ESKA^® BCRM is a mission critical end-to-end convergent billing system that enables real-time billing in telecommunication networks.

The system has a flexible and powerful convergent rating engine that gives network operators a competitive advantage to be market leaders in the telecommunications industry.

With its comprehensive convergent billing and customer relationship management features that address multi-service operators such as: GSM, GPRS, CDMA, WiMAX, VoIP, ISP and fixed networks, ESKA^® BCRM helps telecom operators run and manage billing processes quickly and effectively.

The system provides Real-Time Charging, Customer Care, and Voucher Management tools, and has direct interface with the telecommunications and signalling world.

 Strengths

• Menu driven interface
• Scalability and modularity
• Multilingual multi-service support
• User-friendly Web interface
• Fast deployment
• Availability and service continuity
• N-tier application architecture
• Support for convergent billing and/ or separation of post-paid and prepaid billing
• Support for small to large-size business operations
• Application of latest Telecom and Intelligent Networks (IN) standards and technologies
• Support for multiple hardware platforms
• Flexibility to integrate with third-party applications
• Extensive reports and statistics
• Secure and managed access to the system
• Support for multi-operator structure

 Key Features

• Rapid provisioning of products and services
• Real-time rating and billing engines
• Easy-to-manage multi-level account hierarchy
• Advanced and unified Customer Self-Care
• Service activation and deactivation
• INAP CS1, INAP CS2, CAMEL2, and CAMEL3 support
• Prepaid roaming support
• Flexible handling of new product and service offerings and marketing initiatives
• Operational efficiency with single charging and rating
• Enhanced settlement capabilities
• Multiple payment methods (prepaid, post-paid and hybrid) on different levels of usage, time and service
• Support for time and service-based hybrid accounts
• Provisioning access for third-party service providers through TCP/ IP socket interface and Web service interface
• Credit/ debit note handling
• Advanced pricing components
• Removal of risk and potential for misuse
• CDR generation
• E-mail, SMS, and SNMP alarm support
• Support for latest roaming standards
• Efficient search for subscriber, customer, and contract information
• Live Integration between POS sales and inventory
• Support for customer offers and discounts
• Radius and diameter support

 Main Functionalities

• Customer Care Management
  The Customer Care Management features in ESKA^® BCRM include:
  
  

  • Common customer care for all subscribers
  • Immediate access to up-to-date usage details
  • Single view of customer balances and revenues
  • Support for immediate provisioning
  • One provisioning interface for prepaid and post-paid subscribers
  • Handling of customer complaints and delivery of required reports
  • Comprehensive customer support using a Web-based interface
• Order Management
  The Order Management part handles all customer, contract and subscriber information and enables the user to tailor contracts or packages for individual customers in addition to defining a variety of price plans.ESKA^® BCRM supports the following Order Management features:
  
  

  • Collecting information required for generating service requests
  • Sending service requests to the network
  • Retrieving responses from the network to perform necessary changes in the Billing System and to recognise the activated status of the customer
• Customer Self-Care
  The system provides advanced Web-based Customer Self-Care features that allow for online registration, management of access rights, subscriber management, customer care interaction, online payment, and directory assistance.
• Customer Relationship Management
  The system manages relationship with customers through a variety of features including: Leads, Marketing Campaigns, Complaints, Letters of Guarantee, and Loyalty Points Management.
• Product Definition and Packaging
  ESKA^® BCRM presents a variety of product-related functionalities including:
  
  

  • Smooth creation of products and definition of packages
  • Support for any level of bundling or unbundling
  • Fast product/ service setup without additional programming
  • Flexible configuration of product pricing, deposits and charging
  • Handling of letters of guarantee and deposit requirements for certain services such as international or roaming access
  • Efficient management of SIM cards and numbers
• Point of Sale Management
  The Point of Sale Management features in ESKA^® BCRM include:
  
  

  • Providing Order Entry capabilities to efficiently handle all customer, contract, and subscription information, and enable the user to tailor contracts for individual and group customers in addition to define different price plans
  • Allowing Call Centre agents to access and process information regarding all offered products and services. The system supports a variety of subscriber offers including Friends and Family, Closed User Groups, Special Dates, Free Units, and Volume Packages
  • Allowing quick access to transaction history which assists Call Centre agents to directly supply customers with information regarding their accounts
  • Integrating with any Intelligent Network (IN) to extract information such as balances and recharging details
  • Enabling system administrators and service centre agents to manage and track customer complaints
  • Providing advanced account receivable capabilities such as invoice payment, cash sales, credit notes, debit notes, deposits, and batch payments
  • Managing and logging user access and transactions according to user privileges
• Credit Monitoring
  The Credit Monitoring features of ESKA^® BCRM include:
  
  

  • Allowing the operator to monitor and set subscriber credit levels.
  • Initiating actions regarding customers exceeding their credit limits, such as generating formal letters, sending SMS notifications, and initiating service changes in the network.
• Resources
  The Resources part enables users to define, configure and package service products, numbering plans, and SIM cards as quickly as possible to establish and sustain market leadership.
• Convergent Rating and Charging
  All users of ESKA^® BCRM can benefit from the following features in matter of rating and charging:
  
  

