Alaris inVoice

Alaris inVoice is the complete solution for automation of the main business processes of the telecom operators working on VoIP and TDM technologies. The solution provides advantages as to technical specialists, allowing them conveniently and to expedite routine transactions, and to company management, providing it up-to-date data on key indicators of business.

Main opportunities of the solution inVoice:

Uniform base of clients and suppliers of traffic:

• data on contact persons of partners, existence of personal notifications on change of rates, sending accounts and so forth;
• the list of the service packages provided to the client differing in quality of a voice, the threshold price and so forth;
• status and account balance of partners;
• VoIP and TDM list of switches and their parameters.

Work with tariff plans:

• loading of tariff plans from different formats taking into account a day of the week and time of day;
• the analysis of rates of potential suppliers for identification of advantageous positions;
• formation of tariff offers, their comparison with customer expectations and determination of the profitable directions.

Routing of calls:

• routing by criteria of the smallest cost (LCR) and the greatest margin, on the basis of quality of the directions (ASR, ACD, NER) and a share of traffic distribution between suppliers;
• control of profitability of the directions with a possibility of their blocking in case of falling of a margin below the set level;
• the support of client SLA allowing to involve the directions only with certain parameters of quality.

Billing functions:

• the prepaid and postoplatny schemes implemented by means of support of RADIUS protocol and processing of CDR records respectively;
• charge of a payment taking into account different billing increments, retariffing of earlier made calls;
• formation of accounts, their automatic mailing, control of obtaining accounts by clients.

Reporting and analytics:

• the built-in "instant" reports on different indicators (quantity of calls, the general duration, ASR, ACD, PDD, a margin and so forth) for the set cuts (suppliers, clients, the directions of termination, the country and so forth);
• the editor of reports with a possibility of writing of SLQ requests on any fields of CDR records;
• reconciliation of CDR records in case of disagreements with partners.

Financial results:

• tracking of the entering and outgoing payments, obtaining reports on the paid and unpaid bills;
• profit maximization due to adding of desirable regulation of a margin to the cost of routes and prevention of work at a zero balance of clients;
• basic financial statements: about profits and losses, a status of accounts and cash flow.

2011

Alaris inVoice 2.7.0

In version 2.7.0 graphical representation of the key statistical and financial performance is added and also the convenient mechanism of unloading of data is implemented. The detailed analysis of structure of VoIP of traffic is one of key advantages of the solution inVoice. A system allows to create instant reports on different cuts and indicators. Statistics on suppliers of traffic, the countries of termination of calls, service packets is available to each client and so forth On each of cuts statistical and financial performance is calculated: quantity of calls, their duration, ASR, ACD, costs, margin, etc.

The version of inVoice 2.7.0 includes additional opportunities for convenience of work with data from the section of Analyst. For demonstration of dynamics of indicators graphical representation is added them. For example, it is possible to observe change of ASR value for the specific client within several hours or to monitor monthly fluctuations of a margin on a certain partner. Creation of the diagram is possible on the majority of earlier mentioned indicators, the interval of calculation of statistics can make from a minute to one month. Visual representation of data is convenient both for preparation of analytical reports, and for tracking of the problem situations connected, for example, with sharp falling of number of calls on the interesting direction.

Export of statistics from the section of Analyst in the Excel format became other important innovation. Unloading of data is possible on any section and the set set of indicators. For example, it is possible to export quantity and duration of calls over the countries or a cost amount and a margin in the separate directions.

The version of inVoice 2.7.0 is available to clients since December 15, 2011.

2012

Alaris inVoice 2.8.0

The functionality of release 2.8.0 is complemented with a possibility of the reconciliation of CDR records irreplaceable at emergence of debates with partners, and monitoring of operability of a system.

Key advantage of the solution inVoice is existence of the tools providing automation of the main business processes of transit operators. Examples of such processes are loading and the analysis of rates, generation of tariff plans, preparation and mailing of accounts to clients. In the new version one more was added to this group of tools – the reconciliation of CDR records aimed at the solution of a problem of dispute settlement, relevant for many operators, with partners in VoIP exchange of traffic.

