Analyze Mediation and Collection of Usage Data

For the O2C Company, in our business example, the source for the cloud selection service is, for example, different machines providing events pertaining to CPU and RAM usage. The bandwidth consumed comes from network elements. However, source events also come from tracking devices that hold information about, for example, video streaming and to which business partner the event belongs. Binding these different usage events to the correct owner is key.

The problems become obvious when the O2C Company wants to design an agile business platform to offer new, attractive service offerings, and competitive pricing models and being in control of their revenue, while fighting fraud attempts.

The O2C Company is in need of a mediation layer that can model this and take advantage of their customer data.

Now that the O2C Company’s order management administrator, Lena, has created CutAbove’s subscription contract and changed the service level to Platinum, it is time to understand the usage data for their cloud selection service.

Use of the cloud service product creates usage data records for different services in different technical systems. Usages of cloud service are collected from different technical systems, enriched, and checked for the further process of rating.

Lena now passes CutAbove’s subscription contract to the billing specialist at the O2C Company.

Karen is the billing specialist at the O2C Company. She monitors usage collection as a preparation for rating and billing. Her primary responsibility is to ensure that invoices are accurately generated and sent out in a timely manner.

They use systems like SAP Convergent Invoicing to streamline the process. Karen’s tasks involve:

• Creating monthly recurring fees from Billing plans assigned to the subscription contracts.
• Checking if rated usage is available for Billing.
• Setting up Billing and Invoicing Jobs.
• Checking Single Invoices.

SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute is used to complete these tasks. Let’s get a deeper understanding of SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute before we learn how the O2C Company uses it for CutAbove’s subscription contract.

SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute is a key component in SAP S/4HANA for billing and revenue innovation management (BRIM) solution. It acts as a flexible integration layer that collects and processes usage data from multiple sources. It also validates, normalizes, cleanses, aggregates, correlates, and enriches events, and routes data to appropriate destination systems like billing and analytics.

Collect Usage

The SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute system is able to collect usage data from any source. It also has the capability to acquire and prevalidate all data, ensuring that it is accurate and reliable for further processing.

Usage Processing

The SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute system is capable of processing usage data in various ways. This includes converting data into different formats, validating its accuracy, checking for duplicate entries, correlating data from different sources, and merging or splitting data as needed. Additionally, the system can enrich and analyze usage data, as well as count throughput efficiently.

Forwarding

The SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute system handles the forwarding of chargeable items, consumption items, and billable items. It also supports forwarding data to various business intelligence (BI) tools and multiple targets, ensuring that data can be sent to any target as needed.

Scheduling

The SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute system can schedule processes to run when required, allowing for flexibility and efficiency. It is capable of processing data in real time or in batch, providing control over operational processes. Additionally, the system can link dependent processing steps to ensure seamless and efficient data handling.

Error Correction & Reprocessing

The SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute system can capture and correct errors in data, ensuring accurate processing. It also allows for the rerunning of corrected data and can identify bad sources, thus reducing revenue leakage.

SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute integrates diverse data sources and downstream components. It uses standard interfaces and APIs to efficiently collect, process, and distribute large volumes of usage data from multiple sources to various consuming systems, such as:

• Upstream systems like metered data systems, mediation systems, soft switches, and so on to collect usage data.
• Downstream systems like SAP Convergent Charging for rating and pricing of the mediated usage data.
• Customer management systems (CRM, self-care).
• Financial systems (billing, invoicing, revenue recognition, ERPs, General Ledgers).
• Data warehouse systems SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute provides online and offline mediation capabilities, allowing seamless integration with upstream data sources and downstream data consumers through open APIs and interfaces.

Elaborating in a little more detail into what capabilities Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute can offer. On the one side, we have data sources. It can be anything from:

• Databases or Files that holds the data that need to be collected and processed.
• It can be metering system or devices and network elements that produces data, in batch, or in real-time.
• It can be messaging queues, probes, or any kind of software producing data.

On the other side, there are the data consumers, I mean systems that need all these data to process.

• This can be a Rating and Billing engine such as SAP Convergent Charging as an entry point for the complete BRIM solution.
• This can be analytics or any kind of data warehouse (this is the realm for HANA, Sybase IQ, or Hadoop).
• This can be any kind of IT system SAP or non SAP.

In between, there is a need of a powerful, flexible, and adaptable Integration Layer. Which not only passes the data uni- or bidirectional from the source to the consumer but it processes the data in between, meaning:

1. Data Acquisition (Batch and Real-time): Collects data from various sources in both batch processing and real-time streaming modes.
2. Mapping Protocols and Formats: Translates different data protocols and formats into a standardized format for processing.
3. Data Validation: Checks incoming data for accuracy, completeness, and consistency against predefined rules.
4. Data Cleansing: Removes or corrects inaccurate, incomplete, or irrelevant data to improve data quality.
5. Normalization: Standardizes data to a common format, eliminating redundancies, and inconsistencies.
6. CEP (Complex Event Processing): Analyzes and processes multiple events in real-time to identify patterns or trends.
7. Classification: Categorizes data into predefined groups based on specific criteria or attributes.
8. Policy Control: Applies business rules and policies to manage data processing and routing.
9. Aggregation/Correlation: Combines related data from multiple sources or events to create a more comprehensive view.
10. Anonymization: Removes or encrypts personally identifiable information to protect privacy.
11. Enrichment: Adds additional information or context to the data from external sources or databases.
12. Usage Management: Tracks and manages the utilization of services or resources.
13. GUI and API exposures: Provides user interfaces and application programming interfaces for system interaction and integration.

Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute handles both batch and real-time data processing, scales to manage high volumes of data and supports distributed processing for improved performance. It also offers flexible configuration for quick adaptation to changes.

Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute is highly flexible in its approach, providing numerous features that allow users to tailor the mediation process to the specific needs and contexts of each dispute.

It provides a flexible and intuitive User Interface where the users can design and configure workflows to fit the unique requirements of each case.

The Graphical User Interface allows drag-and-drop functionality, making it easier to design and modify workflows.

Workflows are vital for processing and transforming data from network sources or other external systems.

A workflow is essentially a sequence of steps or a pipeline that defines the process of how network data is processed.

These workflows include steps for receiving data, validating data, enriching data, aggregating collected data records, triggering actions based on specific conditions, and forwarding processed data to various modules or systems for further services like charging, billing, or reporting.

Furthermore, a user can customize these workflows to optimize the process according to specific business needs, ensuring flexibility and agility in the rapidly changing business models or market requirements.

These workflows could also be reused, which enhances productivity and reduces the recurring efforts to design similar processes. SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute provides a GUI-based rule builder that allows technical and non technical users to modify and enhance data processing rules as per their requirements.

The workflows in SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute play a crucial role in defining how data is processed.

Data Collection

Data Collection is the starting point of the workflow where the data is gathered from different sources like network switches, routers, servers, and so on.

Processing

In this stage, the collected data is transformed into a universal format for further processing. This may include data cleaning, validation, and authentication. Mediation is the core process where the preprocessed data is sent through a set of rules and regulations. These rules can be modified or enhanced as per the requirements. The role of mediation is to convert the raw data into meaningful information that can be used for charging/billing.

Forwarding

In the end, the data is appropriately formatted and distributed to the respective recipient system. It could be a billing system or any other system that needs this data for further processing

Workflows are made out of agents. Agents refer to software entities or components that act autonomously or semiautonomously to perform specific tasks within the mediation process. Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute provides a set of predefined Agent types, such as the following:

Input Agent

Collects and imports batches of event data into the mediation workflow.

Processing Agent

Performs data processing tasks like filtering, enrichment, or transformation on event batches.

Validation Agent

Checks the quality and integrity of event data against defined criteria.

Aggregation Agent

Combines or summarizes event data based on specific rules or requirements.

Forwarding Agent

Introduces processed events to a consecutive "real-time" workflow.

Output Agent

Prepares and sends processed event data to downstream systems like SAP Convergent Charging.

Error Handling

Agent manages exceptions and errors occurring during the mediation process.

Routing Agent

Directs events to different processing paths based on predefined rules or conditions.

SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute integrates with SAP S/4HANA for Billing and Revenue Innovation Management (BRIM) solutions and can connect to various data sources and consumers. It is ideal for environments with high data volumes and low latency requirements, helping companies bind usage data to identities for accurate billing and enabling new service offerings by efficiently processing event data.

There are many different scenarios in which SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute interacts with SAP S/4HANA for Billing and Revenue Innovation Management processes for pricing, invoicing, accounting, and payments. In terms of volumes to be handled, the most prominent ones are the usage collection into the SAP Convergent Charging solution and the billable item posting into SAP Convergent Invoicing which are depicted as scenario 1 and 2 respectively.

The role of SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute in scenario 2 is to collect, convert, and process raw transactions into billable items (BITs) or consumption items (CITs) by executing preconfigured workflows.

The following diagram shows many scenarios in which SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute interacts with SAP S/4HANA for Billing and Revenue.

1. Usage collection layer into BRIM as part of the Q2C process.
2. Simplify/remove siloes and TTM by having one layer to do more usage gathering - CM provides extended functions such as orchestration of orders and contracts as added value (for example, with SOM).
3. Direct connections to SAP Convergent Invoicing for rated events, and also scenarios related to CFM.
4. Another unique capability for Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute compared to other middleware: improving revenue assurance.
5. Customer examples implementing these use cases include from retail, media, e-commerce, and insurance.

SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoutecollects UDRs from different network systems, validates and maps the data to the corresponding output format, and then sends the chargeable items to SAP Convergent Charging.

These chargeable items are enriched with master data in SAP Convergent Charging and sent to SAP Convergent Invoicing for storing as a consumption item. The consumption items are held there, waiting to be rated, and when the rating process is triggered, all consumption items are sent in batch to SAP Convergent Charging for rating.

At the end of the rating process, the rated items can then be loaded as Billable Items (BIT) into SAP Convergent Invoicing, which uses the billable items for billing and invoicing to generate the invoice document.

In the following video, Finn, our SAP Convergent Charging consultant explains the key components of a usage data record and the purpose of usage data records in SAP Convergent Mediation by DigitalRoute.