  • Convergent rating engine capabilities, including support for hybrid payment methods (post-paid, prepaid), several classes of services (Voice, SMSC, MSC, MMS, WEB, WAP, CDMA, VoIP, WiMAX), and various rating modes (online and offline), all based on dynamic user-defined rules.
  • Rule-based rating engine that is totally dynamic and managed using effective management and controlling tools.
  • Advanced rating engine that supports flexible definition of various rating methods to be included in a customer price plan.
  • Ability to perform rating based on a multitude of parameters such as location, destination, time of call, duration, used services, roaming origin, minimum duration, minimum chargeable unit, and customer price plan, in addition to dynamically defining new required parameters and rates.
  • Multiple time, volume, and event-based balances per transaction, with advanced rule-based selection of balances.
  • Dynamic configuration of advanced counters and aggregators to monitor subscribers’ periodic behaviours and to track usage.
  • Strong hierarchal setup and grouping of locations and zones with the ability to set hierarchal rates per each group.
  • Ability to set a wide verity of grouping offers (CUG, FNF, Cross Groups, Toll Free) and to define special rates and discounts
  • Real-time charging and management of voice calls covering call forwarding, roaming, free numbers, premium numbers, recharging, credit transfer, SMS, data and content sessions (GPRS, MMS, Data Roaming Services) held by prepaid subscribers.
• Promotion Management
  As a stand-alone, fully integrated, and fully rule-based engine, the Promotion Management module provides unique features that give a lot of flexibility and power to users.
  
  The flexibility of the Promotion Management module stems from the operator’s ability to dynamically build promotions and loyalty programs that suit the needs of existing customers and attract new business. The Promotion Management features within ESKA^® BCRM include:

  • Dynamic definition of a wide variety of promotions such as discounts, bonuses, loyalty counters, lottery counters, validity expansion, progression packages, cross promotions, and promoted rates.
  • Advanced integration layers that support multiple protocols and communication file formats to perform promotions for Rating, Billing, Customer Care, Roaming, Interconnect, Vouchers Refill, and other third-party applications.
  • Scheduling bulk promotions to be performed within a certain period of time.
  • Flexible advanced notification features that support sending different notification types based on dynamic triggering conditions.
• Voucher Management
  Using the Web-based Voucher Management features, users can generate voucher numbers and create/ manage vouchers in the vouchers database. The module can be used by third-party service providers through the available API Web Service and TCP/ IP .
  
  The module can be used by third-party service providers through the available API (Web Service and TCP/IP).
• Roaming
  The Roaming features within ESKA^® BCRM include:
  
  

  • Accurate billing for roaming subscribers
  • TAP-out and TAP-in process management
  • Use of latest and most flexible billing standards for roaming
  • Support for individual roaming agreements with roaming partners
  • Management of volume discounts and taxation
  • Support for RAP Management
• Revenue Assurance
  The Revenue Assurance features within ESKA^® BCRM include:
  
  

  • Effective handling of invoices, payments, and follow-up of debts.
  • Integrity check of information with the HLR and IN.
  • Integration with financial applications, such as ESKA^® Business Manager, to support a large number of accounting functions including General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Inventory, and Purchase Order transactions.
• Billing
  Through its powerful billing engine, ESKA^® BCRM provides the following features:
  
  

  • Aggregating rated calls to generate invoices for different cycles or upon demand
  • Supporting several types of discounts and taxation schema
  • Supporting unlimited bill cycles, rate structures, and formats
  • Supporting bill-on-demand that offers anytime-invoicing
  • Allowing payment of invoices in instalments
• WiMax Service Support
  ESKA^® BCRM supports WiMAX business needs in a flexible and scalable manner. The system provides the following features:
  
  

  • A variety of charging and billing methods to support both prepaid and post-paid subscriptions such as fixed charges, usage and session-based billing
  • Contract renewal management
  • Service upgrade and downgrade management
  • Quota, bandwidth and usage control
  • Integration with different network elements and soft switches such as AAA
  • Support for Radius Protocol
• Inventory
  The system supports full integration with the ESKADENIA multi-location inventory management system, which allows users to efficiently maintain all inventory records. The system delivers detailed and timely information on inventory items and keeps track of the stock level of SIM cards, vouchers, and cash sale products.
• SMS Interworking
  ESKA^® BCRM supports the AA19 agreement to handle SMS delivery scenarios over various operator networks and determine how and whom to charge.
  
  In addition, the system supports SMS wholesale where Value Added Service Providers can buy SMS bulks to be sent to certain subscribers; short messages will be charged and relevant invoices will be generated.
• SMS Dispatcher
  The SMS Dispatcher is a Web-based utility that enables system users to send short messages (SMS) to a single or a group of cellular phone numbers. Users can specify the message text, calling number and sender name.
  
  The system supports the SMPP application interface between the Customer Care application and the SMS-C.
• Audit Trail
  As one of the features to increase the overall security of ESKA^® BCRM, the Audit Trail part allows the user to monitor all system actions. The system records a full audit trail of all transactions that update the database.
• Application Program Interface (API)
  Through the Application Program Interface, ESKA^® BCRM provides the ability to perform bulk transactions such as:
  
  

  • Subscription definition
  • Product definition
  • Subscriber payments
• Operation, Administration and Maintenance (OAM)
  ESKA^® BCRM provides a comprehensive, powerful, Web-based and multilingual OAM tool that allows performing the following functionalities through different access levels:
  
  

  • Administrators management and access control
  • Rating and tariff management
  • Promotion and discount management
  • Subscriber service management
  • IVR menu builder
  • Reports and statistics generation
  • Security control
  • System configuration and monitoring
  • Alarm management