1. Overview of Revenue Assurance and Fraud Management Systems

2. Revenue Assurance(RA)
Increased focus on RA due to
Regulatory pressure of reporting revenue
Increasing pressure to show more profit
Struggle for existing revenue management systems to keep with technological breakthrough(introduction of new network elements in the network)
Complex revenue management systems

3. Revenue Leakage
Revenue leakage is the difference between revenue supposed to be earned and the actual revenue (actual cash) realized.
Causes of revenue leakage
Incomplete customer records
Accumulated CDR errors
Incorrect rating
CDR late to mediation
Corrupt CDRs
Failure to create CDRs

4. Possible leakage points
Signaling errors on switch
System capacity mismatches (Overflow)
Misaligned processing or logic rules
Failure to activate or provision the customer correctly
Failure to track customer activity properly
Improper registration and management of network inventory
Mediation related
Failure to filter records correctly
Incorrect application of customer Identifiers
Incorrect formatting of CDRs
Dropped records
Duplicate records
Billing related
Usage beyond billing stop
Incorrect Call plans
Billing errors
Late billing
Over Discounting

5. Possible leakage points
Collections Dunning Related
Failure to track old accounts
Misapplication of credits
Inefficient and ineffective dunning practices
Failure to feed back the dunning lessons to Marketing , sales and product planning groups
Provisioning and customer service related leakages
Physical circuits not ceased when account terminated
Over Provisioning
Improper update of customer status
Provisioning without notification of billing start

6. RA defined
Revenue management Chain: The systems and operations that are concerned with the direct capture ,processing and collection of revenues
Revenue Assurance: The process of guaranteeing that the revenue management chain is functioning as specified Or
Revenue assurance is a business process to detect ,probe correct revenue leakage, to minimize opportunity loss, to minimize/ avoid costs.

7. RA- Solution ArchitectureIN
Mediation
Third party content Provider
CRM
Provisioning System
PMS
Inventory Management System
Network Element
Postpaid Billing System
Interconnect Billing System
Subscriber
Records
Interconnect
Usage Records
Subscriber Records
Payment Records
Usage
Records
Postpaid Subscriber Records
Subscriber
Records
Payment Records
Accessory Details
Usage
Records
Configuration Data & Business Rule
Content Usage Records
Subscriber
Order Status
Usage
Records
Rating Configuration Data
Configuration Data
Postpaid Usage
Records
Data Capture Layer
Adapters
Data Capture
Others Adapters
DC Engine/DC Bus
DC Adapter
CDR Adapter
Profile Adapters
DC Repository
Analysis Server
Analysis Engine
Rule Engine
Reports Engine
Real time KPIs and Alarm

8. RA Functional Scope The primary scope for RA is mentioned below:
Subscriber Profile Verification across
Network Element
Intelligent Network
CRM
Post-paid Billing System
Usage Verification across
Switch
Mediation
Post-paid Billing
Interconnect Billing
Third party contents
Payment Verification between PMS and Post-paid billing system.
Configuration Verification
Interconnect billing
Call Testing System – to verify rating output of Post-paid Billing System.
Configuration of Alarms and KPI Reports

9. Subscriber Reconciliation
Subscriber Instance and Services reconciliation between CRM & Postpaid Billing
The Purpose of reconciliation of subscriber records between CRM and Postpaid Billing is  
Subscriber Instance reconciliation
Identify Subscribers present in CRM and not present in Postpaid
Billing
Identify Subscribers present in Postpaid Billing and not present
in CRM
Subscriber Services reconciliation
Identify Subscriber services present in CRM and not present in
Postpaid Billing
Identify Subscriber services present in Postpaid Billing and not
present in CRM

10. Subscriber Reconciliation
Subscriber Instance and service reconciliation between Network Element and Postpaid Billing
 The Purpose of reconciliation of subscriber instance Network Element and Postpaid Billing is  
Subscriber Instance reconciliation
Identify Subscribers present in Network Element and not present in Postpaid Billing
Identify Subscribers present in Postpaid Billing and not present in Network Element. 
Subscriber Services reconciliation
Identify Subscriber services present in Network Element and not present in Postpaid Billing
Identify Subscriber services present in Postpaid Billing and not present in Network Element.

