Credit Management

Credit management in CMP Converged Monetisation Platform. The MDS Global product that supports customer care and billing for digital service providers. comprises:

• Credit control
• Extracts for Debt Recovery Agencies
• Extracts for Credit Reference Agencies

Credit Control

The integrated Credit Control module in CMP provides the capability to pursue overdue payments through a series of configurable procedures. When invoices are produced, payment is normally required within a configurable number of days. If payment is not made within this time frame, the subscription A billing entity that incurs a charge. Examples include a network attached device whose usage you want to measure and charge for, or a monthly software subscription enters the applicable credit control procedure.

The criteria to enter a credit control procedure are as follows:

• There must be an overdue balance in accordance with the customer In the context of the Cloud Monetisation Platform, an individual or organisation who has signed an agreement to take goods and services from a service provider. A customer receives a bill associated with one or more subscriptions, and can be a single end user or a large company with many subscriptions assigned to one agreement.'s payment terms.
• The configured Minimum Overdue Amount must have been exceeded.

A credit control procedure is a preconfigured, automated, and time-defined set of activities. This procedure, sometimes referred to as dunning, methodically communicates with customers to ensure the collection of accounts receivable.

Credit control procedures are configured in line with service provider The owner of the infrastructure in which accounts will be created. The Service Provider can host and operate the instance of CMP, or CMP can be provided as a Managed Service. business rules. These business rules typically involve automatic generation of correspondence - SMS Short Message Service. A text messaging service component of most mobile telephone systems. SMS uses standardized communication protocols to enable mobile phone devices to exchange short text messages., email, calls, letters - or automatic provisioning In telecommunications, the setup of equipment, wiring and transmission to deliver services to a customer. activity such as applying bars. Communications can progress from gentle reminders to strongly-worded correspondence and restriction of service.

Credit control procedures can be linked to Account In the Cloud Monetisation Platform, a billing entity that can be used to manage payments on one or more subscriptions or payments for services. An account can hold details such as payments or invoices. Types and the Identity on an account, allowing different procedures to be carried out.

An example credit control procedure is as follows:

• Account Balance becomes overdue (Day 0).
• Stage 1 (Day 3) - Letter generated to customer reminding of overdue balance and confirming ways to pay.
• Stage 2 (Day 7) - Workflow Event Generated for CSA Customer Service Agent, Advisor, or Assistant. A (usually) customer-facing role in telecommunications, such as an agent in a call centre. Variations include CSR (Customer Service Representative) or CEA (Customer Experience Agent) to telephone customer.
• Stage 3 (Day 9) - Automated Provisioning Activity to apply full bar.
• Stage 4 (Day 30) - Send Account Details to Debt Recovery Agency.

Workflow Events Manually or automatically created task items that drive and record activity within CMP. Sometimes referred to as Diary Events. associated with each stage enable automatic actions to be carried out as defined in Business Configuration A module in the CMP Administation console that provides for viewing and modification of business and user applicable system configuration.. The number of stages and the actions associated with each stage can be varied according to the Account Type. The actions can range from simple use of the CMP notifications framework to queue a message for a third party Of software; a reusable component developed to be either freely distributed or sold by an entity other than the original vendor of the development platform. system, through to automated transmission to a Credit Management.

Credit Control regularly evaluates all accounts. For accounts that are not in credit control, it checks to see if they need to be added to credit control. For accounts that are already in credit control, it checks if the accounts can leave - for example, due to payment being received - or whether they need to be moved to the next stage of the procedure.

In the event of a payment being made or a query being raised regarding the amount owed for someone in credit control, a revaluation is immediately triggered to determine whether they are eligible to exit.

CMP provides a user A person with the capability to log in to the CMP GUI software, such as a customer service advisor or agent. interface and web services to interact with the above process.

Procedures can be interrupted or cancelled at any stage during the credit control procedure lifecycle, should the customer make contact and undertake to put their account in order. If the undertaking is not met, the procedure will pursue the stages of the collection process.

A payment bringing the Account up to date will automatically end the credit control procedure.

Credit Control Entry

A customer who has an overdue amount that exceeds a configurable Minimum Balance To Recover is eligible for entry into a Credit Control Procedure. If a customer has an open bill query, the amount specified in the query is excluded from the overdue amount until the query is resolved.

Credit Control Exit

CMP will automatically move Accounts out of Credit Control when payment or credit has been received.

Credit Control Delay

CMP can be configured to stagger or delay the number of Accounts processed by a single procedure.

Debt Recovery Agency Extract

After an account has been through the credit control process and the operator is still unable to recover the unpaid debt, the collection of that debt can be assigned to a third party known as a Debt Recovery Agency.

CMP generates a file, the Debt Recovery Agency (DRA Debt Recovery Agency. Companies that specialise in collecting debt when the original creditor cannot get the arrears repaid.) extract that includes accounts to be referred to the debt collection agency including details such as:

• The amount of money to recover from the customer
• The amount that was recovered since the last extract
• Contact information such as postal address, email address and telephone numbers

The agency in turn can provide feedback such as the amount recovered. When CMP receives debt recovery response files, these are automatically detected and processed.