This chapter provides an overview of the feature enhancements introduced in Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) 7.5 Patch Set 1 through BRM 7.5 Maintenance Patch Set 1.
BRM 7.5 Maintenance Patch Set 1 includes enhancements to the following components:
This section describes the enhancements to account migration.
BRM now supports the migration of account objects in Oracle In-Memory Database (IMDB) Cache groups for IMDB Cache-enabled systems. When you migrate the account data stored in the BRM database, BRM migrates the corresponding data in the Oracle IMDB Cache accordingly. BRM does the following:
When you migrate accounts from a source schema of a BRM database to a destination schema in the same or different BRM database, BRM ensures that it migrates the corresponding data in the source Oracle IMDB Cache grid to the destination Oracle IMDB Cache grid.
BRM has enhanced the pin_amt utility to migrate the cached data.
If you add logical partitions to an Oracle IMDB Cache grid, you can balance the data in that cache grid by redistributing the accounts between the data stores associated with the logical partitions in that cache grid.
BRM provides the new pin_amt_tt utility for this purpose.
See the following for information on these enhancements:
Migrating accounts in BRM System Administrator's Guide
Account migration utilities in BRM System Administrator's Guide
This section describes the enhancements to accounts receivable.
In the previous releases, Collections Manager allowed write-off reversals only at the account level. When a payment was received for a written-off bill unit of an account, the written-off bill unit could not be reversed, which resulted in an unallocated payment.
Collections Manager now allows you to reverse a written-off bill unit of an account so that payments can be allocated to the bill unit. You can now collect a full payment for a written-off bill unit or collect a partial payment and write off the remaining balance due on the bill unit.
See the discussion about write-off reversals in BRM Managing Accounts Receivable for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to billing.
By default, BRM uses the same item-tag-to-item-type mapping (item configuration) for all bill units in the system. The item configuration is used to assign bill items to events during the rating process; it also specifies which bill items are pre-created at the beginning of each billing cycle. For more information about the item configuration, see the discussion about creating custom bill items in BRM Configuring and Running Billing.
Using the same item configuration for all bill units (/billinfo objects) can degrade performance by unnecessarily pre-creating bill items for certain types of bill units. For example, the default item configuration might pre-create cycle forward and cycle arrears items, which are normally used to track charges for postpaid bill units but are typically not required for prepaid bill units. Pre-creating such items for prepaid bill units needlessly consumes database storage space and takes more time to process during billing.
To generate fewer bill items, you can now create multiple item configurations in your system and then assign the appropriate item configuration to each bill unit.
For more information, see the discussion about improving performance by using multiple item configurations in BRM System Administrator's Guide.
BRM can calculate taxes during real-time rating, pipeline batch rating, or billing. For more information, see the discussion about choosing when to calculate taxes in BRM Calculating Taxes.
Calculating taxes at billing time (also called deferred taxation) can be a time-consuming process that involves searching all events and items in a billing cycle. It is triggered by regular billing, Bill Now, Bill on Purchase, and trial billing.
In some cases, such as for prepaid accounts, taxes typically do not need to be calculated at billing time. If your system is configured to calculate billing-time taxes, you can improve billing performance by skipping billing-time tax calculation for individual bill units (/billinfo objects) when it is not needed.
For more information, see the discussion about improving performance by skipping billing-time tax calculation in BRM System Administrator's Guide.
In the previous releases, you could create a bill unit hierarchy only with the bill units whose corresponding accounts were part of an account hierarchy.
With this patch, you can create a bill unit hierarchy with the bill units even if their corresponding accounts are not part of an account hierarchy.
See the discussion about creating hierarchical bill units in BRM Managing Accounts Receivable for more information.
A wholesale market customer account can have a large number of services with different balance groups. In the previous releases, the billing operation applied cycle fees sequentially for each of the services. Therefore, billing took a long time to complete.
With this patch, you can now configure BRM to apply cycle fees in parallel for a number of services prior to billing, thereby eliminating the process of applying cycle fees during billing and improving the performance of the billing process.
To apply cycle fees in parallel, your system must meet the following requirements:
The number of services attached to a single balance group must be less than 10 to get the performance benefit of applying parallel cycle fees.
No dependency should exist on the order of applying cycle fees for hierarchies (subordinate, charge-sharing, or discount-sharing). This is because the cycle fees are now applied by the pin_cycle_fees utility instead of by the billing application, which gives more control on the order of processing accounts in hierarchies.
Also with this patch, BRM now allows the use of a single item at the account level to accumulate the cycle charges for all the services, which reduces the number of items to process and improves overall system performance.
This patch includes the following enhancements:
Added a new pin_update_items_journals utility that allows service-level charges to be aggregated to an account-level item
Added a new StagedBillingFeeProcessing business parameter to specify how BRM applies cycle fees
Enhanced the pin_cycle_fees utility to do the following:
Apply cycle fees in parallel across services
Include the functionality of the pin_cycle_forward utility for charging cycle forward fees
Updated billing operations to validate that cycle fees are applied prior to billing
Updated the pin_bill_day script to apply parallel cycle fees
See the discussion about applying cycle forward fees in parallel in BRM Configuring and Running Billing for more information.
When multiple products are present in a deal with cycle fees, you can now configure BRM to apply cycle fees in the order of product priority.
Configure the UsePrioritySubscriptionFees subscription business parameter to apply cycle fees based on product priority during:
Purchase or cancellation of a deal, for all the products per deal
Billing, for all the products in a deal per bill unit (/billinfo object)
Note:
This parameter does not prioritize products for cycle fees applied using pin_cycle_fees -defer_cancel and does not prioritize products for any customized products.See the discussion about enabling product priority while applying cycle fees in BRM Configuring and Running Billing for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to the BRM database.
This patch includes the following partitioning and purging enhancements:
In addition to event storable classes, the following storable classes are now partitioned by default when BRM is installed:
bill
invoice
item
journal
newsfeed
sepa
user_activity
In addition to purging event objects, the partition_utils utility can now purge the following objects:
bill
invoice
item
journal
newsfeed
sepa
You can now convert any nonpartitioned storable class to a partitioned storable class after installing BRM.
The item storable classes can now be made purgeable or nonpurgeable. Like nonpurgeable event objects, nonpurgeable item objects are automatically stored in the partition_historic partition.
For more information, see the discussion about partitioning and managing BRM tables in BRM System Administrator's Guide.
BRM purges item objects and their associated event objects only when the item objects are closed. In some accounts, such as prepaid, items are rarely closed because payments are never allocated to them, so their due is always greater than 0. Hence, events associated with the open items also cannot be purged. The unpurgeable items and events take up storage space. To free up storage space, you can make such items purgeable and then purge them.
For more information, see the discussion about enabling events associated with open items to be purged in BRM System Administrator's Guide.
Oracle Database 11g, by default, supports virtual columns (columns whose values are defined by an expression, are computed when you query the data, and are not physically stored in the database). You can now use virtual columns in the BRM database if you have Oracle Database 11g (or later).
To enable virtual columns in the BRM database, you convert event classes (/event and its subclasses) in the BRM schema. The savings in database storage applies to event data that the system creates after the virtual columns are generated (not to existing event data). Virtual column functionality is transparent to BRM.
For information about virtual columns, see the Oracle Database documentation.
See the discussion about generating virtual columns on event tables in BRM System Administrator's Guide for more information.
See the discussion about creating custom applications in BRM Developer's Guide for information on how to make your custom applications support virtual columns.
This section describes the enhancements to Collections Center.
