CLEC convergent billing system
First Claim
1. A method for processing requests for products comprising the steps, performed by a processor, of:
- storing in a database a set of bundle codes, each bundle code indicating at least two products offered by at least two different providers;
receiving a request identifying a customer and including a bundle code;
converting a portion of the received request into at least one specifically-formatted provisioning request for each provider based on the received bundle code; and
providing the provisioning requests to the providers to initiate a product supply process by each provider.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A process is provided for a billing controller receives a request identifying a customer and indicating one of a plurality of providers for a selected product, converts a portion of the received request into a provisioning request based on the selected product; and provides the provisioning request to the provider. The billing controller also receives a request identifying a customer and including a bundle code indicating a plurality of providers for selected products, converts portions of the received request into provisioning requests based on the code, and provides the provisioning requests to the providers. The billing controller also receives usage data for a customer from a plurality of providers, converts the usage data from each provider into a standard usage data format based on predetermined billing rules, and stores the converted usage data linked to a customer record. The billing controller also accesses a stored customer record identifying a customer and including usage data and a plurality of codes, specifies a bill format from the codes, determines whether codes identify a selected bundle of products from at least two providers, and generates a bill including the usage data in the specified format. In generating the bill, the billing controller computes any discount based on the result of the determination, computes taxes for each of the products, and uses the computed discount and taxes in generating the bill.
-
Citations
19 Claims
-
1. A method for processing requests for products comprising the steps, performed by a processor, of:
-
storing in a database a set of bundle codes, each bundle code indicating at least two products offered by at least two different providers; receiving a request identifying a customer and including a bundle code; converting a portion of the received request into at least one specifically-formatted provisioning request for each provider based on the received bundle code; and providing the provisioning requests to the providers to initiate a product supply process by each provider. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A controller for processing requests for products comprising:
-
a database configured to store a set of bundle codes, each bundle code indicating at least two different products offered by at least two different providers; a receiver configured to receive a request identifying a customer and including a bundle code; a converter configured to convert a portion of the received request into at least one specifically-formatted provisioning request for each provider based on the received bundle code; and a component configured to provide the provisioning requests to the providers to initiate a product supply process by each provider. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A computer program product containing instructions for causing a data processor to perform a method, the method comprising:
-
storing in a database a set of bundle codes, each bundle code indicating at least two products offered by at least two different providers; receiving a request identifying a customer and including a bundle code; converting a portion of the received request into at least one specifically-formatted provisioning request for each provider based on the received bundle code; and providing the provisioning requests to the providers to initiate a product supply process by each provider. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A data processing system for processing requests for products comprising:
-
a request-processing gateway controller, connected to a central controller, configured to receive customer requests for at least two different products offered by at least two different providers; and a service-provider gateway controller, connected to the central controller, configured to receive the customer requests via the central controller and to distribute specifically-formatted provisioning requests to each of the providers to initiate a product supply process by each of the providers.
-
Specification