This chapter describes how to configure Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) billing and invoicing to generate data for Revenue Assurance Manager.
Before reading this chapter, you should be familiar with the following:
"Running Billing Utilities" in BRM Configuring and Running Billing
Note:
To generate revenue assurance data, you must have Revenue Manager installed. See "Installing Revenue Assurance Manager" for instructions.You need to complete the following tasks to configure BRM billing for Revenue Assurance Manager:
By default, billing utilities do not generate revenue assurance data. You enable the utilities to generate data by changing an entry in their configuration (pin.conf) files. You make the same change to three separate configuration files:
BRM_Home/apps/pin_billd/pin.conf
BRM_Home/apps/pin_trial_bill/pin.conf
BRM_Home/apps/pin_inv/pin.conf
To enable revenue assurance data in billing utilities:
Using a text editor, open the utility configuration file.
Change 0 to 1 in the following entry:
- pin_mta enable_ara 0
A value of 1 generates revenue assurance data; 0 disables data generation.
Save and close the file.
Stop and start the Connection Manager (CM).
See the discussion of starting and stopping the BRM system in BRM System Administrator's Guide.
By default, collecting revenue assurance data for Bill Now, on-demand billing, and auto-triggered billing is disabled. You enable this feature by using the pin_bus_params utility to modify the EnableARA parameter in the billing instance of the /config/business_params object.
Complete these tasks to enable Bill Now, on-demand billing, and auto-triggered billing to generate revenue assurance data:
Run the following command to create an editable XML file from the billing instance of the /config/business_params object:
pin_bus_params -r bus_params_billing.xml
This command creates an XML file named bus_params_billing.xml.out in your working directory. (You can specify another location for this file if you want).
Using a text editor, open the new bus_params_billing.xml file.
Change disabled to enabled in this entry:
<EnableARA>disabled</EnableARA>
Caution:
This file contains the instructions that BRM uses to overwrite the existing /config/business_params object. If you delete or modify other parameters in the file, you may cause unexpected behavior in the BRM A/R configuration.Save and close the file.
Go to BRM_Home/sys/data/config and load the change into the /config/business_params object by using this command:
pin_bus_params bus_params_billing.xml
Tip:
To execute this command from a different directory, see "pin_bus_params" in BRM Developer's Guide.To verify that all fields are correct, read the object with the testnap utility or Object Browser.
Tip:
See "Using testnap" and "Reading Objects by Using Object Browser" in BRM Developer's Guide for general instructions on using testnap and for information on how to use Object Browser.Stop and restart the Connection Manager (CM).
For more information, see the discussion of starting and stopping the BRM system in BRM System Administrator's Guide.
(Multischema systems only) Run the pin_multidb script with the -R CONFIG parameter.
For more information, see "pin_multidb" in BRM System Administrator's Guide.
For bill items to work as configured in Revenue Assurance Manager, you must configure item subtypes. Item subtypes define the different types of charges for item types such as cycle arrears, cycle forward, cycle forward arrears, and so on. For example, cycle forward fee and cycle arrears fees can be categorized can be included in the recurring subtype and monthly usage in the usage subtype.
If you do not configure billable item subtypes, the split revenue assurance data is stored as miscellaneous charges.
You define item subtypes in the config_item_types file by using the sub_type property in the ItemType tag.
Before configuring item subtypes, you must first configure bill items. See "Creating Custom Bill Items" in BRM Configuring and Running Billing.
To configure item subtypes:
Using a text editor, open the config_item_types file in the BRM_Home/sys/data/pricing/example directory.
Define your new item subtypes in the ItemType tag.
Use the item subtypes recurring and remit default item subtypes as examples. You can copy and change it as necessary.
<ItemType precreate="false" type="cumulative" sub_type="recurring">/item/cycle_forward_arrear</ItemType>
Important:
Be sure to enter Discount for discount subtypes. Otherwise, Revenue Assurance Center will display the item's data on the Revenue sections instead of the Adjustments/Discounts section.In the Storable Class Editor, create the storable class /item/name, where name is the value in the PIN_FLD_TYPE field of /config/item_types.
Run the load_config_item_tags and load_config_item_types utilities to configure the item subtypes in the BRM database. See "load_config_item_tags" and "load_config_item_types" in BRM Configuring and Running Billing.
The defined subtypes are displayed in Revenue Assurance Center in the Charge Type column of the Billing Details screen, under the Revenue section, except for subtypes that are defined as discount, which are displayed in the Adjustments/Discounts section of the Billing Details screen. For more information, see the Revenue Assurance Center Help.