11. Subscriber Reconciliation
Subscriber Instance and service reconciliation between Network Element and CRM
The Purpose of reconciliation of subscriber instance between Network Element and CRM is
Subscriber Instance reconciliation
Identify Subscribers present in Network Element and not present in CRM
Identify Subscribers present in CRM and not present in Network Element.
Subscriber Services reconciliation
Identify Subscriber services present in Network Element and not present in CRM
Identify Subscriber services present in CRM and not present in Network Element.

12. Fulfillment of new orders
Timely Fulfillment of new orders 
The Purpose is to ensure timely fulfillment of new orders without any delay
Identify the orders which are failed at provisioning due to some problem
Identify the orders which are pending at provisioning

13. Usage Reconciliation
Objective of Usage Reconciliation module is to reduce/remove revenue leakage due to CDRs not transmitted successfully across Network Element to Billing System
Usage Reconciliation Between Different Systems
Following usage reconciliations are carried out in this module: 
Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Network Element and Mediation
Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Mediation and Postpaid Billing
Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Mediation and Interconnect Billing
Rated CDR level reconciliation between Retail Billing and Interconnect Billing
xDR level reconciliation between Postpaid Billing and Third Party Content Provider
Call type and specific destination wise control Log Level report from Mediation
Control Log Level Traffic analysis
Control Log level and CDR level Rejected CDR analysis at Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing
Missing CDR file sequence at Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing
Aging of rejected CDRs at Postpaid billing
Aging of rejected CDRs at Mediation
Aging of rejected CDRs at Interconnect Billing

14. Usage Reconciliation
Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Network Element and Mediation
The Purpose of usage reconciliation between Network Element and Mediation is:
Identify discrepancy in CDR count, MoU between files received from Network Element and Mediation through control log reconciliation
For selected files,
Identify CDRs present in Network Element and not in Mediation
Identify CDRs present in both Network Element and Mediation, but have different MoU

15. Usage Reconciliation
Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Mediation and Postpaid Billing
The Purpose of usage reconciliation between Mediation and Post Paid Billing System is:
Identify discrepancy in CDR count, MoU between files received from Mediation and Post Paid Billing System through control log reconciliation
For selected files,
Identify CDRs present in Mediation and not in Post Paid Billing System
Identify CDRs present in both Mediation, and Post Paid Billing System but have different MoU

16. Usage Reconciliation
Control log level and CDR level reconciliation between Mediation and Interconnect Billing
The Purpose of usage reconciliation between Mediation and Interconnect Billing System is:
Identify discrepancy in CDR count, MoU between files received from Mediation and Interconnect Billing System through control log reconciliation
For selected files,
Identify CDRs present in Mediation and not in Interconnect Billing System
Identify CDRs present in both Mediation, and Interconnect Billing System but have different MoU

17. Usage Reconciliation
Rated CDR level reconciliation between Retail Billing and Interconnect Billing
The Purpose of Rated CDR reconciliation between Retail Billing and Interconnect Billing System is:
For Sample CDRs
Identify Rated CDRs for which operator is being paid but subscriber is not charged.
Identify Rated CDRs for which subscriber is charged but operator is not being paid.

18. Usage Reconciliation
xDR level reconciliation between Postpaid Billing and Third Party Content Provider
The Purpose of xDR reconciliation between Postpaid Billing and Third Party Content Provider is:
For sample xDRs
Identify xDRs present in Postpaid Billing and not in Third Party Content Provider.
Identify xDRs present in Third Party Content Provider and not in Postpaid Billing.

19. Reject CDR analysis
Control Log level and CDR level Rejected CDR analysis at Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing 
The Purpose of this module is to identify the CDRs rejected at the Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing due to wrong format (addition of new field in the CDR format) or abnormal situation.

20. Missing CDR files
Missing CDR file sequence at Mediation, Postpaid billing and Interconnect billing
Purpose 
To identify the CDR files
Sent by Network Element but missing at Mediation
Sent by Mediation but missing at Post Paid Billing System
Sent by Mediation but missing at Interconnect Billing System

21. Payment reconciliation
Objective
The objective of payment reconciliation module is to reduce/remove revenue leakage due to discrepancies across different system and to achieve this, perform reconciliation/verification of payment information across different systems.
Payment reconciliation between Payment Management System (PMS) and Postpaid Billing System 
The Purpose of reconciliation of payment records between PMS and Postpaid Billing is
Identify payment records present in PMS and not present in Postpaid Billing System
Identify payment records present in Postpaid Billing System and not present in PMS
Identify payment records having different values in Postpaid Billing System and PMS