In the previous releases, when you opened the Agents Task List tab in the manager view and the All Tasks tab in the agent view for the first time, by default, Collections Center displayed all the tasks in the system, which impacted performance.
With this patch, when you open the Agents Task List tab in the manager view and the All Tasks tab in the agent view for the first time, you must enter a search criteria. Collections Center displays only those tasks that match the search criteria, thereby resulting in better performance. However, if you want to display all the tasks in the system, there is no improvement in Collections Center performance.
Additionally, the Threshold tab in the Preferences dialog box now correctly allows you to set the threshold for the number of tasks that Collections Center displays at a given time.
For information on viewing collections tasks, viewing assigned tasks, and setting threshold values, see the Collections Center Help.
This section describes the enhancements to Collections Manager.
In the previous releases, when configuring additional collections scenario parameters in the config_collections_scenario_params.xml file, you entered the column name (for example, pay_type) in the <FIELD_NAME> element.
With this patch, instead of the column name, enter the field name (for example, PIN_FLD_PAY_TYPE) in the <FIELD_NAME> element of the config_collections_scenario_params.xml file. To enter the field name of a field present under an array or a substruct, use the format <FIELD_NAME>array.field</FIELD_NAME >, which includes the parent field of the attribute separated by periods (.). For example: <FIELD_NAME>PIN_FLD_ COLLECTIONS_PARAMS.PIN_FLD_CREDIT_PROFILE</FIELD_NAME >.
When a bill unit (/billinfo object) is in collections, the customer can now request a promise-to-pay agreement. This agreement allows you to defer running the collections actions for a bill unit, allowing the customer to pay the due amount at a date beyond the original payment due date. The customer can now pay the due amount in installments scheduled at regular intervals.
Using Collections Center, you can now add or update a customer's payment method and reschedule payment dates and amounts for Promise to Pay and Collect Payment actions. See the Collections Center Help for more information.
To use these options in Collections Center, you must set the following permissions through Permissioning Center:
/collectionapps/collections/updatepayment: To allow you to update promise-to-pay payment details in Collections Center
/collectionapps/collections/newcard: To register a new credit card or direct debit account details
/collectionapps/collections/maskcarddetails: To see all the digits of the credit card or the direct debit account
By default, the Promise to Pay option is available in the Collections Center Actions menu. To disable the Promise to Pay option in the Collections Center Actions menu, use the /collectionapps/collections/promisetopay permission.
See the Permissioning Center Help for more information.
See the discussion about promise-to-pay agreements in BRM Collections Manager for more information.
You can now configure Collections Manager to perform collections actions in a scenario in a specified order by using the collections_action_dependency entry in the Connection Manager pin.conf file.
When enabled, Collections Manager performs the following additional steps during scenario processing:
Performs a collections action on its due date only if the scenario's preceding collections action has been completed or canceled.
After completing or canceling a collections action, reschedules the due dates of any outstanding collections actions in the scenario. Collections Manager calculates the difference in days between the action's completed or canceled date and the action's due date and then moves the due dates of all outstanding actions by the calculated number of days.
For example, assume a collections scenario contains two collections actions:
Action 1: A manual phone call from an agent 5 days after the bill unit enters collections
Action 2: Referring the case to an outside collections agency 10 days after the bill unit enters collections
If action 1 does not occur until day 7, Collections Manager changes the due date of action 2 from day 10 to day 12.
After you cancel or complete a collections action, Collections Center allows you to choose whether to reschedule any outstanding collections actions in the scenario. See the Collections Center Help for more information.
See the discussion about collections actions dependencies in BRM Collections Manager for more information.
When a bill unit meets the entry criteria for a collections scenario, it is assigned to that scenario, enters collections, and proceeds to scenario processing. If there is a change in the criteria, such as the customer making a partial payment, the bill unit may not meet the entry criteria for the collections scenario. Collections Manager now allows you to reevaluate the entry criteria based on additional parameters and replace the assigned collections scenario with a new collections scenario.
When a bill unit is in collections, you can use Collections Center to replace the collections scenario assigned to the bill unit. See the Collections Center Help for more information.
See the discussion about scenario processing in BRM Collections Manager for more information.
In the previous releases, Collections Manager assigned the collections scenario to the bill unit based only on the overdue balance and the number of days overdue. You can now use the load_config utility to load additional parameters to be used for collections scenario assignment. The utility loads the additional parameters into the /config/collections/scenario_params object that is used to define an evaluation formula. Each formula is in turn linked to the collections scenario assigned to the bill unit.
Using Collections Configuration Center, you can modify or delete the additional parameters from the scenario definitions. See the Collections Configuration Center Help for more information on how to configure the additional parameters for a collections scenario.
See the discussion about scenario processing in BRM Collections Manager for more information.
In the previous releases, when multiple collections agencies were involved in recovering overdue balances, it was not possible to automate the logic of selecting the proper debt collections agency (DCA). You can now automate the logic of selecting the proper DCA by using the new PCM_OP_COLLECTIONS_POL_ASSIGN_DCA policy opcode. This policy opcode is called whenever a collections action of type Refer to outside agency is run.
See the discussion about assigning bill units to a collections agent in BRM Collections Manager for more information.
In the previous releases, Collections Manager allowed you to cancel a collections action at any time. During collections processing, Collections Manager automatically canceled all collections actions that were past due and changed the status of all remaining collections actions to mandatory.
Now, Collections Manager allows you to cancel optional collections actions only. During collections processing, Collections Manager automatically changes the status of an optional collections action to canceled or completed on its due date. It does not change the status of any remaining collections actions.
See the discussion about optional collections actions in BRM Collections Manager for more information.
Collections Manager now allows you to organize bill units into collections sharing groups. These collections groups consist of a parent bill unit and one or more child bill units.
Collections Manager assigns a collections scenario to the collections group parent based on:
The combined overdue balance from all bill units in the collections group
The oldest due date from all bill units in the collections group
When you define a collections action in Collections Configuration Center, you can specify whether the action applies to the parent bill unit, to all the child bill units, or to the parent and all the child bill units. See the Collections Configuration Center Help for more information.
You can create and manage collections sharing groups by using Customer Center. See the Customer Center Help for more information.
See the discussion about collections groups in BRM Collections Manager for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to Customer Center.
In the previous releases, customer service representatives (CSRs) entered the password for services in Customer Center (in the Customize Services page and the Services tab).
With this patch, you can now hide the password fields for services in Customer Center by using the nonCSRservices.hide.passwordfields entry in the Customized.properties configuration file. When the password fields are hidden, the BRM server generates the password for services. You cannot hide the password fields for the /service/admin_client and /service/pcm_client service types.
See the discussion about hiding the password fields in Customer Center to enhance security in BRM Developer's Guide for more information.
In the previous releases, Customer Center added the Service Search dialog box to locate services for wholesale customers. You could access the Service Search dialog box when you clicked Search in the following locations:
In the Services tab
In the Summary tab, when you click Account Status
In the Purchase wizard, when adding deals to an existing service for an account
In the Non-currency section of the Balance tab
With this patch, you can also access the Service Search dialog box to locate services for wholesale customers when you click Search in the following locations:
In the Account Adjustment dialog box for currency and non-currency resources
In the Balance Monitor dialog box for the service-level-monitor type
In the Service Adjustment dialog box for currency and non-currency resources
See the Customer Center Help for more information.
See "Service Search Enhancements (Patch Set 5)" for more information on the Service Search dialog box.
