How It Works
Situation: One of the Engineers from the LUSFiber project was hired by Google Fiber to manage infrastructure design and deployment. While on the road managing our Trade Show activity, we crossed paths with this former Client. Because of our prior successful relationship, he shared interest in wanting to hire Kansys as White Collar Consultants to his Executive Team as they were researching best practice BSS/OSS options for the soon to be announced Google Fiber project.
Solution: Kansys was hired for a Business & Functional Requirements data gathering project.
Results: Three Kansys Consultants spent a week onsite at the Google Campus meeting with several members of their team. We spoke with the Head of Product, Director of IT, Outside Plant & Construction Engineering resources, Director of Billing Services and the VP that presided over the project. After all of our meetings were complete, we compiled the information and delivered a comprehensive BRD (Business Requirements Document) and FRD (Functional Requirements Document) that detailed the project scope, desired outcome, budgetary timeline and a summary matrix of vendors who could meet their requirements.
Situation: Microsoft needed a billing solution for their new cloud based office system.
Solution: Working with MetraTech, we flew to Seattle, WA to perform a final demo of MetraNet. We were given the requirements and seven days to complete the task onsite. The team worked diligently to configure the components of the system suited to cloud-based billing and invoicing.
Results: MetraTech (our client) won the business from Microsoft.
Situation: We found a need across several of our clients. The cost associated with modifying the layout of an invoice was significant due to the restrictive code or lack of functionality in their billing system.
Solution: We built a java based application (portable to any platform) that uses XML:FO and XSLT to generate HTML, PDF, and TXT formatted invoices. The layout is managed in XML allowing easy modifications.
Results: The invoice generation is able to produce the same invoice as the legacy system and even faster. The users in the billing group were able to make their own changes without involving IT or development.
Situation: FairPoint Communications purchased a series of independent ILEC’s in the United States. After the purchases of 28 different properties, they found it was challenging to manage all of the companies having their own OSS/BSS systems, which made it very expensive to support and maintain. They also realized the lack of centralization of the systems made it difficult to have the proper Audit Control Points in place to account for revenue in their multiple properties. To solve their problems FairPoint decided to consolidate all OSS/BSS systems utilizing a large software and system integration vendor. After several months of working with this SI, FairPoint realized they needed a second set of eyes to validate the wholesale billing conversion and reached out to Kansys. As the project unfolded, Kansys was asked to help out. FairPoint realized having a trusted partner as an advocate was money well spent.
Solution: EVP(Event Visibility Platform) By taking the raw binary AMA input files from all the different network switches, Kansys was able to correlate and aggregate the different input files based on a set of business rules to determine the result of the downstream systems. When we found discrepancies we took corrective actions resulting in higher monthly revenue.
Results: Kansys was able to find $7,000 to $18,000 of monthly revenue not being billed for virtually every property FairPoint converted.
Situation: A large investment firm purchased a Verizon property and needed to roll off all the Verizon systems by a predetermined contractual date. The investment firm hired a large system integrator to recommend OSS/BSS systems and convert them over from the Verizon systems over to the new. Kansys was hired by the Investment firm to assist the system integrator and to be in a customer advocate role. As the new systems were being implemented, the accounts payable department started questioning the carrier bills they were receiving and asked Kansys to investigate.
Solution: EVP(Event Visibility Platform) Utilizing the trilogy methodology the solution was able to ingest AMA, SS7, and BDT(Billing Data Tape) files aggregate and correlate with a set of complex business rules to determine not only carriers were over-billing but the newly started company was under billing for wholesale and retail billing.
Results: Kansys identified $3.6 M in Carrier Access Back billing error, as well as $529K/Mo of LD MIU via Billing System to LD carrier provided call data, $1.6M/yr of Reciprocal Comp over billing from an inter-carrier and over $200K of improperly typed records on 5E switches.
Situation: Cablevision was using a Collections module that was included with their billing system to follow-up and track delinquent accounts. The built-in module did not provide Cablevision with the flexibility they needed to implement their customized strategies for persuading accounts to reconcile past-due balances. Adding new reports was expensive and untimely based on the billing system software release schedule.
Solution: Drawing upon previous experience with Collections systems, Kansys designed a work-flow engine to monitor delinquent accounts and initiate tasks at the appropriate time. The customer’s collections strategies and tasks are fully configurable and customized to implement the desired techniques that achieve the best results for a given account/monetary situation. Many of the tasks are automated such as collector assignment and work load balancing, electronic letter generation, and soft-suspend of service. The Kansys solution is also capable of interfacing with third-party vendors for enhanced collections by outside agencies, professional printing, and accounting system data feeds. The integration with the Kansys web-based EVP portal allows customized reports to be implemented in a few days instead of months at a fraction of the cost.
Results: Cablevision is able to implement their custom collections strategies and adjust the configurations to “fine-tune” the tasks as necessary. The Kansys solution has reduced outstanding delinquent balances by 28% after the first year of implementation. By automating various collections processes and tasks, collectors are able to focus more attention on the accounts and less on monitoring the collections system itself.
Situation: A subsidiary of LUS (Lafayette Utilities System), wanted to leverage existing utilities rights-of-way for the construction of a fiber optic network to deliver Cable TV, Broadband Internet and Telephony services to the citizens of Lafayette, Louisiana. With a multi-vendor solution matrix, LUSFiber needed a Consultant with technical competency and the necessary negotiating tact to keep all parties involved marching towards the end goal.
Solution: Place a Kansys Consultant onsite each week for the duration of the project to project manage and support the deliverables with additional engineering resources as needed.