The algorithm of reconciliation of CDR allows to set the reasons of the differences in cost and volume of the passed traffic revealed at settlement. Comparison of CDR of two opponents fixes group of calls, records about which are absent on the party of the owner of inVoice, and separately – group of the calls unaccounted by his partner. Similarly for each party lists of the calls having exceeding on duration form it is more than set level. Additional parameters of reconciliation of CDR are start time and end of a call and also a call rate. The owner of a system can use the reports received at reconciliation both for providing proofs to the opponent, and for carrying out the internal analysis of the reasons of emergence of discrepancies. It is important that the instrument of reconciliation of CDR can be delivered as a separate product and to be used irrespective of the solution inVoice.

The module of operational monitoring is one more innovation of release 2.8.0. Its use allows to trace in real time the resulting traffic handling indicators (active calls, CPS, change of a margin and so forth) and also dynamics of use of system resources (CPU, RAM, HDD). The administrator of inVoice can independently configure frequency of collection of information and parameters of its display. Operational monitoring allows to control key indicators of operability of a system and to take corrective actions in case of their aberration.

The version of inVoice 2.8.0 is available to clients since February 1, 2012.

The instrument of creation of tariff plans for VoIP of providers

The Alaris Labs company expanded in the spring of 2012 the line of instruments of business process automation developed for telecom operators. Within the billing solution inVoice the mechanism of formation of tariff plans opening several advantages for wholesale VoIP of providers is implemented.

Distinctive feature of the solution inVoice is providing the automation to telecom operators of convenient and flexible tools allowing to increase cardinally efficiency of accomplishment of tasks and to reduce operating costs. New opportunities for creation of tariff plans allow not only to prepare the offer in several minutes, but also to make it individual for any client that promotes deduction of partners and increase in profit.

Statistics on traffic calculated for each code for the specified time frame is the cornerstone of formation of tariff plans. In each direction the operator obtains data on through what partners there passed traffic and what its cost value. Calculation of statistics can be carried out according to the limited list of partners, having set requirements to suppliers (for example, the ACD or ASR level) or having just set their list. After calculation of cost value of the directions included in a tariff plan, the operator determines his final price, adding the interesting margin size. The margin can be set in percentage terms from call cost, have fixed value for any call or depend on its parameters (for example, at the low cost of a call the fixed amount of a margin can be one, at high – another).

The new tool gives to the operator the chance to create individual tariff plans for each key client. The solution inVoice allows to define the main routes on which the interesting client names traffic and to offer on them the rates bringing bigger income to provider. For the purpose of sale to the client of the new directions the operator can temporarily reduce the price for them, thereby having interested the partner in cooperation increase.

Alaris inVoice 2.9.0

The main completions of version 2.9.0 are focused on transit operators of North America. The version considers national specifics of tariffing of calls in the USA and promotes increase in operator income.

Territorial division of the telecommunication market of the USA found reflection in new functionality of the solution inVoice – Jurisdictional Routing – routing on administrative sign. For the internal directions several types of rates depending on call admittance inside or between states (intra/interstate) and also inside or between zones of local access (intra/interLATA) are specified. Rate type selection at commission of a call is made on the basis of data on territorial accessory of the causing or called subscribers received from LERG base. If the location of one of subscribers is not set, the rate, special for such cases, guaranteeing preserving of income of the operator is used.

The support of LRN numbers providing routing of the calls made on the ported directory numbers became an important innovation of version 2.9.0. For the purpose of determination of LRN for called number of inVoice addresses the third-party commercial database on the SIP protocol. At the same time a system is capable to keep results of all LRN requests during the determined time frame in order to avoid repeated paid appeals to third-party service. Also the possibility of the choice what of numbers – gathered or LRN – will be used for tariffing is provided in a system.

The optimized import and the export of tariff plans which is also considering specifics of the North American market became additional benefit of the new version. Along with instant loading of thousands of rates in a standard type of NPA-NXX, support of a format with indication of the prices for pairs the OCN state or OCN-LATA is provided. Import allows to load as a full range of the rates necessary for routing on administrative sign (up to six positions), and separate price types (for example, intra/interLATA) without change of other rates. When exporting tariff plans a system allows to select an unloading format.

The version of inVoice 2.9.0 is available to clients since May 17, 2012.

Alaris inVoice 2.10.0

The main attention in version 2.10.0 is paid to development of instruments of monitoring of operability of a system and also development of the client portal for viewing statistics on traffic and a balance status.

The client portal is intended for providing access statement to partners to own statistical and financial information. Clients can study statistics on calls for each direction for the selected time frame (number of attempts, number of successful calls, their general duration and cost) and the current tariff plans on each service package. Also the list paid and expecting payment of accounts is available to clients. All data can be unloaded from a system in a format, convenient for clients. The portal continues to develop actively and will be soon supplemented with diagrams on key indicators.