Customer Center now includes the following enhancements for wholesale customers:
Customer Center has added the following criteria to event searches for wholesale customers. Customer Center now allows you to:
Narrow your filters for event searches by providing more search criteria in the Event Search dialog box. See "Enhancements to the Event Search Dialog Box".
Customize the case sensitivity of the searches for events. See the discussion about customizing the case sensitivity of event searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
Customize event searches by adding custom settings for the following search components:
Service type. See the discussion about customizing the selections for service type in event searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
Service status. See the discussion about customizing the selections for service status in event searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
Device type. See the discussion about customizing the selections for device type in event searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
The Event Search dialog box has been expanded to contain the following fields to provide more search criteria:
Service ID
Service Type; and optionally, include its sub-services
Purchase period for the service
Device ID
Device Type; and optionally, include its sub-devices
Balance group name
Bill Unit name
Search across the items
See the Customer Center Help for more information.
Customer Center contains balance group search enhancements for wholesale customers. Customer Center now allows you to:
Quickly locate a balance group by using the new Balance Group Search dialog box. See "Locating a Balance Group Using the New Balance Group Search Dialog Box".
Set the threshold for the number of available balance groups to display in Customer Center. See "Setting the Threshold Value for Displaying Available Balance Groups".
Customize the case sensitivity of searches for balance groups. See the discussion about customizing the case sensitivity of balance group searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
Customize searches for balance groups by adding custom settings for the following search components:
Service type. See the discussion about customizing the selections for service type in balance group searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
Service status. See the discussion about customizing the selections for service status in balance group searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
Device type. See the discussion about customizing the selections for device type in balance group searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
You can now locate a balance group by using the new Balance Group Search dialog box to narrow your search criteria.
This dialog box opens when you click Search in the following locations:
In the Currency Credit Limit banner of the Credit Limit dialog box
In either column of the Multiple Bill Unit Options dialog box
See the Customer Center Help for more information.
Customer service representatives (CSRs) can now set the threshold for the number of balance groups that Customer Center displays at a given time by using the new Threshold field in the Balance Group Search section of the Thresholds tab of the Preferences dialog box.
Customer Center uses the threshold to limit the number of services to display in the following locations:
In the Currency Credit Limit banner of the Credit Limit dialog box
In the corresponding column of the Multiple Bill Unit Options dialog box
The default threshold is NULL, and the display shows an empty field. When the Threshold field is empty, Customer Center retrieves all the balance groups associated with the selected bill unit. See the Customer Center Help for more information.
Customer Center contains product/discount search enhancements for wholesale customers. Customer Center now allows you to:
Locate a product/discount by using the new Product/Discount Search dialog box. See "Locating Products/Discounts Using the New Product/Discount Search Dialog Box".
Set the number of available products/discounts to display in Customer Center. See "Setting the Maximum Number of Available Products/Discounts to Display".
Customize the case sensitivity of the searches for products/discounts. See the discussion about customizing the case sensitivity of product/discount searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
Customize searches for products/discounts by adding custom settings for the following search components:
Service type. See the discussion about customizing the selections for service type in product/discount searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
Service status. See the discussion about customizing the selections for service status in product/discount searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
Device type. See the discussion about customizing the selections for device type in product/discount searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
You can now locate a product/discount by using the new Product/Discount Search dialog box to narrow your search criteria.
This dialog box opens when you click Search in the Plans tab.
See the Customer Center Help for more information.
CSRs can now set the threshold for the number of products/discounts that Customer Center displays at a given time in the Plans tab for any account by using the new Threshold field in the Product/Discount Search section of the Thresholds tab of the Preferences dialog box.
The default threshold is NULL, and the display shows an empty field. When the Threshold field is empty, Customer Center retrieves all the products/discounts associated with the selected account. See the Customer Center Help for more information.
You can now use searches to locate services that use non-currency resources for wholesale customers. The Service Search dialog box can now be accessed when you click Search in the Non-currency banner of the Balance tab.
See "Service Search Enhancements (Patch Set 5)" for more information on the Service Search dialog box.
The other services associated with a selected resource are now displayed outside of the Non-currency section of the Balance tab. To view the other services associated with a non-currency resource, click the Other Services Accessing These Resources link in the Non-currency section of the Balance tab.
See the Customer Center Help for more information.
Customer Center contains service search enhancements for wholesale customers. Customer Center now allows you to:
Quickly locate a service by using the new Service Search dialog box. See "Locating a Service Using the New Service Search Dialog Box".
Set the threshold for the number of available services to display in Customer Center. See "Setting the Threshold Value for Displaying Available Services".
Customize the case sensitivity of searches for services. See the discussion about customizing the case sensitivity of service searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
Set the step size for the searches. See the discussion about customizing the step search size in BRM Developer's Guide.
Customize service searches by adding custom settings for the following search components:
Service type. See the discussion about customizing the selections for service type in service searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
Service status. See the discussion about customizing the selections for service status in service searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
Device type. See the discussion about customizing the selections for device type in service searches in BRM Developer's Guide.
You can now locate a service by using the new Service Search dialog box to narrow your search criteria.
This dialog box opens when you click Search in the following locations:
In the Services tab
In the Summary tab, when you click Account Status
In the Purchase wizard, when adding deals to an existing service for an account
See the Customer Center Help for more information.
CSRs can now set the threshold for the number of services that Customer Center displays at a given time by using the new Threshold input field.
Customer Center uses the threshold to limit the number of services to display in the following locations:
In the table displayed in the Services tab.
In the Service list in the Purchase wizard (when adding deals to an existing service for an account).
In the Account/service list in the Change Account Service Status page of the Summary tab.
In the Search Results table of the new Service Search dialog box.
The default threshold is NULL and the display shows an empty field. When the Threshold field is empty, Customer Center retrieves all the services associated with the selected account. See the Customer Center Help for more information.
To better manage payment allocations for accounts with multiple bill units, the following enhancements have been introduced:
CSRs can now allocate negative balances to bills with a positive balance using a new dialog box.
A new Transfer Negative Balance dialog box has been added to allow CSRs with customercenter/allocatepayment/negative permissions to transfer credit amounts to bills with a positive balance. By default, CSRs have this permission. See the Permissioning Center Help for more information on how to deny this permission.
Ability to disable or enable automatic allocation of amounts has been added in the General tab of the Preferences dialog box.
Ability to view bill units when allocating payments.
The Allocate Payment dialog box includes a new Bill Unit column and the ability to sort all columns in ascending or descending order.
CSRs can now review payments for a specific bill unit using the Bill Unit list added on the Payments tab.
Ability to copy content to other applications from:
Customer account number and account name on the UI header
Check Number, Transaction ID, and Amount fields in the Payment Details tab of the Payments menu
All fields that do not contain a link in the Event Details dialog box
See the Customer Center Help for more information.
You can now use the PCM_OP_CUST_COMMIT_CUSTOMER opcode to pass the collections profile data at the time of customer account creation. The /profile/collections_params object is created when the customer account is created. The /profile/collections_params object contains the customer's collections profile information.
See the discussion about creating customer's collections profiles at the time of customer account creation in BRM Managing Customers for more information.
Customer Center now enables customers to purchase a plan with options that contains services not associated with deals.
When such plans are purchased during account creation, <No Deal> appears in the following places in the Account Creation wizard for each service in the plan that is not associated with a deal:
The Deal column of the Details table in the Plan page
The Deal/Product column of the table in the Plan Options page
The Deal column of the table at the top of the Customize Services page
For standard plans, <No Deal> appears in the following places in the Account Creation wizard for any service that is not associated with a deal:
The Deal column of the Details table in the Plan page
The Deal column of the table at the top of the Customize Services page
When an existing account purchases a plan with options, <No Deal> appears in the Deal column of the Details table in the Purchase page of the Purchase wizard for each service that is not associated with a deal.
