Rating and Charging
The Rating and Charging process is a crucial component of a billing system, as it determines the accuracy and reliability of the billing process. This process includes determining the customer’s rate plan, applying for discounts and credits, and calculating taxes. The charges are then applied to the customer’s account balance.
The OCS.io solution offers advanced Rating and Charging capabilities, supporting various pricing models, such as usage-based charging, recurring charges, and one-time charges. This enables service providers to provide a wide range of pricing plans customized to their customer’s specific needs and preferences.
The OCS.io solution also supports the application of various discounts and promotions, such as percentage-based discounts and absolute discounts. These discounts can be applied on different levels, such as Customer-level, Account-level, Subscription-level, or even on specific usage events. Moreover, OCS.io allows the configuration of complex charging rules, such as peak and off-peak rates, minimum charges, and overage charges.
To ensure the accuracy and reliability of the Rating and Charging process, OCS.io may be integrated with other rating engines or mediation systems. This enables service providers to leverage existing investments in their infrastructure and provide a seamless experience for their customers.
Finally, OCS.io provides real-time charging capabilities, enabling customers to monitor their usage and charges in real-time. This enhances the customer experience and reduces the likelihood of billing disputes, as customers can track their usage and costs in real-time and make adjustments as necessary.
Rating
The rating process in the billing system is used to determine the cost of a customer’s usage of a service based on the customer’s rate plan and usage data. The rating process takes into account the usage data and calculates the cost of the usage based on the rate plan that is assigned to the customer.
The rating process in OCS.io involves multiple steps, including determining the charging classes, mapping usage events to charging classes, and then applying pricing and discounts to those charging classes. The charging classes differentiate usage of certain types, differentiate one-time fees from recurrent fees, and differentiate recurrent fees for different services.
The OCS.io offers batch and real-time rating capabilities to support various billing scenarios. The batch rating process starts with the usage data collected and processed in the mediation system. The mediation system collects usage data from various network elements, such as switches and routers, and converts the data into a standard format that the billing system can process. On the other hand, a real-time rating is used for prepaid billing and involves rating usage data in real time as it occurs.
Next, the usage events are mapped to charging classes based on the criteria defined in the product catalog. The charging classes determine the type of event, price, and other billing attributes applied to the usage events.
Charging
The charging process follows the rating process. After the usage data has been rated, the charging process applies pricing and discounts, calculates taxes, and generates charges billed to the customer.
The charging process begins with applying charging parameters defined in the product catalog. The charging parameters define the pricing for each charging class, which is a classification of usage types such as on-net, off-net, domestic, international, and so on. The charging process then applies any discounts, promotions, and taxes that may apply to the usage.
After applying the pricing and discounts, the charging process calculates the total charge for each usage type and generates the corresponding records. The records are then used to update the customer’s account balance, which will be used in the billing and invoicing process.
In addition to generating usage charges, the charging process can generate charges for other services, such as one-time, recurrent, and additional fees. These charges can be added to the usage charges to generate a total charge for the customer’s account.
The charging process also supports the application of balance controls such as credit limits, spending limits, and usage limits. These controls can prevent the customer from incurring charges beyond a certain amount and can be adjusted based on the customer’s usage patterns.