Other innovation of the version is the monitoring panel intended for display of the list of notifications on the main problems arising on a system. Problems can concern system resources (use of the processor, memory, the hard drive), quality of the directions (falling of ACD or ASR is lower than threshold value) or errors of the Oracle database. A system stores history of the arising problem situations, allows the user to set the statuses of their processing and to leave comments. Thanks to this approach the administrator had an opportunity to carry out the analysis of origins of problems and to take preventive measures to their elimination.

In addition version 2.10.0 Alaris inVoice included the completions increasing convenience of the web interface and security of a system. Also new bild included correction of a number of earlier revealed errors. Updating to version 2.10.0 will be available to clients since August 8, 2012.

Alaris inVoice 3.1.0

Version 3.1.0 Alaris inVoice provided support of all complex of tasks of billing and routing of SMS traffic and also opened several advantages in management of tariff plans. The logic of a system allows to solve successfully one of key problems of SMS transit connected with the fact that routing of traffic is executed by numbers in the e.164 format whereas the transactions relating to management of rates – by numbers in the e.212/e.214 format (known also as MCC/MNC format). A system contains the reference book of comparison of numbers and uses the necessary format depending on transaction of billing or routing. Loading of rates is visualized and can be executed of both formats, at the same time in loading process error checking, for example, on presence of duplicates is carried out. Billing functions of a system allow to charge payment and to automate formation and drawing of accounts to clients.

Important advantage to SMS providers is the dynamic routing of messages implemented in Alaris inVoice. The choice of the directions is performed by a system on the basis of criteria of cost and quality. Routing at the smallest cost and the greatest margin and also – on figures of merit of ASR (delivery to the SMS center of the partner) and Delivery Rate is implemented (delivery to the subscriber). The system of analytics will allow to receive reports on the statistical and financial performance related to suppliers, clients and the directions. Integration of Alaris inVoice into the SMS switch based on the Alaris SMS Platform platform provides the full solution for start of services of SMS transit.

Among other important innovations of the version it is worth selecting completion of functionality of drawing of accounts. There was an opportunity to execute recalculation on earlier invoices, to repeatedly send already delivered accounts, to use the new billing periods and to carry out filtering of accounts on start dates and the end of the period. In the client portal the possibility of viewing and loading of invoices appeared.

In total version 3.1.0 included more than 60 completions and about 20 corrections of earlier revealed faults are made. The new version of Alaris inVoice is available to clients since November 14, 2012.

During 2012 the functionality of a system was replenished with instruments of creation of tariff plans, reconciliations of CDR and operational monitoring and also the convenient client portal. New versions of the solution were developed taking into account regional specifics. Support of LNR numbers and routing on administrative sign provided unique opportunities for operators of North America, and fulfillment of requirements of the commission of BTRC made Alaris inVoice by one of leaders in the telecommunication Bangladesh market. Expansion on the Asian market allowed Alaris Labs to provide more than double growth of number of clients.

2013

Alaris inVoice 3.2.0

New opportunities of release 3.2.0 provided exclusive convenience of management of tariff plans and forward development of functionality of SMS billing.

Distinctive feature of the solution Alaris inVoice is existence of full-function and convenient instruments of work with tariff plans therefore considerable attention when developing version 3.2.0 was paid to strengthening of this advantage. In the module of loading of rates acceptance of tariff updates by e-mail is implemented. When obtaining the price notification from the partner a system loads the files attached to it and places in the list of the received documents. Further the operator of a system needs only to import contents of files with rates directly from the server, passing a stage of manual loading of the file. Emergence of two lists of the templates used when loading rates became other convenient innovation. Templates of one list it is used when importing the international tariff plans, another – when importing rates for the internal directions to the USA (US domestic).

Key operation on management of rates is formation of tariff plans. Allows to create the solution Alaris inVoice in several minutes individual client offers taking into account the current statistics on traffic for each code. A system flexibly calculates cost value of the directions and adds to it the margin set by the operator in the percentage or fixed type. Along with radical performance improvement of this module, the new version provides detailing on the vendors participating in cost accounting and also allows to create tariff plans on the internal directions of the USA.

