Section 2 : Chapter 2

Operations

Fulfillment Assurance Billing

g
Fraud
Dunning
Customer Relationship Management
agement
Collections
Invoicing
Billing
perations
Service Management and Operations
Rating

Mediation
Resource Management and Operations
Traffic and Switch

Supplier/Partner Relationship Management

Mediation
Settlement

Figure 2.1.7 Functions within Revenue Management

BUILDING ON THE ETOM

FOR A DEFINITION OF RA

Using this theoretical framework as a starting point, we are now

ready to put together a definition of Revenue Assurance that makes
sense.

Before simply accepting the eTOM based definition of billing func-

tions as our actual and only model, reality must be considered.
Although what happens in the Fulfillment and Assurance areas is
never part of the billing process itself (and therefore the revenue
management process), it is certainly possible for cross-cutting sce-
narios to cause revenue leakage problems. For example:
• Sales & Billing: If the sales force collects a wrong address
for a customer, it will be impossible for a bill to be sent.
• Fulfillment & Billing: If the Product Provisioning group
fails to notify Billing of a new service being activated; the
billing system will not be able to bill for it.

These potential extra inhibitors mean that we really have two aspects
to the revenue assurance process. There are issues directly related to
the functioning of the revenue management process itself (the “B”
for billing trail), and also what happens elsewhere in the telco that
can be responsible for the breakdown along the Billing trail.

eXcellence in Telecommunications 31