To enable customers to purchase optional services from plans that contain services not associated with deals or to transition from such plans to other plans, services not associated with deals must meet the following guidelines:
They must be part of a subscription group.
If the subscription service is not associated with a deal, at least one required member service must be associated with a deal.
If the subscription service is associated with a deal, none of the member services needs to be associated with a deal.
Caution:
When the Change Plan Option feature is available, it is possible to purchase multiple instances of each optional service not associated with a deal in a plan with options. Do not do that. Instead, you should purchase only one instance of each optional service in a plan with options.When the Transition to New Plan feature is available, to transition from a plan with options that contains services not associated with a deal, you must reenter the login ID and password for each corresponding service in the new plan. You do not have to reenter login information for services that were associated with a deal in the original plan.
For information about creating a plan with options that contains services not associated with deals, see "Plan with Options Can Contain Services Not Associated with a Deal (Patch Set 3)".
Customer Center now allows you to configure how a customer's service or account receives notifications in real time in response to authentication, authorization, and accounting requests for prepaid services. For example, you can configure a customer account to receive a notification about a threshold breach by SMS. The customer can use this notification to take necessary action in real time to address the situation. For information on how to configure the customer preferences to receive notifications in real time, see the Customer Center Help.
This section describes the enhancements in customer management.
With this patch, you can now store a summary of activities performed on an account as News Feed.
News Feed is a summary of activities performed on an account, which are stored in the BRM database. To store a summary of activities performed on an account, enable News Feed for each event you want a summary of.
For more information, see the discussion about storing a summary of activities performed on an account in BRM Managing Customers for more information.
With this patch, you use the optional PIN_FLD_MIN_ROW and PIN_FLD_MAX_ROW fields in the input flist of the PCM_OP_SEARCH opcode to retrieve the records from the search result set using the start row and end row numbers.
See the discussion about limiting search results by using the PIN_FLD_MIN_ROW and PIN_FLD_MAX_ROW fields in BRM Developer's Guide for more information.
In the previous releases, when using an external customer relationship management (CRM) application to connect to BRM, BRM logged only the external customer service representative (CSR) user activity in the /user_activity storable class for each event. BRM did not log the external CSR's user ID in the /user_activity storable class.
With this patch, BRM can now log the external CSR's user ID along with the user activity in the /user_activity storable class. You can use the external CSR ID during auditing to trace any actions performed by the external CSR in BRM. The /user_activity storable class now includes additional fields to log the external CSR user ID along with the user activity for each operation instead of each event. If the external CRM application does not send the external CSR user ID to BRM, BRM logs NULL values in the /user_activity storable class.
For more information, see the discussion about logging CSR activities in BRM System Administrator's Guide.
This section describes the enhancements to general ledger.
You can now segregate unbilled revenue for the same item across multiple general ledger (G/L) cycles by creating a separate journal entry for each of the G/L cycles for the item by enabling the SegregateJournalsByGLPeriod business parameter. When you enable SegregateJournalsByGLPeriod, you must manually create a new /config/gl_calendar object.
See the discussion about segregating unbilled revenue by G/L cycle within a billing cycle in BRM Collecting General Ledger Data for more information.
You can now control the creation of journals for non-currency resources by setting the new NonCurrencyResourceJournaling business parameter. Creating fewer journals improves system performance.
See the discussion about enabling and disabling /journal objects for non-currency resources in BRM Collecting General Ledger Data for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to invoicing.
With this patch, you can use the new hyperlinked invoice template, which displays invoices for large bill unit hierarchies, to manage memory more efficiently. With this new hyperlinked invoice template, the customer can more easily navigate the invoice using a hyperlinked table of contents.
See the discussion about configuring hyperlinked invoice templates based on business profiles in BRM Designing and Generating Invoices for more information.
With this patch, generating trial and regular invoices for hierarchical accounts is faster due to the new processing improvements in the bill and invoice objects when using Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) Publisher 11g.
Note:
The BI Publisher bursting query has been changed to support collation of subordinate invoices in the parent invoice.See the discussion about generating invoices for hierarchical accounts with BI Publisher in BRM Designing and Generating Invoices for more information.
You can now use BI Publisher 11g to design, generate, and customize BRM invoice documents and reports. BRM Reports continue to be supported in BI Publisher 11g. See the discussion about designing and generating invoices in BI Publisher 11g in BRM Designing and Generating Invoices.
You can still use BI Publisher 10g with BRM. See the discussion about designing and generating invoices in BI Publisher 10g in BRM Designing and Generating Invoices.
The BRM-BI Publisher invoicing integration now supports multischema systems.
To add multischema support for the BRM-BI Publisher 10g invoicing integration, the following changes have been made:
The following entries in the Infranet.properties file of pin_inv_doc_gen (BIP_Home/oc4j_bi/j2ee/home/applications/pin_inv_doc_gen/Infranet.properties, where BIP_Home is the directory in which BI Publisher is installed) have been removed:
infranet.db.host
infranet.db.host.1
infranet.db.host.2
infranet.db.name
infranet.db.oci.url
infranet.db.ons.config
infranet.db.password
infranet.db.port
infranet.db.port.1
infranet.db.port.2
infranet.db.protocol.1
infranet.db.protocol.2
infranet.db.rac.enabled
infranet.db.rac.loadbalance
infranet.bip.schdbusername
infranet.bip.schdbpassword
infranet.bip.schdbhost
infranet.bip.schdbport
infranet.bip.schdbSID
infranet.db.servicename
infranet.db.thin.url
infranet.db.userid
The following entries in the Infranet.properties file of the PublicBRMfetchInvoiceXMLService Web service (BIP_Home/oc4j_bi/j2ee/home/applications/PublicBRMfetchInvoiceXMLService/PublicBRMfetchInvoiceXMLService/WEB-INF/classes) have been removed:
infranet.db.host
infranet.db.host.1
infranet.db.host.2
infranet.db.name
infranet.db.oci.url
infranet.db.ons.config
infranet.db.password
infranet.db.port
infranet.db.port.1
infranet.db.port.2
infranet.db.protocol.1
infranet.db.protocol.2
infranet.db.rac.enabled
infranet.db.rac.loadbalance
infranet.db.servicename
infranet.db.thin.url
infranet.db.userid
See the discussion about configuring the BRM-BI Publisher invoicing integration to support multischema systems in BRM Designing and Generating Invoices for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to BRM when integrated with external applications.
ECE is a charging application that rates usage events for offline charging, online charging, or both.
For information on how ECE is pre-integrated with BRM, refer to the ECE documentation (especially the discussion about connectivity with external applications in ECE Concepts).
To integrate collections actions in real time with your external application using Oracle Application Integration Architecture (Oracle AIA), BRM now uses Oracle Advance Queuing (AQ).
When a collections job is run in BRM, Collections Manager adds the changes to an AQ queue using a CollectionsInfoChange business event. Upon receipt, the AQ queue informs the AIA service of the changes. The AIA service then initiates the process to extract the new or changed collections actions data from BRM.
See the discussion about integrating collections with your external CRM application in BRM Concepts for more information.
To integrate Account Migration Manager with your external application using Oracle AIA in a multischema environment, BRM now adds an interface table that contains the batch ID and the old and the new POID values of all the objects that have been successfully migrated during the migration process.