The important advantage of the solution Alaris inVoice is development of functionality of SMS billing. In the new version the procedure of connection of the partner equipment is simplified. If earlier the accounting record of the equipment was required to be registered in two places – on the Alaris SMS Platform SMS switch and in the most billing system, then now it is enough to specify of it only in the system of billing. Information will be transferred to the switch under the internal protocol. The additional flexibility and an opportunity of growth of income is given to operators thanks to introduction of separate determination of E.212 code for tariffing of the entering and outgoing section (Lego) of connection as to the phone number on which the message is sent there can correspond several MCC/MNC codes. In such a way it is possible to select the most precisely suitable rate for the client and the supplier. Also in the new version the possibility of retariffing of already sent messages is implemented.

In total version 3.2.0 included more than 60 completions and about 20 corrections of earlier revealed faults. The new version of Alaris inVoice is available to clients since March 20, 2013.

Tool of the analysis of VoIP-rates

The tool of the analysis of VoIP-rates allows the operator to solve two key business challenges: estimate advantage of connection of new vendors and determine sales opportunity to clients of the directions by the prices (rate targets) requested by them. For each compared direction a system issues the list of available operators arranged on value addition of minute. If the new vendor is located high on the list, i.e. offers one of the lowest rates, the agreement can be signed with it. As comparison happens in each direction, it is easy to see on what of them the vendor offers the most profitable quotations, for example, enters into the three of the cheapest. Moreover, a system allows to predict the volume of traffic which will pass through new vendor, and, respectively, the size of a potential margin. By consideration of client targets a reverse situation: the client's position about the beginnings of the ordered list is farther, the bigger number of the current vendors will be able to meet its requirements for the price.

The important mechanism is restriction of the list of the vendors participating in comparison. In particular can be included in the list only the operators having on the interesting direction there is not less set traffic volume, or only the operators included in a certain type of services (for example, premium packet). Such approach allows to execute comparison only with the operators providing necessary quality of service and working for a long time.

The flexibility of the tool of the analysis of rates is defined by some more moments. For example, the choice of objects for comparison by the principle of complete coincidence of the telephone code, or taking into account shorter or longer codes. Comparison can be also carried out on the rates operating for the set date including future rates. Such approach allows to predict a situation on the change in price and positions of vendors for several days ahead.

Alaris inVoice 3.3.0

Among key advantages of the solution a specific place was held by the client portal allowing partners of operator to execute independently connection and payment, to obtain financial and statistical data. The advanced functionality of drawing of accounts and additional opportunities of routing became other innovations of release 3.3.

The new client portal changed in a revolutionary way process of interaction of the operator with the partners. Now the client can independently be registered, add trunks (POI), select a service packet and obtain information on the operating rates. As before, the client has access to detailed statistics on the passed traffic with a possibility of its unloading in Excel. The possibility of introduction via the portal of payment for traffic on the credit card or through PayPal became a significant innovation. The history of payments and also invoices with a possibility of their viewing and loading is available to the client. If necessary the client can unload CDR for the specified period; the task is carried out in the background, and upon its end the notification on mail is sent to the client.

The client portal provides modification under the specific operator. On pages of the portal its logo, a contact information, useful information can be placed (for example, VoIP-equipment parameters). Depending on the services provided by the operator in the portal tuning properties and statistics relating to processing voice and/or SMS traffic will be available.

Significant improvements concerned functionality of routing. The mechanism of the dynamic choice of a trunk of vendor is implemented: in the presence at it is several alternative connection points (POI), traffic will be sent on a point with the best figures of merit. For convenience of the system administrator in the scheme of routing there was an opportunity to set a direction mask. Now, to direct all mobile traffic of Mexico to certain vendor, it is enough to specify "Mexico, *, by mobile" instead of transfer of the list of all directions. At requests of clients the feature for restriction of number of the routes returned by the specific rule of routing is added. It allows to reduce number of attempts of unsuccessful rerouting when it is known that a considerable part of the directions given in the end of the list does not correspond to required quality.

It is important to note changes in functionality of formation and drawing of accounts. The parameter allowing to set tax percent is added. As a result, the amount of the tax and the general result will be given in the account the amount excluding tax. Also there was an opportunity to specify the amount of the account in the additional currency other than the client's currency. For example, a bill can be made out in dollars with indication of the amount in local currency of the operator.

Other innovations concerned modules of management of tariff plans and reconciliation of CDR. In total in Alaris inVoice v.3.3 is included more than 30 large completions. The new version of Alaris inVoice is available to clients since August 13, 2013.

