TM Forum Community

Hi,

I am working for an operator who is doing a digital transformation program. We are having a confusion with respect to management of Contract and penalty charges. Below are the point I am looking for clarification:

 

• In a standard BSS stack which system should be master of post-paid customer's contract information like Device contract, Plan related agreement. Should this reside in CRM or in the Billing system. Perhaps CRM sends the information to Billing system so the Contract details are presented in the Invoice.
• Which system should calculate the penalty charges in case customer terminates before the contract period ends?

Regards
Joe
#DigitalTransformationMaturity
#General

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Joe Joseph
Tecnotree
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Both CRM and Billing would need to know about Contracts as they need to fulfil different functional requires
CRM needs to know so that it can enforce contract conditions while taking an order
Billing needs to know so that it can calculate the appropriate penalty charges and apply to the final bill

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Lancy Mendonca
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Hi Joe,
Usually, all agreements, and, consequently, contracts, are mastered in CRM. 
For the second question, charges are to be  calculated in a billing, but youay want to consider two options, depending on your business needs.
 - billing is just notified on the contract lifecycle change event. 
 - billing arrangements is a necessary part of contract termination flow.
In any case, flow above and lifecycle are mastered in CRM

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Konstantin Zayko
Sber
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Hi Joe, 
Master for postpaid customers should be CRM.CRM has the capability to handle status and MACD. That is the only reason plan agreement and device contract needs to in CRM.

If customer has separate billing system then penalty should be calculated in the billing system.

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Rachana Bhandurge
TO BE VERIFIED
------------------------------

Hi Joe,

Here as I see it:
Contract penalty charges are pricing plan attributes that should be managed separately, and provisioned in both CRM (for commercial and customer service purposes), and in Billing for invoicing. The calculation itself is performed by billing according to the penalty/termination charges as per pricing plan.

This was implemented in a 30M+ opco CBU customer (BSS+OSS) stack, more specifically in Oracle Rapid Offer Design & Order Delivery (RODOD)
Hope it helps.

Regards,
Pedro

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Pedro Viegas
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
------------------------------

Thank you for your response.

As I understand from multiple responses, CRM need to manage the contract.

However for the Penalty charge calculation on termination prior the contract end date - I assumed the logic or the formula will be done in Product Catalog as it hold the Price Specifications and upon termination, CRM/Catalog would send the penalty charge to Billing system and the Billing System would apply the same in the Invoice.

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Joe Joseph
Tecnotree
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: May 31, 2022 03:54
From: Pedro Viegas
Subject: Contract agreement and Penalty charges calculation

Hi Joe,

Here as I see it:
Contract penalty charges are pricing plan attributes that should be managed separately, and provisioned in both CRM (for commercial and customer service purposes), and in Billing for invoicing. The calculation itself is performed by billing according to the penalty/termination charges as per pricing plan.

This was implemented in a 30M+ opco CBU customer (BSS+OSS) stack, more specifically in Oracle Rapid Offer Design & Order Delivery (RODOD)
Hope it helps.

Regards,
Pedro

------------------------------
Pedro Viegas
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
------------------------------

Hi all
Very interesting discussion
To see the TM Forum position, I recommend you take a look at the published materials on ODA. ODA is taking a stand on functional architecture, defining components with well-defined boundaries.
Currently the focus has been on commerce, so ordering and inventory components are being worked on, while billing will presumably be done in the future.
Interesting to hear what @Gaetano Biancardi and @Sylvie Demarest think, but I suspect that they will claim that all the aspects mentioned in the thread should be sourced in the Product Inventory component. The data there would be used by Product Ordering, Configuration, and/or Billing to calculate the relevant charges and penalties.
Hope it helps​​

------------------------------
Jonathan Goldberg
Amdocs Management Limited
Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: May 31, 2022 03:54
From: Pedro Viegas
Subject: Contract agreement and Penalty charges calculation

Hi Joe,

Here as I see it:
Contract penalty charges are pricing plan attributes that should be managed separately, and provisioned in both CRM (for commercial and customer service purposes), and in Billing for invoicing. The calculation itself is performed by billing according to the penalty/termination charges as per pricing plan.

This was implemented in a 30M+ opco CBU customer (BSS+OSS) stack, more specifically in Oracle Rapid Offer Design & Order Delivery (RODOD)
Hope it helps.

