Implementation Guide for Oracle Self-Service E-Billing > Customizing the Payment Consolidator Integration Module >

Overview of Processing with a Payment Consolidator

Oracle Self-Service E-Billing provides a file interface, including business logic and a data model, that you can use to interact with any payment consolidator. Each payment consolidator has different standards for integrating its software. Open API standards let you configure Oracle Self-Service E-Billing to provide and accept data files from any consolidator.

At a consolidator's site, users can enroll, view bill summary information and pay bills, update account details, and unenroll. To view bill details, a user can click a link to Oracle Self-Service E-Billing and register there to view bill details.

The consolidator passes enrollment information to the biller for validation and authentication. Once the biller authorizes the accounts to view and pay bills through the consolidator, the biller sends this information to Oracle Self-Service E-Billing, which sends bill summary information for all active and authorized accounts to the consolidator.

Data Flow with a Payment Consolidator

The creation and exchange of data between Oracle Self-Service E-Billing and a payment consolidator follow this general flow:

1. Consumer Edition users register with the payment consolidator, and the consolidator sends the enrollment data to the billing system.
2. The biller validates the registration requests and responds to the consolidator, which sends a response acknowledgement to the biller and to Oracle Self-Service E-Billing.
3. In the Command Center, the PCAccountEnrollment job is scheduled to run. The job uses an XML template which you have customized for use with the particular consolidator to read the consolidator's enrollment response acknowledgement file and map it to the corresponding Java objects in Oracle Self-Service E-Billing. The job then processes this input and stores the enrollment information in the relevant database tables in Oracle Self-Service E-Billing.

   The Account Enrollment job also produces its own enrollment response file which has the details on the accounts that were successfully processed. The format of the Oracle Self-Service E-Billing enrollment response file is also controlled using an output template that you customize. The output template is also an XML file which has instructions on constructing and formatting the output file.

4. Oracle Self-Service E-Billing receives bills from the billing system.
5. The PCBillSummary job is scheduled to run in the Command Center, and generates a file with the bill summary information for the enrolled users. The output content and file format is dictated by the template associated with the job.
6. The payment consolidator processes the Bill Summary file and returns an acknowledgement file to the biller.
7. The PCBillsSummaryAcknowledgement is scheduled to process the Bill Summary Acknowledgement file sent by the consolidator using the relevant consolidator template. This job also stores information about which records were accepted or rejected by the consolidator into Oracle Self-Service E-Billing database.

Figure 29 shows an overview of the payment consolidator integration architecture.

Figure 29. Payment Consolidator Integration Architecture