Configuration extensions for a telecommunications service provider

• US 20070162317A1
• Filed: 01/12/2006
• Published: 07/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture SPA (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Papili, Marina, Cundari, Chiara
• Granted Patent: US 8,069,070 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A customer care architecture integrates a full range of customer care and dunning billing features in a customer care system. The customer care architecture defines and implements multiple workflows which support dunning action requests while centralizing customer account control at the customer care system in an end-to-end telecommunications system framework. The customer care architecture thereby supports interaction, communication, and synchronization with existing and established dunning accounting systems.

Claims

9. A processing synchronization architecture for a telecommunications service provider, the architecture comprising:

a communication interface in communication with an external dunning processing system;

memory coupled to the communication interface, the memory comprising;

a customer account record;

a dunning action request batch file received from an external dunning system;

a batch processing script operable to process the dunning action request batch file and responsively update a customer dunning status field in the customer account record;

a suspend/resume workflow executed by the customer care system for suspending a customer asset or re-activating a customer asset in accordance with the dunning action request batch file; and

an account modification workflow for communicating suspension of the customer asset to the external dunning system.

a processor coupled to the memory which executes the batch processing script, the suspend/resume workflow, and the account modification workflow.

10. The architecture of claim 9, where the dunning action request batch file comprises:

a dunning ‘

Suspension’

action request, and where the batch processing script updates the customer dunning status field by responsively setting a Suspension requested flag.

11. The architecture of claim 10, where the processor receives a dunning operator input for applying a ‘

Lock’

to the customer account record, and where the customer care system communicates the ‘

Lock’

to the external dunning system.

12. The architecture of claim 9, where the dunning action request batch file comprises a dunning Termination action request, and where the processing script updates the customer dunning status field by responsively setting a Termination requested flag.

13. The architecture of claim 12, where the processor receives a dunning operator input for applying a ‘

Lock’

to the customer account record, and where the customer care system communicates the ‘

Lock’

to the external dunning system.

14. The architecture of claim 9, where the memory further comprises a dunning check workflow.

15. The architecture of claim 14, where the dunning check workflow reads the customer dunning status field, and when a ‘

Lock’

is applied, responsively communicates the ‘

Lock’

to the external dunning system.

16. A synchronized processing architecture for a telecommunications service provider, the architecture comprising:

a dunning processing system comprising;

a dunning communication interface;

a memory comprising a dunning financial accounting system which periodically generates a dunning action request batch file; and

a processor coupled to the memory which executes the accounting system and which communicates the dunning action request batch file through the dunning communication interface;

a customer care processing system comprising;

a customer care communication interface coupled to the dunning communication interface;

a memory comprising;

a dunning cleaning workflow;

a customer asset suspend/resume workflow;

an account modification workflow;

a customer account record comprising a customer dunning status field; and

a batch processing script for processing the dunning action request batch file; and

a processor coupled to the memory which executes the batch processing script and responsively updates the customer dunning status field, where the processor further executes the customer asset suspend/resume workflow in response to a Suspend or Activate status in the customer dunning status field and further executes the account modification workflow to communicate customer asset suspension or re-activation to the dunning processing system.

1. A method for synchronizing customer status across multiple processing systems supporting a telecommunications service provider, the method comprising:

maintaining a customer care database in a customer care system, the customer care database comprising a customer account record;

defining workflows in memory in the customer care system, the workflows comprising a suspend asset workflow, a resume asset workflow, and a dunning cleaning workflow;

receiving a dunning action request batch file from an external dunning system;

storing the dunning action request batch file in memory in the customer care system;

processing the dunning action request batch file and responsively updating a customer dunning status field in the customer account record;

when the dunning action request batch file includes a suspension request for a customer asset, initiating execution of the suspend asset workflow in the customer care system to create an asset suspension order, and communicating suspension of the customer asset to the external dunning system; and

when the dunning action request batch file includes a re-activation request for a customer asset, initiating execution of the resume asset workflow in the customer care system to create an asset re-activation order, and communicating re-activation of the customer asset to the external dunning system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the dunning status field comprises setting the customer dunning status field to ‘

Waiting for Processing’

.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising communicating a suspension order for the customer asset to a provisioning system.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving a suspension acknowledgement message from the provisioning system.

5. The method of claim 4, where communicating suspension of the customer asset occurs after receiving the suspension acknowledgement.

6. The method of claim 1, where the dunning action request batch file comprises multiple dunning action requests.

7. The method of claim 6, where receiving the dunning action request batch file comprises receiving new dunning action request batch files on a regular schedule.

8. The method of claim 6, where updating the customer account state comprises:

receiving dunning input from a dunning operator accepting the dunning action request;

setting the customer account status field to ‘

Locked’

in response to the dunning input; and

communicating the ‘

Locked’

customer account status field to the external dunning system.

17. The architecture of claim 16, where the memory further comprises a dunning check workflow which is operable to read the customer dunning status field, and when a ‘

Lock’

is applied, responsively communicate the ‘

Lock’

to the dunning system.

18. The architecture of claim 17, where the dunning action request batch file comprises a customer asset suspend action request or a customer asset terminate action request.

19. The architecture of claim 17, where the memory further comprises a dunning cleaning workflow operable to reset the customer dunning status field.

20. The architecture of claim 17, where dunning check workflow initiates execution of the account modification workflow to communicate a ‘

Lock’

on the customer account record to the dunning processing system.