The MiBAS solution covers the necessary Provisioning, Radio Programming, Billing and Traffic Analysis activities for Dimetra IP and ASTRO 25 Networks.
MiBAS PROVISIONING
MiBAS is a powerful automated tool for configuring subscriber units according to each subscriber’s purchased services. Its browser-based and Windows-based man-machine interfaces make it easy to manage subscriber profiles. For example, an operator can use MiBAS profiles to apply a full set of predefined properties to a new subscriber all at once. And rather than provisioning subscribers on an individual basis, you can reconfigure and assign services by selecting and acting on multiple subscribers simultaneously. MiBAS then automatically reaches out to consistently update each subscriber’s data in the MiBAS data base, network elements and handset files, without extra effort from the operator.
MiBAS gives the TETRA and ASTRO 25 operators multiple provisioning capabilities:
- Create and manage subscribers accounts
- Activate subscriber (and verify proper subscriber configuration)
- Suspend / Reconnect subscription
- Add / Omit features
- Assign numbers (phone numbers, IP addresses, talk groups, etc.)
- Replace handsets
Public Safety networks from Motorola can benefit from end-to-end automatic MiBAS provisioning by using the Dimetra-IP Provisioning API (*). MiBAS allows self-provisioning by authorized customer administrators over the web. This saves time and encourages subscribers to make the best use of their equipment.
(*) Currently, for Dimetra IP only.
MiBAS BILLINGMiBAS Billing consists of five basic modules:
- Product Catalog
- Rating Engine
- Billing Engine
- Customer Care – Billing and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Billing Control
The Product Catalog ModuleThe Product Catalog module is designed to build rate schemes and various marketing billing related promotions. Rate schemes are the actual tariffs according to which subscribers are charged. Additional promotions can be discount plans, usage packages, credit schemes, friends and family/VPN plans, geographical based rating (home coverage area) etc. Rate schemes consist of the following elements:
Fixed charges: Fixed charges that are applied to customers and subscriber units in each bill. MiBAS allows operators to build different fixed charges sets and to apply them to different customers and subscribers.
Usage charges: The Product Catalog module allows operators to build multiple tariffs for different airtime, data and SMS consumption types. For example, different airtime tariffs can be built for calls between individual units, between a unit and a group, over multiple service areas, within or across fleets.
Discount plans: Discounts can be defined for different groups of charges. A discount plan is associated with a rate scheme. During the billing process, MiBAS calculates the charges according to the rate scheme and then applies the discount plan associated with each customer or subscriber.
The Billing engineThe Billing module periodically calculates the amounts by which customers are to be billed for consumption. Customers are billed based on:
- The services they are configured for (by Provisioning)
- The actual consumption (–Accumulated Usage data prepared by the rating engine)
- The rates of the services as they were defined for different customers (rate schemes)
- In addition to accumulating usage and fixed charges for customers, the billing engine applies various billing features such as discount plans, usage packages, cost sharing contracts etc.
The resulting output is billing records that can be directed to an external invoice production system. (Invoicing functionality is proposed as an option).
All provisioning events that take place in MiBAS affect billing, except for a few management events such as refreshing the data held in the network switch (Refresh FNE). The events for which the subscriber is eventually charged are events that were pre-defined as billable events (to be distinguished from non-billable events).
Customer Care – Billing and CRMThis module enables the users to administer billing features to customers and accounts, such as rate schemes, discount plans, one-time credits/debits, definition of access numbers (Friends & Family), etc. It also presents billing related inquiries such as usage details, billing charges etc.
In addition, basic CRM functions can be performed such as tracking customer/account notes, presenting alerts, maintaining addresses, enable tracking of operator defined customer/accounts additional data elements (ex – Customer type, business unit, rank etc.) and issuing service adjustments.
Billing ControlThe MiBAS Billing Control module is especially designed to quickly identify billing errors such as gaps in receiving calls into the system, unjustified charges or unexpected drops in fixed charges amounts. Billing Control helps the network operator reduce the number of mistakes in the billing process by identifying them in due time. The purpose of this application is to highlight potential errors, by comparing averages and by identifying gaps.
Billing Control allows:
- To retrieve gap reports to locate problems in processing CDR files
- To presents actual call data for a user-defined period, broken down by dates
- To compare two periods.
- To identify problems in the billing process, such as a big drop in income from one billing period to another.
MiAnalyzerMiAnalyzer, the MiBAS traffic analysis module, is designed to collect, integrate, analyze, and present network events and usage. Dimetra IP and ASTRO 25 operators can analyze the network performance and the user's behavior by using MiAnalyzer fact-based support systems.
MiAnalyzer is based on the MiBAS Collector architecture with enhanced AMM, PDMM and DCM functionality, as follows:
Data Storing:
- Stores the voice related events (ATIA events)
- Stores PD (Packet Data) records
- Stores SDR Records (for Dimetra IP networks only)
- Stores CDRs
Reporting:
- Pre-defined Canned Reports
- Ad-hoc Reports - ATIA and PD events and CDR database can be searched to produce reports (the customer should provide a report generation tool).
- Provides organizational level reports (only if the MiBAS Fleet Management module is installed)
Add on modules:MiBAS offers add-on modules to complement the MiBAS core Provisioning and Billing solution:
Web Access moduleThe MiBAS Web Access is a Web based application designed for remote access to MiBAS functions over the Internet or an Intranet, using Microsoft Internet Explorer. It supports remote access for activation and various other provisioning transactions for the dealer or the customer’s administrator.
Using its web-based multilingual GUI, the administrator can access its customer list, activate the inactive subscribers, configure the handset, or replace subscriber units. (Translation to local language is customer’s responsibility).
The operation of MiBAS Web-Access is very intuitive and straightforward. Providing this tool to dealers and customers will result in prompt and better customer service while keeping a low CSRs/Customers ratio and reducing operator’s operations costs.
MiBAS invoicingThe MiBAS Invoicing module is a browser-based application designed to define the invoice layout, to prepare invoices and to produce invoice files to be sent to the customer’s Bill Fulfillment Vendor (BFV), accounting system by processing and formatting data retrieved from MiBAS Billing, the operator’s accounts receivable system and, if applicable, taxation modules.
Based on user-defined parameters, the invoicing engine processes information for:
- Printing customer invoices
- Generating electronic bills that may be imported into other software packages for further analysis
- Crediting and debiting general ledger accounts with the invoice amounts
MAS – MiBAS API LayerMAS, the MiBAS Application Server, enable access to the MiBAS engine from external applications and streamline user processes via a unified XML interface.
For more information see:
MiBAS for Tetra Brochure
MiBAS for ASTRO Brochure