After a group of accounts has been migrated from one schema to another, BRM generates and sends business events to the Enterprise Application Integration Data Manager (EAI DM) using a notification event message. The EAI DM publishes the events to an AQ queue. The AIA service retrieves the events from the AQ queue and updates the AIA cross-reference table using the BRM interface table data.
See the discussion about integrating account migrations with your external application in a multischema environment in BRM Concepts for more information.
To integrate collections with your external application using Oracle AIA in a multischema environment, BRM populates the custom views in BRM collections tables with the /collection_actions POID schema number, hard-coded as 0.0.0.1 regardless of the schema where the account resides. For /account and /billinfo objects, the external application reads the schema where the account is residing, whether it is a single-schema or a multischema environment.
See the discussion about integrating collections with your external application in a multischema environment in BRM Concepts for more information.
In the previous releases, BRM supported synchronizing products with only a single rate plan into the AQ_SYNC database queue when integrated with external applications using Oracle AIA.
BRM now supports synchronizing a product with multiple rate plans configured using the rate plan selector in Pricing Center when integrated with external applications using Oracle AIA.
Additionally, the BRM customer, subscription, and rating components are enhanced to allow Oracle AIA order management to specify the price list name in the BRM product offerings that are used during the BRM rating process.
This section describes the enhancements to IP Address Administration Center.
BRM now adds support for Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) addressing.
When entering an IPv6 address in the IP address fields of the BRM client applications, enter the normalized form of the IPv6 address; for example, 2607:f0d0:1002:0051:0000:0001:0000:00ff.
Note:
BRM still supports IPv4 addresses.This section describes the enhancements to item assignment.
You can now customize item types to track charges in individual balance impacts of an event. For example, even though only one BRM event is recorded for a service, if you charge for both connection time and the number of bytes transferred during a session, the two charges can be tracked separately.
See the discussion about assigning bill items to event balance impacts in BRM Configuring and Running Billing for more information.
You can now track individual member charges using a new SplitSponsorItemByMember business parameter. Additionally, when the business parameter is enabled, you can use custom item types for sponsored charges.
See the discussion about creating custom sponsored bill items in BRM Configuring and Running Billing for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to JCA Resource Adapter.
All J2EE-compliant external applications that need extended architecture (XA) transaction support must connect to BRM through JCA Resource Adapter.
With this patch, JCA Resource Adapter now supports the following:
Calls to all the methods in the J2EE standard XA API (javax.transaction.xa.XAResource)
The XA (global) transaction manager's recovery process
In addition, the installer now deploys JCA Resource Adapter in XA Transaction mode.
See the discussion about JCA Resource Adapter transaction management in BRM JCA Resource Adapter for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to payments.
In the previous releases, credit and debit card numbers were stored in the BRM database and used for any BRM-initiated payments.
With this patch, BRM also supports credit card tokenization, which is a secure method of storing credit and debit card data. When enabled, credit card tokenization replaces the credit or debit card number with a token (a random identifier) that is returned by Paymentech. This token, instead of the actual card number, is stored in the BRM database and used for any BRM-initiated payments. The actual card number and its mapping to the token is securely stored in Paymentech.
To support credit card tokenization, the following enhancements have been introduced:
The new cc_token_enabled entry has been added to the Paymentech Data Manager (dm_fusa) configuration file to enable credit card tokenization.
T he payment processing flow in BRM has been modified to support tokens when credit card tokenization is enabled.
The new pin_cc_migrate utility has been introduced to migrate the credit and debit card numbers into unique tokens.
The new CARD_TYPE column has been added to the PAYINFO_CC_T, EVENT_BILLING_CHARGE_CC_T, and EVENT_BILLING_VALID_CC_T tables to store the card type.
The new <CrdTyp> element has been added to the sample Conversion Manager XML file for account data to migrate the card type and the token from a legacy database into the BRM database. See the discussion about creating XML files in BRM Managing Customers for more information.
Customer Center now displays the card type and the token instead of the card number in the Payment Method list when credit card tokenization is enabled.
See the discussion about credit card tokenization and the pin_cc_migrate utility in BRM Configuring and Collecting Payments for more information.
To support SEPA Direct Debit and SEPA Credit Transfer payment processing, the following enhancements were made:
Customer Center now supports the SEPA payment method.
The payment processing flow in BRM has been modified to support SEPA Direct Debit and Credit Transfer payment processing.
A new utility, pin_sepa, has been created to generate the request XML files for SEPA Direct Debit and SEPA Credit Transfer and to process the SEPA response files.
See the discussion about SEPA payment processing in BRM Configuring and Collecting Payments for more information.
With this patch, Payment Tool now supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for secure communication with the CM on the Windows 7 operating system.
See the discussion about enabling SSL for Payment Tool in BRM System Administrator's Guide for more information.
To better manage payment allocations for accounts with multiple bill units, the following enhancements have been introduced in Payment Tool:
Ability to search for specific bill units using Bill Unit as search criteria.
Ability to view bill units when allocating payments.
The Allocation dialog box includes a new Bill Unit column.
See the Payment Tool Help for more information.
In the previous releases, Payment Center and Payment Tool were not supported in a multischema environment.
In Payment Center, you could recycle payments from a payment suspense account and post it to the correct customer accounts residing in the same schema. Recycling of payments to accounts residing in different schemas was not supported. For example, if you were connected to schema 1, you could use Payment Center to recycle payments from the payment suspense account to customer accounts residing only in schema 1.
With this patch, you can now use Payment Center and Payment Tool in a multischema environment.
Payment Center now allows you to recycle payments from a payment suspense account to customer accounts residing in multiple schemas. For example, if you are connected to schema 1, you can now use Payment Center to recycle payments from the payment suspense account set up for schema 1 to customer accounts residing in different schemas.
See the discussion about adding multischema support in payment processing in BRM Configuring and Collecting Payments for more information.
By default, Payment Center retrieves five payment events for each step of a search. You can improve Payment Center's performance of payment event searches by configuring the paymentsearch.stepsize entry in the paymentcenter.properties configuration file.
See the discussion about improved performance of searches for payment events in Payment Center in BRM Configuring and Collecting Payments for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to Permissioning Center.
CSRs can now allocate credit amounts to bills with a positive balance in Customer Center. A new customercenter/allocatepayment/negative permission type has been added to Permissioning Center for this action.
See the Permissioning Center Help for more information on how to hide this permission.
This section describes the enhancements to Pipeline Manager.
The following enhancements improve roaming partner management:
Pipeline Manager Can Now Rate Calls by CAMEL Destination Number
Pipeline Configuration Center Now Supports Specifying Country Codes for Roaming Partners
In the previous releases, when configuring a roaming partner, you could not indicate that Pipeline Manager should consider a call as a CAMEL call and rate it by CAMEL destination number. As a result, Pipeline Manager rated the calls by call destination.
With this patch, you can now enable Pipeline Configuration Center to consider a call as a CAMEL call and rate it by CAMEL destination number by setting the Camel ISUP Active field for a roaming partner in Pipeline Configuration Center.
See the Pipeline Configuration Center Help and the discussion about the ISC_GetCamelFlag iScript in BRM Configuring Pipeline Rating and Discounting for more information.
In the previous releases, you could not configure the number of decimal places for outgoing charges for each roaming operator. The decimal places for outgoing charges specified in the roaming registry file was applied to all the roaming partners.
With this patch, you can now specify the number of decimal places for outgoing charges for each roaming partner by using the Decimal Places field in Pipeline Configuration Center. Pipeline Manager generates outgoing (outcollect) charges based on the decimal places configured in Pipeline Configuration Center.