2014

The system of billing Alaris inVoice received the Russian certificate of conformity

The Alaris Labs company in November, 2014 announced completion of the certification tests undergone by a billing system of Alaris inVoice. The certificate is issued by Ertel Ltd certification body and confirms compliance of the solution to rules of application of automated systems of calculation.

The billing system of Alaris inVoice is intended for operators of transit telephony and is compatible to a switching equipment of different producers. The solution acts as the uniform center of processing and the analysis voice and SMS traffic. Alaris inVoice combines full-function billing opportunities, intellectual routing and convenient instruments of business process automation. One of advantages of the solution is the flexible management by tariff plans providing convenience of loading and processing of rates and also formation of advantageous tariff offers.

The certificate gives the chance of use of Alaris inVoice on a public service network in the Russian Federation both MG / MN-operatoram, and to operators of intra-zone telephone communication. The scope of the certificate extends to information processing about the rendered communication services and carrying out settlement between operators. The hardware complex on which were tested confirmed the high performance of a system: up to 4.2 million records per hour. The certificate is valid till March, 2017.

2015

Alaris inVoice 3.4

Innovations of release 3.4 increased convenience of import of tariff plans, opened new opportunities of routing and provided additional flexibility of financial calculations. Substantial increase of solution performance became one more advantage of the new version.

In the new version the mechanism of automatic import of tariff plans is implemented. The price lists received on the set e-mail address are loaded into a system according to the individual templates configured under everyone vendor. Upon completion of transaction a system automatically sends to vendor and its curator confirmation on loading or the error notification. A system allows to monitor automatically existence of the hidden changes in tariff plans. For example, if in the existing direction the new zone (breakout) with higher price was added, the system administrator will receive a warning. For a number of large vendors the processor of the schedule of action of rates allowing to distinguish and load automatically from files time frames during which the special prices work is added.

Among a broad set of the criteria of routing available in Alaris inVoice, one more appeared — routing by A-number. Depending on a prefix of the direction or specific calling number the decision on that to which of vendors the call will be directed is made. Also new criterion allows to block acceptance of all calls from a certain group of numbers that allows, including, to fight against fraudulent traffic. Within routing on quality there was an opportunity to consider measure values of ASR, ACD, PDD, etc. not only for a certain telephone code (dial code), but also for all direction in general.

The financial module Alaris inVoice included the greatest number of improvements. In particular, it should be noted the new algorithm of charge of taxes allowing how to add a tax to the total amount of the account, and to include it in the price of the directions. There was an opportunity to create separate accounts on different service packets for the client (for example, Premium and Standard). In case of discrepancies with a vendror, the operator can add the approved difference to the amount of the current account without formation of the separate document. In addition It should be noted the essential increase in productivity of the solution relating to calculation of statistics and processing of CDR records, including, to loading of CDR files and accomplishment of reconciliation of CDR.

Module Alaris inVoice Blended Routing

The module Alaris inVoice Blended Routing allows to redistribute dynamically traffic between vendors of one direction, observing customer requirements on quality of a route and maximizing a margin of the operator.

The module Blended Routing satisfies the interests of two parties: the client wishing to get a qualitative referral, and the transit operator wishing to raise the profit. Often the client is ready to purchase the large volume of traffic on a certain direction at observance of the measure values of ACD and ASR set by it. The module calculates, to properly distribute a flow between the vendors which are available on this direction that at fulfillment of requirements on quality to provide to the operator the highest margin. Often traffic will be distributed between the suppliers offering qualitative, but expensive directions and the suppliers having smaller quality, but at more attractive price. As over time figures of merit of the vendor directions and their cost change, the module algorithm regularly recalculates a ratio of shares of vendors.

As clients can overestimate the requirements, when calculating shares of vendors the module Blended Routing allows to consider not only the quality level (target), but also its threshold value (threshold) specified by the client. For example, if the client demands maintenance of ASR at the level of 50%, then, most likely, will be satisfied even if the measure value will go down to 40%. In a situation when it is impossible to pick up a combination of vendors, the notification is sent to the manager of the client; traffic at the same time will or be routed using normal rules, or its processing will be temporarily stopped.

The module Blended Routing is available in a billing system of Alaris inVoice, starting with version 3.4.5, and it is provided for the mezzanine board on the terms of "revenue share" that allows the operator to calculate precisely costs and to save on use of the module at the small volumes of traffic. All current users of the product Alaris inVoice will have an opportunity free of charge to create two routes for the purposes of testing of opportunities of the module. More detailed information on the new module is available on the website of the company.