Results: Over the course of 4 months, we worked with Executive sponsors and IT resources from LUSFiber as well as Solution Architects and Engineers from hardware and software vendors to assist in the delivery of one of the first municipally owned companies in the country to provide Fiber-to-the-Home services.
Situation: Our client was losing transactions within is OSS/BSS environment. The environment had no auditing or validation to ensure transactions were successful. Failed transactions were simply lost.
Solution: We implemented a custom middleware that linked all the various systems together using an asynchronous messaging strategy. This gave the client visibility into the failures and allowed for transactions to be retried.
Results: Customer gained valuable metrics on the environment concerning performance and problem areas. By providing the visibility, the client was able to find and correct the issues.
Situation: We found a need across several of our clients. The cost associated with modifying the layout of an invoice was significant due to the restrictive code or lack of functionality in their billing system.
Solution: We built a java based application (portable to any platform) that uses XML:FO and XSLT to generate HTML, PDF, and TXT formatted invoices. The layout is managed in XML allowing easy modifications.
Results: The invoice generation is able to produce the same invoice as the legacy system and even faster. The users in the billing group were able to make their own changes without involving IT or development.
Situation: Kansys needed to provide a general network audit of FairPoint’s Ohio affiliates and to investigate any unrecorded records which were incorrectly recorded records, as well as identify any erroneous call routing.
Solution: We used our proprietary product – TAXI (Total AXcess Information) which allows us to retrieve, warehouse and audit call message information. TAXI also has capabilities to isolate anomalies within the data in terms of both format and content. By utilizing the TAXI product, we were able to discover several areas of concern.
Results: We recommended a commitment to “true and accurate” call recording to insure message transperancy, as well as a reassment of FairPoint’s network configuration to ensure traffic being sent over the appropriate turnking arrangements is precise, accurate and valid. We evaluated 720 call types, finding some AMA matched exactly while others did not match at all. Billing 720 call types from FairPoint’s AMA recordings would be more accurate and appropriate. When accurate recording is in place, a comprehensive evaluation is recommended.
Situation: Back in the day, FairPoint Communications purchased a series of independent ILEC’s in the United States. After the purchases of 28 different properties, they found it was challenging to manage all of the companies having their own OSS/BSS systems, which made it very expensive to support and maintain. They also realized the lack of centralization of the systems made it difficult to have the proper Audit Control Points in place to account for revenue in their multiple properties. To solve their problems FairPoint decided to consolidate all OSS/BSS systems utilizing a large software and system integration vendor. After several months of working with this SI, FairPoint realized they needed a second set of eyes to validate the wholesale billing conversion and reached out to Kansys. As the project unfolded, Kansys was asked to help out. FairPoint realized having a trusted partner as an advocate was money well spent.
Solution: EVP(Event Visibility Platform)
By taking the raw binary AMA input files from all the different network switches, Kansys was able to correlate and aggregate the different input files based on a set of business rules to determine the result of the downstream systems. When we found discrepancies we took corrective actions resulting in higher monthly revenue.
Results: Kansys was able to find $7,000 to $18,000 of monthly revenue not being billed for virtually every property FairPoint converted.
Situation: Kansys needed to provide a general network audit of FairPoint’s Ohio affiliates and to investigate any unrecorded records which were incorrectly recorded records, as well as identify any erroneous call routing.
Solution: We used our proprietary product – TAXI (Total AXcess Information) which allows us to retrieve, warehouse and audit call message information. TAXI also has capabilities to isolate anomalies within the data in terms of both format and content. By utilizing the TAXI product, we were able to discover several areas of concern.
Results: We recommended a commitment to “true and accurate” call recording to insure message transparency, as well as a reassessment of FairPoint’s network configuration to ensure traffic being sent over the appropriate turnkey arrangements are precise, accurate and valid. We evaluated 720 call types, finding some AMA matched exactly while others did not match at all. Billing 720 call types from FairPoint’s AMA recordings would be more accurate and appropriate. When accurate recording is in place, a comprehensive evaluation is recommended.
Situation: Telution is a partner. Their client needed the ability to provision set top boxes by interfacing with the cable head end.
Solution: We built a custom component that integrated with the Telution platform. This component used a basic protocol provided to us by the head end manufacture. This enabled the Telution platform to provision the set top boxes in real time.
Results: Telution was able to satisfy the customer’s needs. In addition, Telution was able win other deals with the real time provisioning.
Situation: Telution is a partner. Their client needed the ability to provision set top boxes by interfacing with the cable head end.
Solution: We built a custom component that integrated with the Telution platform. This component used a basic protocol provided to us by the head end manufacture. This enabled the Telution platform to provision the set top boxes in real time.
Results: Telution was able to satisfy the customer’s needs. In addition, Telution was able win other deals with the real time provisioning.
Situation: Kansys had developed several customized gateway products for a client ( LIDB, E911, MSAG) over a four year period for different functions within customer service. Client CSR’s were entering data into multiple systems on a swivel chair basis which was impacting productivity.
Solution: Kansys developed a standardized common gateway GUI while also creating a centralized database for the CSR’s.
Results: Dual entry and swivel chair time was eliminated translating into the need for less CSR’s while also implementing CSR Gateway KPI’s and improved customer visibility.
Situation: Client needed the ability to communicate with its legacy switches across the WAN. Tapes were used to send traffic to the main data center. This became increasingly expensive as the amount of data grew. In addition, the delayed time to send the tapes made fraud and usage limits difficult to manage.
Solution: We developed our polling software to communicate with the switches using TCP sockets and the XOT protocol in conjunction with Cisco routers.
Results: Eliminated delivery fees for the tapes. Reduced overall lag time to just a couple of hours instead of days.