See the Pipeline Configuration Center Help for more information.
In the previous releases, you could not specify country codes for roaming partners, which indicate that a roaming partner is located in a specific country.
With this patch, you can now specify country codes for roaming partners by using the Country Code field in Pipeline Configuration Center to specify that a roaming partner is located in a specific country.
See the Pipeline Configuration Center Help for more information.
In the previous releases, you could not specify whether to generate the High Usage Reports (HUR) report or the Near Real-Time Roaming Data Exchange (NRTRDE) files for a roaming partner.
With this patch, you can now specify whether to generate the HUR report or the NRTRDE files for a roaming partner by setting the Generate NRTRDE field in Pipeline Configuration Center.
When the Generate NRTRDE field is selected for a roaming partner in Pipeline Configuration Center, Pipeline Manager generates the NRTRDE files for the roaming partner. When this field is not selected, Pipeline Manager generates the HUR report for the roaming partner.
See the Pipeline Configuration Center Help for more information.
The following enhancements improve Pipeline Manager startup performance:
Improving DAT_AccountBatch and DAT_BalanceBatch Loading Performance
Improving Pipeline Manager Startup by Specifying the Non-Currency Sub-Balances to Load
In the previous releases, at Pipeline Manager startup, the DAT_AccountBatch and DAT_BalanceBatch data modules assigned a pre-allocated number of accounts and balances to each thread. Because account sizes and balances vary, some threads finish before others; because accounts and balances are pre-allocated, threads that finish stay idle while other threads finish loading, thus leading to increased startup times.
To balance the workload for each thread and improve Pipeline Manager startup performance, DAT_AccountBatch and DAT_BalanceBatch now group the accounts and balances into batches (or jobs). Multiple worker threads run in parallel to process the batches, which improves thread load balancing and Pipeline Manager startup performance.
New registry parameters have been created for DAT_AccountBatch and DAT_BalanceBatch to define the number of batches per thread.
See the discussion about optimizing Pipeline Manager performance in BRM System Administrator's Guide for more information.
Previously, the DAT_BalanceBatch data module retrieved all non-currency sub-balances from the BRM database, including sub-balances that are expired. When the BRM database contains a large number of non-currency sub-balances, loading them leads to increased Pipeline Manager startup times.
To improve Pipeline Manager startup performance, you can now specify the non-currency sub-balances to load. See the discussion about specifying which non-currency sub-balances to load on startup in BRM Setting Up Pricing and Rating for more information.
You can now increase Pipeline Manager throughput by configuring multithreading in the Output Controller. This allows Pipeline Manager to write multiple event data records (EDRs) into multiple streams. See the discussions about the following:
Increasing throughput when an EDR is associated with multiple output streams in BRM System Administrator's Guide
The Output Controller registry entries in BRM Configuring Pipeline Rating and Discounting
Important:
Enable multithreading in the Output Controller only if the EDRs are associated with multiple output streams.This section describes the enhancements to Pricing Center.
In the previous releases, when configuring a fixed credit threshold for a resource in a plan, you could specify an integer value up to only 2000000.
With this patch, you can now enter a decimal number greater than 2000000 when entering a fixed credit threshold value in the Enter Threshold field under Fixed Threshold Settings of the Credit Limit dialog box in Pricing Center.
In Pricing Center, you can now create a plan with options that contains services not associated with a deal.
To enable customers to purchase optional services from plans that contain services not associated with deals or to transition from such plans to other plans, services not associated with deals must meet the following guidelines:
They must be part of a subscription group.
If the subscription service is not associated with a deal, at least one required member service must be associated with a deal.
If the subscription service is associated with a deal, none of the member services needs to be associated with a deal.
See the Pricing Center Help for more information about creating a plan with options.
This section describes the enhancements to Rated Event (RE) Loader.
In the previous releases, the events rated by ECE had to be preprocessed by RE Loader before loading the rated events into the BRM database.
With this patch, RE Loader now receives preprocessed rated events from ECE. RE Loader loads these preprocessed rated events directly into the BRM database without any modifications in the data files.
See the discussion about setting up RE Loader to load preprocessed rated events from ECE into BRM in BRM Configuring Pipeline Rating and Discounting for more information.
This section describes the enhancements for rating.
With this patch, BRM can rerate events based on any changes in the rating conditions during the session. BRM rerates these events in order of event start time.
See the discussion about enabling rerating when the rating conditions change during the session in BRM Setting Up Pricing and Rating for more information.
With this patch, BRM processes events rerated by ECE that include conditional balance impacts.
See the discussion about conditional balance impacts in the ECE documentation.
You can now calculate tax on any deferred taxable amount in rerated events during the rerating process by enabling the new ApplyDeferredTaxDuringRerating business parameter. Calculating taxes during rerating using the ApplyDeferredTaxDuringRerating business parameter enables corrected invoices to show the correct tax amount. By default, with the ApplyDeferredTaxDuringRerating business parameter disabled, BRM calculates taxes on any deferred taxable amount in the rerated events during the subsequent bill run.
See the discussion about applying deferred taxes during rerating in BRM Setting Up Pricing and Rating for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to services.
In the previous releases, all service types had the same life cycle, which contained the Active, Inactive, and Closed states. You could not customize any element of the life cycle.
You can now create custom life cycles for any service type. Custom service life cycles can contain any number of states and state transitions. For each state, you can specify the following:
A descriptive name
An expiration time
Rules to validate requests received in the state
The states to which the state can transition
The actions that occur before and after a state transition takes place
A sample life cycle for prepaid services is provided with this feature. It contains the Preactive, Active, Recharge Only, Credit Expired, Fraud Investigated, Dormant, Suspended, and Closed states.
See the discussion about managing service life cycles in BRM Managing Customers for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to Services Framework Manager.
You can now configure BRM pricing to support policy-driven service provisioning. For example, you can use BRM rating to track a customer's service usage, and, based on that usage, allow a policy controller on the network to change the customer's quality of service.
For more information on configuring and using BRM to support policy-driven service provisioning, see the discussions about the following:
Policy-driven charging in BRM Setting Up Pricing and Rating
How BRM supports policy-driven service provisioning in BRM Telco Integration
BRM can now provide in-session notifications in its responses to authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) requests from network connectivity applications. Network connectivity applications use this information to make pre-session and mid-session notifications tailored to the subscriber's preferences.
For example, a subscriber makes a request to download a video. The network receiving the video download request forwards the request to the network connectivity application, which then sends the request to BRM. BRM processes the request and adds information on the subscriber's streaming usage threshold in its response to the network application. The network informs the subscriber that the streaming usage threshold is reaching its limit.
Note:
BRM 7.5 Patch Set 1 supports Oracle Communications Service Broker Online Mediation Controller. See Online Mediation Controller Implementation Guide for more information.See the discussion about in-session notifications for network connectivity applications in BRM Telco Integration for more information.
You use Services Framework to collect data about customers, manage and provision services, and process AAA requests.
In the previous releases, Services Framework performed those functions only for services that use the default life cycle. Services Framework now supports services that use a custom life cycle.
This enhancement affects AAA. To support custom service life cycles, Services Framework AAA Manager includes the following changes:
The AAA opcode map (/config/opcodemap/tcf object) now includes the VALIDATE_LIFECYCLE processing stage. During this stage, the PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_VALIDATE_LIFECYCLE helper opcode is called to validate a telco service request against the business rules configured for the current state of a service using a custom service life cycle.
