TELECOM BILLING

The Solution

NEPPS (Network Event Pre-Billing Processor Solution)
NEPPS (formerly known as Verizon’s UMS mediation and pre-billing system) provides the only mediation and pre-billing processor solution on he market today with unlimited network event management capacity that large carriers require in today’s burgeoning market. 

With unlimited scalability and the ability to perform many functions traditionally performed by billing systems, NEPPS offers a significant option to carriers faced with managing massive growth and ever increasing diversity in network event management requirements.

NEPPS is a fully convergent, all-inclusive, “end to end” high volume medication and pre-billing system with unlimited scalability that collects, mediates, rates, analyzes, prices, and stores voice, data, and IP network events until time for billing.

These functions are typically performed by the billing system (or interfacing “single purpose” systems).  By offloading them to the NEPPS event mediation and pre-billing management system, the work load on the billing system is significantly reduced which extends its useful life (re: handling increased demands), reduces revenue loss and saves money.

NEPPS provides customers with the assurance that they are prepared to handle the diversity and volume of network events, regardless of how much the market changes and grows! 

NEPPS is an off-the-shelf mediation system of choice that manages key processes through its Event Processor Module (EPM) and Pre-billing Processor Module (PPM).

• End-to-end pre-billing
• Automated data collection and usage processing
• Standardized event records for itemized billing
• Flexible real-time rating schemes
• Systematic accumulation and billing system transfer
• Code Generation
• Consists of three robust modules:
  • Mediation: Event Processor (EPM)
  • Pre-Billing: Rating / Pricing / Billing Intermediate Processor (BPM)
  • NEPPS Development Kit (SDK)

Hardware

• HP NonStop Integrity

Flexible Mediation

• Interfaces to
• any network element
• any billing system
• Handles any transaction type
• voice
• data
• video
• wireless/wireline
• IP
• Standardizes format

Flexible Rating

• User-defined
• Table-driven
• Tailor to any business requirement

Data Management

• Sends to billing systems
• Sends to operational data store

Event Specification System (ESS)

• Easy-to-use application development tool
• Rules-based
• No programming required
• Easy in/easy out

NEPPS Features at a glance

• Data Collection
• Polling – scheduled, continuous, ad-hoc
• Collection Server – Push and CORBA (Standard/Open Interface) Push
• Robust recovery and error handling prevent usage leaks
• From Fixed, Wireless, and IP Networks

NEPPS – A Secure Investment for Many Years

• Provides an end-to-end convergent mediation and pre-billing rating solution
• Processes wireline, wireless, data, IP, content services, and future transactions through a single system
• Mediates, standardizes, rates, and accumulates for convergent billing
• Scales up or down depending on your needs
• “Future-proofed” using enhancement suggestions from the NEPPS user group
• Proven globally
• Among our OSS and BSS solutions that help you gain revenue assurance, competitive advantage, and cost savings

NEPPS, IP, and ZLE

• Log file collection from AAA Radius Servers using FTP
• Real-time IP and SS7 Mediation and Rating (IP2SS7)
• Message-based UDP and TCP collection from IP network elements and SS7 Probes
• XML input/output (message- and file-based)
• Real-time Assembly (consolidation and correlation)

NEPPS customer characteristics

• Largest subscriber base to date:  25 million.  True capacity is unlimited.
• Transaction volume:  260M–300M CDRs per day (on just 3 servers).  Capacity is unlimited.
• Implementation example:  Implemented NEPPS in 2 months
• New product implementation:  Implemented VoIP, IP and GPRS using ESS
• Hardware platform:  Implemented on HP’s Non-Stop Itanium platform, the industry’s highest volume, highest performing, fault tolerant hardware platform.
• Pricing plans: Implemented in NEPPS

NEPPS Convergent Platform

NEPPS incorporates techniques, such as a table-driven rules engine and user‑ interactive, PC‑based tools, to provide the flexibility of user‑controlled changes. This NEPPS toolset accommodates convergence usage collection and mediation processing for an increasingly wide range of IP, wireline, and wireless products

Return on Investment (ROI) and Revenue Assurance (RA)

Web-based Error Correction

• Corrects errors before data is sent to billing
• Identifies and corrects revenue that would be lost due to errors
• Allows mass or individual correction based on your criteria
• Manual
• Automated
• Unmatched in today’s market (Chorleywood)

Control Manager

• Balances inputs to outputs within and between processes and points of interface
• Audits data flow
• Every transaction is traceable

Quick and Painless Implementation and Customization

Event Specification System (ESS)

• Define your network element and NEPPS data structures (inputs/outputs)
• Define your interfacing systems’ data structures (inputs/outputs)
• Define your business rules
  • Your unique requirements
  • Do business YOUR way
• Control expenses because ESS:
  • Implements your network changes and your business rules on your schedule and at a lower cost than a software vendor
  • Provides significant cost reduction in development and implementation, plus rapid deployment of new products or services
  • Reduces costs associated with network upgrades, long development cycles, and maintaining multiple systems