Reduce Cost and Improve Effectiveness of Assurance for:

Mediation, Postpaid, Interconnect, Fraud.

Take a FRESH LOOK at your current practices!

Are there ways for you to accomplish the same results (or better results) with less time, money and expense?

This class is designed to force you to question your basic assumptions about what the appropriate level of assurance for my traditional mediation, postpaid, interconnect and fraud management areas?"

Learn how to leverage the GRAPA standards, benchmarks and unique risk based management techniques to reduce costs and free up resources for more critical RA activities.

Duration: 1 day

Who Should Attend?

• Anyone involved in the assurance of telco revenues or operations involving postpaid revenues
• Professionals and managers looking for ways to reduce the cost of revenue assurance activity without increasing the risk of revenue loss
• Internal auditors who want to be able to audit and review postpaid billing operations and revenue recognition issues
• Regulatory compliance and regulators interested in understanding how to interpret existing revenue reporting in the traditional areas, and how to better identify and remedy compliance issues
• Fraud professionals interested in learning how to safegaurd the traditional CDR based revenue streams

Overview:

This course challenges "what everybody knows to be true" about the assurance of revenues in the traditional CDR/Voice based arena.It provides a comprehensive review of the many different aspects of postpaid voice revenue streams from the perspective defined by the GRAPA Standards, Practices and Benchmarks. This includes an exploration of:

• Underlying functions and assumptions about the role of each system
• Review of each of these systems from within the context of a "revenue stream" and enforced via a consistent "billing architecture"
• Consideration of the GRAPA Standards defined forensics, and risk assessment techniques for each of these areas 
• Examination of the GRAPA Standard controls defined for each with a mapping of these controls to existing systems, approaches
• A tough, no nonsense appraisal of the cost vs value of these alternate approaches
• Consideration of migration / evolutionary paths for the "right-sizing" of these activities .

 What this course will show is that there are many low cost, highly effective approaches to the assurance of revenues in these areas that many carriers miss simply because they are not clearly focused on what they are trying to accomplish in the assurance area. Material to be covered will include:

Mediation Systems – Operations, Controls and Assurance

• Understanding CDRs , what they are, how they are made, how they are used

• Techniques for CDR diagnosis and management Assurance and controls for CDR generation, transport and processing Mediation systems – Operations, Controls and Assurance

• What is a mediation system? How does it work?

• Key operational characteristics

• Key controls and assurance issues

• The Major Mediation controls (I/O, FSEC, Aging, Change Control)

Postpaid Billing Systems – Operations, Controls and Assurance

• What is a postpaid billing system? How does it work?

• Key operational characteristics o Key controls and assurance issues

• The Major Postpaid billing controls (I/O, FSEC, Aging, Change Control, Daily processing, Cycle processing, Pre-rating, Rating, Credit management, Set Fees Management, Revenue Recognition, Re-rating, Bill Cycle Audits, Customer Identity Management, Rate/Service Plan Management)

Interconnect Billing Systems – Operations, Controls and Assurance

• What is an interconnect billing system? How does it work?

• Key operational characteristics

• Key controls and assurance issues

• The Major interconnect billing controls (I/O, FSEC, Aging, Change Control, Daily processing, Cycle processing, Pre-rating, Rating, Credit management, Set Fees Management, Revenue Recognition, Re-rating, Bill Cycle Audits, Customer Identity Management, Rate/Service Plan Management, Interconnect Partner Management, Settlement Management , Routing Assurance, Margin Assurance, Fraud Risks)

Postpaid Roaming Billing Systems – Operations, Controls and Assurance

• What is a postpaid roaming billing system? How does it work?

• Key operational characteristics

• Key controls and assurance issues

• The Major postpaid roaming billing controls (I/O, FSEC, Aging, Change Control, Daily processing, Cycle processing, Pre-rating, Rating, Credit management, Set Fees Management, Revenue Recognition, Re-rating, Bill Cycle Audits, Customer Identity Management, Rate/Service Plan Management, Interconnect Partner Management, Settlement Management , Routing Assurance, Margin Assurance, Fraud Risks)

Collections, Credit and Dunning – Operations, Controls and Assurance

• What are the collections, credit and dunning processes? How do they work?

• Key operational characteristics

• Key controls and assurance issues

• The Major collections, credit and dunning processes and controls (Billing and Aging Reporting, Aging Controls and Alarms, Credit Risk Forensics, Credit Assessment and Controls, Credit Policies and Enforcement )

Fraud Management Principles coverage includes:

• The Fraud Management Lifecycle

• Fraud Management Forensics, Controls, Corrections and Compliance

• Fraud KPI's

• Fraud Management Systems

• GSM Association / GRAPA Fraud Catalog 

• Phreaking

• Simboxes

Key Concepts:
Principles of operation, forensics, risk assessment, rationalization of cost controls, standard GRAPA controls, GRAPA benchmarks and alternative assurance approaches for the following domains (Mediation, Postpaid Billing, Interconnect (Offnet and International), Postpaid Roaming, Collections, Credit and Dunning, Fraud Management). Line of business (operational, organization, business model, margins) for Interconnect (Domestic/Foreign:Offnet/International), Postpaid Roaming. Postpaid Voice. Principles of Fraud Management within GRAPA framework/guidelines, GSM Association / GRAPA Fraud Catalog. The GRAPA FRAUD TREE. Operaitonal knowledge of phreaking and SIMBOX management.

GRAPA Certification Credit
Successful completion of this course, testing and experience verification will result in the student being awarded GRAPA Competency Credit for the following areas from the GRAPA "Body of Knowledge":

Prerequisite:

 RA900, RA901 are required before students can take this class

This class is prerequisite to RA903, RA904 and many advanced courses.