In the VALIDATE_LIFECYCLE stage, the following opcodes are called:
PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_VALIDATE_LIFECYCLE: During authorization of a request for a telco service that uses a custom service life cycle, this helper opcode applies the business rules in the /config/lifecycle_states object associated with the service to validate the request.
If validation is successful and the current state is Preactive or Dormant, this helper opcode triggers the system to change the state to Active.
PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_POL_VALIDATE_LIFECYCLE: During authorization of a mobile-originated (MO) or mobile-terminated (MT) call, this policy opcode validates the request against any custom business rules configured in the policy opcode for the current life cycle state of a specified /service object.
If the REQ_ALLOWED rule validation performed by the calling opcode is successful, this policy opcode uses the MO_ENABLED and MT_ENABLED rules (which specify whether mobile-originated and mobile-terminated calls are allowed) to further validate the request before applying any custom rules.
Note:
For each service life cycle state, you can configure business rules to validate the actions that subscribers try to perform in the state. The MO_ENABLED and MT_ENABLED business rules are included with the new sample prepaid service life cycle.This policy opcode is called by the PCM_OP_TCF_AAA_VALIDATE_LIFECYCLE helper opcode, whose results it can override.
These new opcodes are used only if the SubscriberLifeCycle business parameter is associated with the service's bill unit and is enabled.
For more information, see the discussions about the following:
Performing AAA for prepaid services in BRM Telco Integration
Managing service life cycles in BRM Managing Customers
This section describes the enhancements to subscription management.
In the previous releases, transferring subscription services from one account in a schema to another account in a different schema required migrating the account in the source schema to the target schema using Account Migration Manager (AMM).
With this patch, the new RecreateDuringSubscriptionTransfer business parameter transfers subscription services from one account in a schema to another account in a different schema without needing to migrate the accounts to the same schema.
See the discussion about transferring subscription services in BRM Managing Customers for more information.
You can now specify whether to include event adjustments when calculating product cancellation refunds by using the new EventAdjustmentsDuringCancellation business parameter.
See the discussion about canceling products in BRM Managing Customers for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to support and certification.
With this patch, BRM is now certified with Oracle Java JRE 1.8 update 45 (1.8.0_45) or later.
The following BRM components are not certified with JRE 1.8:
Web Services Manager
Pipeline Configuration Center
Pricing Center using Java Web Start
Note:
Running reports and generating invoices using BI Publisher 11g with JRE 1.8 is not supported.With this patch, JCA Resource Adapter is now also certified on Oracle WebLogic Server 12c Enterprise Edition 12.1.1.
Currently, Web Services Manager is certified on Apache Tomcat version 5.5.27, Apache Tomcat version 6.0.18, Apache Tomcat version 7.0.30, Apache Tomcat version 7.0.42, and Apache Tomcat version 7.0.54. With this patch, Web Services Manager is now certified on Apache Tomcat version 7.0.59.
With this patch, BRM 7.5 now supports Oracle Database 12.1.0.2.
Currently, BRM is certified on Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1. With this patch, BRM is now certified on Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1.2.2.
With this patch, BRM is now certified with Apache HttpComponents HttpClient 4.4.
Currently, Pipeline Configuration Center is certified with Oracle Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.6 update 33 (1.6.0_33) or later.
With this patch, Pipeline Configuration Center is now certified with Oracle Java JDK 1.7 update 51 (1.7.0_51) or later.
Currently, Pipeline Configuration Center is certified with Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Application Development Framework 11.1.1.4.0 (with Patch 9941133).
With this patch, Pipeline Configuration Center is now certified with Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Application Development Framework 11.1.1.6.0.
Currently, Pipeline Configuration Center is certified on Oracle WebLogic Server 11g Enterprise Edition 10.3.4.
With this patch, Pipeline Configuration Center is now certified on Oracle WebLogic Server 11g Enterprise Edition 10.3.6.
With this patch, BRM 7.5 is now certified on Windows 8.1.
In the previous releases, a supported version of the OpenSSL software was bundled with the BRM patch set installation package.
With this patch, the OpenSSL software is no longer part of the BRM patch set installation package. For BRM, Oracle recommends that you use the OpenSSL software bundled with the host operating system.
Note:
Ensure that the latest version of the OpenSSL software is installed for your operating system.With this patch, BRM 7.5 is now certified with Perl 5.18.2 on AIX and HP-UX IA64.
With this patch, BRM 7.5 is now certified with Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA) 8.03 on AIX and HP-UX IA64.
Currently, BRM 7.5 is certified with Apache Xalan-C++ 1.10. With this patch, BRM 7.5 is now certified with Apache Xalan-C++ 1.11.
Currently, BRM 7.5 is certified with Apache Xerces-C++ 2.7.0. With this patch, BRM 7.5 is now certified with Apache Xerces-C++ 3.1.1.
Currently, BRM 7.5 is certified with Apache Xerces-J (Java) 2.6.2 and Apache Xerces-J (Java) 2.9.1. With this patch, BRM 7.5 is now certified with Apache Xerces-J (Java) 2.11.0.
With this patch, BRM 7.5 now supports RADIUS Manager.
Currently, Web Services Manager is certified on Apache Tomcat version 5.5.27, Apache Tomcat version 6.0.18, Apache Tomcat version 7.0.30, and Apache Tomcat version 7.0.42. With this patch, Web Services Manager is now certified on Apache Tomcat version 7.0.54.
With this patch, BRM 7.5 is now certified on Oracle Linux 6 update 3 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 update 3 with critical patch updates.
Currently, BRM 7.5 is certified with OpenSSL 1.0.0a. With this patch, BRM 7.5 is now certified with OpenSSL 1.0.1g.
Currently, BRM 7.5 is certified with RDA 4.24. With this patch, BRM 7.5 is now certified with RDA 8.03 (Linux and Solaris only).
Currently, BRM 7.5 is certified with Perl 5.8.0. With this patch, BRM 7.5 is now certified with Perl 5.18.2 (Linux and Solaris only).
With this patch, Web Services Manager is now certified on Apache Axis2/Java 1.6.2.
Currently, Web Services Manager and Self-Care Manager are certified on Apache Tomcat version 5.5.27, Apache Tomcat version 6.0.18, and Apache Tomcat version 7.0.30. With this patch, Web Services Manager and Self-Care Manager are now certified on Apache Tomcat version 7.0.42.
With this patch, BRM 7.5 now supports Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (Oracle 12.1.0.1.0).
Currently, Web Services Manager and Self-Care Manager are certified on Apache Tomcat version 5.5.27 and Apache Tomcat version 6.0.18. With this patch, Web Services Manager and Self-Care Manager are now certified on Apache Tomcat version 7.0.30.
This section describes the enhancements to system administration.
In the previous releases, BRM supported Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to provide secure communication only between the Portal Communications Module (PCM) clients and the Connection Manager (CM).
With this patch, BRM now supports Transport Layer Security (TLS) to provide secure communication between:
The CM and Data Managers (DMs)
The CM and External Modules (EMs)
Note:
Currently, secure communication using SSL/TLS is not supported between CMs and NET_EM.PCM clients and the CM
PCM clients and the CM when using Connection Manager Master Processes (CMMPs)
BRM server and BRM database
Important:
With this patch, BRM no longer supports Secure Sockets Layer 3.0. For BRM, Oracle recommends that you use TLS protocol for secure communication.See the discussion about enabling secure communication between PCM components in BRM System Administrator's Guide for more information.
BRM now supports configurable masking of sensitive data fields, including payment information and passwords, within CM responses and logging. Fields stored in the string format can be completely or partially masked in transactional responses that BRM provides to client applications, including Customer Center and Web Services Manager. Included fields in logs are also masked.