Regards,
Pedro

------------------------------
Pedro Viegas
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
------------------------------

With ODA components approach:
1 - the penalty charge formula for the termination of the contract before the commitment end date is defined in the Product Catalog component
2 - it is identified and associated to the termination order by the Product Configurator component, and traced by the Product Order Capture & Validation component in the Product Inventory
3 - it is applied to the closing invoice by the Bill Calculation component
4 - it is presented on the invoice by the Invoice Mgt component

As we have one Product Inventory shared by Order Management and Billing components we have nothing to copy or duplicate.
And we are sure that the customer is aware of the cost of his termination order, and that the cost announced will be the cost really billed.

------------------------------
Sylvie Demarest
Orange
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: May 31, 2022 05:11
From: Jonathan Goldberg
Subject: Contract agreement and Penalty charges calculation

Hi all
Very interesting discussion
To see the TM Forum position, I recommend you take a look at the published materials on ODA. ODA is taking a stand on functional architecture, defining components with well-defined boundaries.
Currently the focus has been on commerce, so ordering and inventory components are being worked on, while billing will presumably be done in the future.
Interesting to hear what @Gaetano Biancardi and @Sylvie Demarest think, but I suspect that they will claim that all the aspects mentioned in the thread should be sourced in the Product Inventory component. The data there would be used by Product Ordering, Configuration, and/or Billing to calculate the relevant charges and penalties.
Hope it helps​​

------------------------------
Jonathan Goldberg
Amdocs Management Limited
Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: May 31, 2022 03:54
From: Pedro Viegas
Subject: Contract agreement and Penalty charges calculation

Hi Joe,

Here as I see it:
Contract penalty charges are pricing plan attributes that should be managed separately, and provisioned in both CRM (for commercial and customer service purposes), and in Billing for invoicing. The calculation itself is performed by billing according to the penalty/termination charges as per pricing plan.

This was implemented in a 30M+ opco CBU customer (BSS+OSS) stack, more specifically in Oracle Rapid Offer Design & Order Delivery (RODOD)
Hope it helps.

Regards,
Pedro

------------------------------
Pedro Viegas
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

Thank You Sylvie for providing clear response.

------------------------------
Joe Joseph
Tecnotree
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Jun 07, 2022 11:42
From: Sylvie Demarest
Subject: Contract agreement and Penalty charges calculation

With ODA components approach:
1 - the penalty charge formula for the termination of the contract before the commitment end date is defined in the Product Catalog component
2 - it is identified and associated to the termination order by the Product Configurator component, and traced by the Product Order Capture & Validation component in the Product Inventory
3 - it is applied to the closing invoice by the Bill Calculation component
4 - it is presented on the invoice by the Invoice Mgt component

As we have one Product Inventory shared by Order Management and Billing components we have nothing to copy or duplicate.
And we are sure that the customer is aware of the cost of his termination order, and that the cost announced will be the cost really billed.

------------------------------
Sylvie Demarest
Orange
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: May 31, 2022 05:11
From: Jonathan Goldberg
Subject: Contract agreement and Penalty charges calculation

Hi all
Very interesting discussion
To see the TM Forum position, I recommend you take a look at the published materials on ODA. ODA is taking a stand on functional architecture, defining components with well-defined boundaries.
Currently the focus has been on commerce, so ordering and inventory components are being worked on, while billing will presumably be done in the future.
Interesting to hear what @Gaetano Biancardi and @Sylvie Demarest think, but I suspect that they will claim that all the aspects mentioned in the thread should be sourced in the Product Inventory component. The data there would be used by Product Ordering, Configuration, and/or Billing to calculate the relevant charges and penalties.
Hope it helps​​

------------------------------
Jonathan Goldberg
Amdocs Management Limited
Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.


Original Message:
Sent: May 31, 2022 03:54
From: Pedro Viegas
Subject: Contract agreement and Penalty charges calculation

Hi Joe,

Here as I see it:
Contract penalty charges are pricing plan attributes that should be managed separately, and provisioned in both CRM (for commercial and customer service purposes), and in Billing for invoicing. The calculation itself is performed by billing according to the penalty/termination charges as per pricing plan.

This was implemented in a 30M+ opco CBU customer (BSS+OSS) stack, more specifically in Oracle Rapid Offer Design & Order Delivery (RODOD)
Hope it helps.

Regards,
Pedro

------------------------------
Pedro Viegas
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS INTERNATIONAL LIMITED