assemble a summary view of the customer's billing activity and revenue. Therefore, to establish discount plans for individual customers covered by multiple billing systems and service regions, Telcos must endure a tedious, manual process. The first step in this process is to gather the revenue data from the multiple billing systems and service regions that service the customer . In addition to the two billing systems, CRIS and CABS, the process requires consulting multiple COUs and pulling data from the various RAOs operating in each service region. With the data gathered, the next step requires business analysts to compile the information and present it in a way that conveys the overall profits derived from the customer. Guided by this profit summary, the next step requires business managers and marketing analysts to develop a discount plan that increases the customer's use of telephone services and maximizes profit. Finally, with a discount plan outlined, the final step is to build a software program in machine code that executes the desired discounts.
As would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, this process could last well over a year, especially when factoring in the administrative steps of submitting work requests, prioritizing the customer needs associated with the work requests, procuring development funds, assigning personnel to analyze customer revenue data, and writing, de-bugging, and deploying the software. In addition, the process only provides a single instance of a discount plan, making it necessary to repeat the exercise for each different plan and/or customer.
DEFINITIONS
As used in this specification and the claims, the following terms have the meanings described below.
Customer Operating Unit (COU): business units or divisions of a Telco, formed to address the needs of specific customer types, e.g., consumer services, small business services, complex business systems, and interconnection services.
Regional Accounting Office (RAO): office within the RBOC region formed to distribute the administrative and accounting functions of the RBOC.
Other-Charges-and-Credits Transactions: fractional and/or one type charges or credits.
Package: the bundling of two or more Telco products or services for the purposes of discounting or other customer retention efforts.
COBOL: a software programming language generally used for business applications.
C++: a high-level programming language.
Sybase™: a computer software application for storing, managing, and manipulating data in a relational database.
UNIX: a computer operating system for running data processing and telephone systems, which provides multi-tasking and multi-user capabilities.
Object Request Broker (ORB): an objec
O'Bryan Susan S.
Parris Raymonda J.
Rome Joseph B.
BellSouth Intellectual Property Corporation
Shaw Pittman LLP
Tieu Binh
LandOfFree
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