See the discussion about configuring sensitive data masking in BRM Managing Customers for more information.
BRM now supports SSL to give you secure communication between Portal Communications Module (PCM) clients and the CM.
See the discussion about enabling secure communication between PCM clients and the CM in BRM System Administrator's Guide for more information on how to enable SSL.
BRM now supports a new Oracle-approved encryption algorithm, for encrypting fields that contain sensitive customer information, such as credit card numbers.
You can now restrict service passwords using the new EnablePasswordRestriction business parameter.
See the discussion about configuring the DM for Oracle ZT PKI encryption in BRM Developer's Guide for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to TAP Roaming Manager.
TAP Roaming Manager now supports TAP 3.12 Roaming StandardTD57 version 32.1.
To support the TAP 3.12 Roaming Standard TD57 version 32.1, TAP Roaming Manager includes the following changes:
The TAP InGrammar and TAP OutGrammar have been enhanced.
The following iScripts have been modified:
ISC_TAP_0312_Include
ISC_TAP_0312_Validations
See "Module and iScript Changes" for more information on these iScripts.
In the previous releases, operator-specific messages for severe errors were not supported in RAP OutGrammar because it was an optional block in RAP.
In RAP 1.6 TD32 version 6.11, which BRM 7.5 is now certified on, all rejected error records related to Inter Operator Tariff (IOT) must contain operator-specific messages.
With this patch, RAP OutGrammar provides operator-specific messages in cases of severe errors raised through ERR_TAP3_RET during TAP validations.
You associate an operator-specific message with an error by replacing the parameter ("") in the edrAddError function with the actual message. You can pass multiple operator-specific messages by using the semicolon (;) as a separator.
See the description of the ERR_TAP3_RET pipeline framework error message in BRM System Administrator's Guide for more information.
TAP Roaming Manager now supports RAP 1.6 TD32 version 6.11.
To support RAP 1.6 TD32 version 6.11, the ISC_TAP_0312_Validations iScript and the RAP OutGrammar have been modified.
See "Module and iScript Changes" for more information on these iScripts.
In the previous releases, for multiple roaming partners, you had to manually configure multiple sequencers, output streams, and system brands in the roaming registry file (for example, Pipeline_Home/conf/roaming.reg).
With this patch, you can now use the new Instances module to configure multiple sequencers, output streams, or system brands for multiple roaming partners.
For more information, see the discussions about the following:
Configuring the outcollect rating pipeline for output processing in BRM Configuring Roaming in Pipeline Manager
The Instances module and the RoamingConfigGen64 utility in BRM Configuring Pipeline Rating and Discounting
Configuring multiple instances of sequencers, output streams, or system brands in BRM System Administrator's Guide
TAP Roaming Manager supports, by default, TAP 3.12 GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) TD57 version 30.1.To continue processing roaming usage events based on TAP 3.11 GSM TD57 version 28, you need to configure a single registry file that includes separate pipelines configured for TAP 3.11 and TAP 3.12 files.
For more information, see the discussions about the following:
Backing up TAP 3.11 files in BRM 7.5 Patch Set Installation Guide
Setting up TAP Roaming Manager to support TAP 3.11 in BRM Configuring Roaming in Pipeline Manager
The enhancements to TAP Roaming Manager are:
Support for the following new event types:
Mobile Session, for voice calls over LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks
Messaging Event, for SMS events made over LTE
Support for all the recording entity codes
TAP Roaming Manager now supports the Returned Account Procedure (RAP) 1.5 standard.
To support the RAP 1.5 standard, TAP Roaming Manager includes the following changes:
The RAP processing pipeline has been enhanced to process RAP 1.5 files with the inclusion of the new ISC_RAP_0105_InMap iScript.
The following iScripts have been enhanced to process RAP 1.5 files:
ISC_DupRAPRecords
ISC_OverrideSuspenseParams
ISC_TAP_0311_Include
See "Module and iScript Changes" for more information on these iScripts.
Additionally, TAP Roaming Manager now allows Home Public Mobile Network (HPMN) operators to send Stop Return RAP files to alert and notify Visited Public Mobile Network (VPMN) operators who have not provided a Transferred Account Procedure (TAP) file in seven days.
To support the generation of Stop Return RAP files, TAP Roaming Manager includes the following changes:
The new UpdateTapInfo_StopRapout iScript and StopRapGen utility have been added to the Stop RAP Generator pipeline.
The new UpdateTapInfo_Tapin iScript has been added to the validation pipeline.
The new IFW_TAPINFO table has been added to the database. This table stores the information on incoming TAP files.
See "Module and iScript Changes" and "Schema and Index Changes (Patch Set 2)" for more information.
See the discussion about configuring the Stop RAP Generator pipeline and generating Stop Return RAP files in BRM Configuring Roaming in Pipeline Manager for more information.
This section describes the enhancements to the third-party tax software packages that you can use with BRM.
With this patch, some Vertex CTQ 2.00.05 (and later) jurisdiction codes map to different internal BRM jurisdiction codes. Table 2-1 lists the old and new mapping of the Vertex CTQ jurisdiction codes to the internal BRM jurisdiction codes.
Table 2-1 Mapping of Vertex CTQ Jurisdiction Codes to Internal BRM Jurisdiction Codes
| Vertex Code | Old BRM Code | New BRM Code |
|---|---|---|
|
CTQ Other Municipality 6 |
6 |
12 |
|
CTQ County District 7 |
7 |
10 |
|
CTQ City District 9 |
9 |
11 |
The update_new_ctq2_jurisdiction_codes.source script updates the /account and /event objects to reflect the new BRM jurisdiction codes (12, 10, and 11). See the discussion about updating BRM jurisdiction codes for Vertex CTQ in BRM 7.5 Maintenance Patch Set 1 Installation Guide for more information.
Important:
You must use the new BRM jurisdiction codes (12, 10, and 11) while specifying the account's tax exemptions and also while interpreting the jurisdiction codes in the /event object.This section describes the enhancements to Web Services Manager.
With this patch, Web Services Manager can now call the following BRM opcodes by using SOAP Web services:
PCM_OP_BILL_REVERSE
PCM_OP_CUST_SET_STATUS
PCM_OP_CUST_POL_GET_DEALS
PCM_OP_CUST_POL_GET_PRODUCTS
PCM_OP_CUST_POL_READ_PLAN
In the previous releases, these BRM opcodes were not exposed as operations through Web services. For a list of opcodes included in the Web Services Manager package, see BRM Web Services Manager.
In the previous releases, BRM Web services accepted only string-formatted XML input flists for calling BRM opcodes. BRM Web services did not support payload as an XML element data type.
With this patch, BRM Web services now support payload as an XML element data type. Web Services Manager now supports standards-compliant SOAP development tools to generate industry-standard client application code for integration with BRM Web services.
BRM Web services support payload as XML element and string data types.
See BRM Web Services Manager for more information.
With this patch, Web Services Manager now includes new Web services that you can use to call some BRM opcodes by using SOAP Web services. These opcodes could not be called in the previous releases. For a list of standard opcodes included, by default, in the BRM Web Services Manager package, see BRM Web Services Manager.
In the previous releases, Web Services Manager did not require authentication and authorization for calling the Web services. Any user who had access to the SOAP URL endpoint could call the Web services.
With this patch, Web services are now secured by security policies in Oracle WebLogic Server. Only authenticated and authorized users can now call Web services.
See the discussion about configuring Web Services Manager security in BRM Web Services Manager for more information.