22. RA Runtime Schedule

23. Fraud Management system
Telecom Fraud
Telecommunications fraud is an act of obtaining telecommunication services and/or the instruments, equipment or devices with no intention of paying for them or abuse of services. Fraudsters’ motivation is either to make money or to use services at no or reduced cost or to acquire anonymity to mask criminal activities or obtain the sheer thrill of challenging the telecom’s network security

24. Fraud Fraud is broadly categories as:
Usage Frauds: Frauds that are committed for the purpose of using services without intention of paying for them are categorized under Usage Frauds.
Subscription Frauds: Some subscribers obtain subscription for services using false identity with no intent to pay.

25. Minotaur FMS – Functional Architecture
Usage Data
Subscriber Data
Event Data Server
Customer Data Server
Partitioning, Filtering, Validation
Fraud Detection Engine (FDE)
Candidate Fraud Detector & High Usage Detector
Rules, Thresholds, Lists, Profiling etc.
Case Outcome Server
FDE
Configuration
Manager
Suspect Behavior Alert
Case History Builder & Internal Alarm Analysis
Alarms Collection, Case History Management, Case Outcome Analysis
Tickets
Case Manager
Administration, CM Configuration, Investigation Management
Fraud Analyst
Reports

26. Possible Fraud Scenarios
Usage Fraud
Misuse of another Subscriber’s services
Misuse of operator’s services
Running unauthorized private exchange
Electronic device fraud
Security issues
Usage data (i.e. EDRs) and usage pattern resulting from any such activities is analyzed by FMS and input data is matched against defined rule conditions and associated thresholds. Any deviation to defined values / rules will generate alarms for the further investigations. There is no limitation on number of rules that can be defined in FMS. As per the requirement user can define any number of rules / thresholds

27. Fraud Scenarios Subscription Frauds Activation fraud
Adjustment in discounts or credits for a subscriber
Manipulation of credit limit for a subscriber
Change of applicable tariff plan
Incorrect application of payments
Subscriber data anomalies between Network Elements and Billing
Removal of suspensions, adding unauthorized services/lines
Fraudulent Subscriptions normally result in very high or abnormal usage of services. This is alerted through usage alarms by setting various rules on usage data as mentioned earlier. FMS has functionality to build and store the profile of subscriber along with billing information. It also stores the profiles previously classified as fraudsters. FMS also evaluates Log files from the various systems (if they would be fed to FMS in required format) like the CRM and Billing for suspect activity as it also profiled user / system level activities

28. Resolution of Fraud Tickets
The Intelligent alarm Analysis (IAA) server, will generate a ticket based on the SBA’s, Behavioral History pertaining to the Services used by the entity and scorecard
The Ticket will be passed onto the Case Manager Server, where it is redirected to users with particular roles. Here the type of fraud, priority and workflow is taken into consideration while assigning the tickets
The User / Subscriber Analyst with the appropriate role and privilege will accept the ticket and classify it as either a fraudulent case or a non fraudulent one.
If the ticket is identified as a non fraudulent one, the User / Subscriber Analyst will close the ticket marking it as a non fraud ticket closure. Here the Case Outcome Server will update the entity profile in the CFD by adaptive feedback to neural models, rules and known fraud case histories. This will help in increasing the accuracy while checking the profile violations against the defined rules.

29. Resolution
The user / subscriber analyst task is to analyze and investigate each case and then make a fraud or non fraud decision. It is general practice to have a set of basic questions which if applied will give the user/analyst an idea of what has occurred and also the ability to quantify the problem being investigated. A checklist of questions would be as follows;
Who is the subscriber?
New or Old subscriber , Residential, Business or VIP
What combination of lines/services are installed
Account history – when activated, any bills issued, paid, outstanding, unbilled
Subscriber details linked to BSNL employees
Any links to previous identified fraud accounts
Obtain contracts for further examination
Additional call/reverse analysis to identify if subscriber linked to BSNL employee
Cross reference known fraudsters database

30. Resolution
Not Fraud
Make a note of the concerns on the FMS, If the usage pattern recurs it should be investigated further
Fraud
Make a note of the concerns on the FMS, even if finally determined to be non-fraudulent
Take appropriate action such as call barring or disconnection, in line with company guidelines
Subject fraudulent account to post detection analysis

31. FMS Run time Schedule

32. Thank You