Rate&Bill USE CASE: PRIMECAST Hosting, Streaming Servers full version

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USE CASE No 003

SHOUTCAST Hosting, Streaming Servers: Best option for Audio and Video Streaming

Section 1: Introduction

Simplifies billing by making complex computations simpler...

© 2013 by Rate&Bill 2013. All Rights Reserved

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This document is a representation of the PRIMECAST Streaming Solution — SHOUTCAST on the

Rate&Bill Billing and Customer Care Platform. PRIMECAST was founded in 2004, as an online hosting and

streaming service provider. At incorporation, there was virtually no market for online broadcasting in the re-

gion.

Over the years significant attempts have been made to perfect services by constantly improving quality, and

customer support experience. Servers are located in conditioned spaces in various datacenters across the North

-Eastern United States and are connected to their own redundant network with no single point of failure, and

unlimited bandwidth potential.

The SHOUTCAST Streaming presents one of the ultimate streaming services with a wide range of service of-

ferings with regards to number of listeners, size of traffic, extra traffic, storage capacity and other elements

needed in streaming services. Using the Rate&Bill Billing and Customer Care Platform, the Smart Plan takes

note of key areas in the is created in the format below.

The Rate Plan.

The rate plan is a flexible system that allows the customer access all offerings in the package.

The Services

The service represent the charges and usage rates allowed in each offer.

The Offerings

The offerings are designed with specific service and scenarios assigned to them. This is normally done by

placing the service onto the rate plan and assigning it to the client account or contract to allow billing.

You may contact us for a free PROPOSAL covering Requirement Assessment, Project Charter Approval,

Contract Solicitation, and finally Statement of Work Approval. We may also offer DESIGN, IMPLEMENTA-

TION, TESTING and DEPLOYMENT at no cost to you depending on the length of the whole project.

With a spectacular GUI provided, you can design and configure different rate plans, offers, services,

charges, and rating scenarios.

Tips



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Table 2.1 SHOUTCAST hosting bandwidth plans

The system allows

customers to

stream to a lim-

ited number of

listeners ranging

from 25, 50, 75,

100 and beyond.

Customers exist

all over the cur-

rent listeners in

several countries

around the world.

SHOUTCAST hosting bandwidth plans have a limit of traffic and are the best option for stations where listeners

number vary for different periods of the day.

Section 2: SHOUTCAST Hosting, Streaming

2.1 INTRODUCTION

The SHOUTCAST Streaming is one of the most popular online broadcasting services used to stream Audio or

Video. Setup only takes minutes and all you need is a broadband internet connection and a PC or Mac. Primcast

offers Bandwidth Based Plans, Per Listener Plans, or a Pre-Paid Plan, mostly suitable for one time broadcasting

events.

If you need assistance choosing the right SHOUTCAST Streaming plan for your online broadcasting project,

our support team is available to assist you 24x7 via phone or live chat.

2.2 PLANS

Built on the Eclipse Platform, a trusted and proven multi-language Integrated Development Environment.

The system allows for high level of flexibility

Tips

Listeners Traffic Extra Traffic* Storage Price

Up to 25 100 GB $3.50 per 10GB 50 MB $8.99

Up to 50 150 GB $3.00 per 10GB 100 MB $14.99

Up to 75 200 GB $2.80 per 10GB 200 MB $19.99

Up to 100 250 GB $2.60 per 10GB 300 MB $24.99

Unlimited 250 GB $2.30 per 10GB 500 MB $39.99

Unlimited 500 GB $2.00 per 10GB 500 MB $54.99

Unlimited 750 GB $1.60 per 10GB 1 GB $69.99




*Minimum order for extra traffic is $10.



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Section 3: The Rate Plan

The rate plan is created by following the steps outlined below.

Step 1 New Rate Plan

Choose rate plan perspective and select rate plan view, then create new rate plan

Figure 3.1

New Rate Plan is named Bandwidth Plan. All the offers and service charges attributable to SHOUTCAST

Hosting must be placed under this rate plan.

3.1 INTRODUCTION TO RATE PLAN

A rate plan charge is part of a customer subscription designed to be flexible to manage customer offers, and it

comes as package or group of service that draws clients attention to buy this service.

The rate plan is an element of pricing, predefined and independent of the quantities consumed or produced. It

can be used for example in the following cases: phone plan, Internet package, comprising either a minimum

number of minutes (fixed term) or a subscription to the time independent of actual consumption.

3.2 CREATING THE RATE PLAN—SMART PLAN

With the flawless real mode charging system, you

can make the charged amount transparent and un-

derstandable to all parties

Tips


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Section 3: The Rate Plan

Step 2 Assigning the Rate Plan to a Customer Group

Assign Bandwidth Plan to a category of customers. Here the VIP customer group is selected as shown below.

You can do this by selecting the overview, then “Assign”

Figure 3.2

Assigning the rate plan to the customer group allows all customers within that selection to have access to the de-

signed rate plan.

3.2 CREATING THE RATE PLAN— BANDWIDTH PLAN

Host Rate&Bill on the cloud servers. You may

operate the system from our servers

Tips


Rate Plan may be created to contain a variety of service charges and different offering

A single rate plan may be assigned to multiple customer groups

A Rate Plan may be a complicated mixture of single charges, usage charges, limited internet

bundle, unlimited usage services; as well as multiple offers coming with a complex combination of these ser-

vices



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Section 4: The Service

Step 1 Creating the Service

Figure 4.1

Name new service Primecast Hosting.

Step 2 Creating the Scenario

In each service one may create more than one scenarios, the scenarios present or design how we can use the same

service in another way. There is a single scenario for activation fee as the charge remains the same across all the

offers.

