Design And Implementation Of A Revenue Assurance System Based On Open-Source Tools

Revenue assurance is a recent hot topic in the field of telecom operation. Telecom operators are deploying a lot of work related to revenue assurance, which include the construction of revenue assurance systems. A traditional revenue assurance system is based on the development of business audit modules, and each time only one aspect of problem is solved. Users can not point to achieve a flexible configuration audit, with the heavy workload of post-maintenance and the big difficulty to expand. In recent years, the author had participated in designing and implementing several revenue assurance systems for telecom operators, and deeply understood the dilemma of such situation. Meanwhile, with the rapid development of open source technologies, Pentaho open-source project is given a very great concen, and its powerful features and components have attracted many of software engineers in the world. Given the the drawbacks and limitations of current revenue assurance systems, this paper intends to combine the ideas, building a flexible and open-source based revenue assurance system.Beginning with system analysis, this paper introduces the concept of revenue assurance and systems, as well as the positioning and relations in the enhanced telecom operation frameworks (eTOM), and conducts the requirements of system functions and business expansion. It has a comparative analysis of several major open source tools, and gives the reason to select Pentaho as a base platform. The overall architectures are designed, including the basic application information, logic architecture, module design, technical architecture and topology, as well as the key data models. Then the system function modules are also discussed, including the data interfaces, audit KPIs, audit rules, task scheduling, workflow integration, personal portal, system presentation, revenue loss evaluation, roles & permissions, single sign on, and tasks pushing. Finally, the module integration and service deployment are introducted.The goal is to design and build an end-to-end revenue assurance system based on open source tools and software engineering. The system shall be platform independent, flexible configuration, open and scalable. It will be a creative and useful attempt both for enterprise revenue management and software engineering practices. The smooth implementation of the system and putting into practices will greatly improve the level of revenue management, the effectiveness of internal control and risk management. At the same time, it will bring a significant saving in the cost of revenue assurance investment, and without too much outside help operators can rely on their own labors to complete normalization of revenue assurance objectives.