Page 370 - Handbook of Modern Telecommunications

Network Management and Administration 3-161

TABl E 3.6.4 Summary of Principal Processes Used in the Practice of eTOM (Continued)
Process or Function Name Definition
Proactive Fault Management In order to detect problems early, allows the continuous supervision of fault
indicators, the identification of causes for chronic troubles, and the evaluation of
vendor performance.
Preventive Fault Management Allows evaluation of usage statistics, the causes of performance threshold violations,
and the impact of additional payload on equipment and circuits.
Error Repair and Maintenance Allows repair of chronic faults and deployment of preventive maintenance
techniques to equipment and to facilities.
Resource Performance Management Resource Performance Management processes encompass monitoring, analyzing,
controlling, and reporting on the performance of resources. They work with basic
information received from the Resource Data Collection and Processing processes.
• Monitor Resource Performance
• Analyze Resource Performance
• Traffic status and performance analysis
• Control Resource Performance
• Report Resource Performance
Performance Monitoring In order to further support preventive fault management, equipment and facilities
(circuits) are monitored continuously. In addition, performance metrics are
maintained in a repository, which can be part of the data warehouse.
Allows repair of chronic faults and deployment of preventive maintenance
techniques to equipment and to facilities.
Resource Data Collection & Resource Data Collection & Processing processes collect usage, network, and
Processing information technology events and performance information for distribution to
other processes within the enterprise.
Principal processes are:
• Collect Resource Data
• Process Resource Data
• Report Resource Data
• Audit Resource Usage Data
Call Data Collection Collects call detail records (CDRs) from switches and transmits them to a billing
database or mediation device. State-of-the-art solutions use complete automation.
Supplier/Partner Relationship Supplier/Partner Relationship Management functional processes support the core
Management (S/PRM) operational processes, both the customer instance processes of Fulfillment,
Assurance, and Billing and the functional operations processes.
Billing The billing process is an end-to-end process responsible for the production of
accurate bills in time, processing, and collecting payments and providing prebilling
and billing information to customers. In addition, it involves handling customer
inquiries about bills, providing inquiry status and resolving billing problems to
ensure customer satisfaction in a timely manner. This process also supports
prepaid services.
The billing process offers the following services:
• Rapid creation of new service plans and rates
• Flexible rating and discount options (pricing)
• Real-time event processing
• Convergent billing
• Prepaid and post-paid billing
• Customer self-management of services via the Web
• Analysis of customers, rates, plans, usage, etc.
Rating and Discounting Prices call data according to current plan; it does include threshold plans currently
popular among wireless carriers. Also, discounts are considered with this function.
Continued