4.1 INTRODUCTION TO SERVICE—BANDWIDTH PLAN

4.2 CREATING THE SERVICE

A service is an act of assistance that help designer to configure how to consume this service and how it is to be

paid.

According to the SHOUTCAST Streaming, a service and a scenario are created. Specific service parameters

are set with regards to number of listeners, traffic levels later in the CASE

Rate&Bill integrates freely with your other enter-

prise applications. It helps you increases efficiency

and productivity

Tips



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Create new scenario in by right clicking on the new service an selecting new. This is illustrated in Figure 4.2 be-

low. The new scenario is named Primecast Scenario. Various charge scenarios will be created under the

Primecast Scenario applicable to a variety of offers

Figure 4.3 shows the final view of the service and scenario created, with the various service parameters.

Figure 4.2

The New scenario can be made to bill customers real-time, recurrently or one single charge. See Figure 4.4


Rate&Bill supports full billing chain processes. Tips

Use the string comparator to set how usage charges are consumed, renewed and recharged. In

this case the string comparator was used to set service quality levels for activation and data fee



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Figure 4.3

Service parameters are set to Listeners, Traffic and Offer as mentioned earlier. It is important to set these main

service parameters as mandatory. This will later be placed on the contract

Step 3 Setting Scenario Charge

Specific charge or a ranges of charges may be set for any scenario. Various sequence of charges are

available for rating


Rate&Bill uses decisional tree algorithm and

allows you the shortest time to reach each correct

node value

Tips

Customers can choose the same service but separate scenarios

Activation Fee is a service with 3 separate scenarios. The scenarios in this case are mutually ex-

clusive and customers cannot assign to 2 or more activation fee scenarios at the same time.



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Figure 4.4

Scenario charge may be set to real time (usage charge), recurrent charge, or one-shot charge. We must set charg-

es for Service parameters, which are Listeners, Traffic and Offer. You can set charge parameters as below.

Figure 4.5


Rate&Bill is plugin based and allows service

providers to install and uninstall features with-

out changing any line of code

Tips



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Figure 4.6

In this case, a recurrent monthly fee is created. Then, using the Number comparator, set parameters as indicated

in Figure 4.6 above.

Table 4.1 Listener Range

Set comparator as number of listeners in the services embedded in the SHOUTCAST

Streaming package as indicated in Figure 2.2. Beyond 100 listeners is an unlimited

number if listeners.

For the remaining unlimited number of listeners, we set string comparator for default

number comparator (listeners). The new string comparator is named listeners and the


After charging the customer, you can re-stimulate

exactly the real rating execution (transaction) and

show proof how the amount was calculated.

Tips

Setting a service as mandatory or optional allows the service provider to specify which services

are compulsory charges eg activation fees, and which ones are optional eg flexible minutes

Remember to set service to Production (Figure 4.2). This will enable you to apply the service to

the rate plan rather than storing it in the form of a draft

Range

Less than 25

Between 26 and 50

Between 51 and 75

Between 76 and 100



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Figure 4.7

Set the various charges in price column of Figure 2.1. Set prices for all scenario charges.


Rate&Bill can be used to bill your customers on a

daily, weekly, monthly yearly and all your recurrent

service charges

Tips

Use Usage Charge to bill customers real time eg. 1 AED per minute

Use Recurrent Charge to bill customers on regular intervals eg weekly, monthly, annually etc

Use One-shot charge to bill customers once eg activation fee



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Figure 4.8 outlines the settings and various charges for the recurrent charge named Primecast monthly Fee. As

well as the Monthly Usage for extra traffic.

Figure 4.8

This view is not expanded to include the specific

charges under each Number or string comparator.

You can find this in the previous view.

It is important to set another Usage Charge, that it

real time charging for monthly usage where extra

amount to pay per every additional space (10 GB)

will be configured.

Here, we create new charge (usage charge) under

Primecast scenario, than name it Monthly Usage.

Under Monthly Usage we add Number Compara-

tor—Listeners—to the Monthly Usage charge

The ‘Listeners’ Number Comparator already has

setting on the expected range of listeners so add

them to the Usage Charge as indicated.

Create new number comparator under each group

of listeners and name Traffic. Under Traffic set default charges under each group to its extra traffic name. In

Figure 4.8, we have an arithmetic function under each traffic named extra 25, extra 50, extra 75, extra 100 and

others.

Rate&Bill is easy to understand and easy to use.

There is no need for a big team of expert to design

your offer

Tips



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Figure 4.9

Set linear function to Extra amount to pay under all arithmetic functions, then set specific charges under each

extra traffic package. Extra traffic is charged on a real time basis.

An abbreviated version of the Primecast Hosting service is show in Figure 4.10 below


Use Rate&Bill for all your subscription fee, auto-

matic and manual service activation fees, one shot

charges and other service charges

Tips



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Figure 4.10

It is important to set service parameters to Production to allow it to be placed on the be placed on the contract in

the next sections.

Any combination of these services will be placed on the rate plan— bandwidth plan—and made to bill customers

as the customer subscribes to the offer. The next sections discuss the offer, the party, the contract, and rating sim-

ulation functions of the system.

4.2 CREATING THE SERVICE—ACTIVATION FEE AND FLEXIBLE MINUTES

Rate&Bill is easy to understand and easy to use.

There is no need for a big team of expert to design

your offer

Tips



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The offering is any specific combination of services assigned to a particular or a group of customers. The service

needs to be added to the rate plan to create any particular service offering.

The various offers for the SHOUTCAST Streaming

Figure 5.1

Below we have created a service, a scenario under that service, and 2 charges—one recurrent, the other on usage

Figure 5.2

Section 5: The Offerings

5.1 INTRODUCTION TO OFFERING

5.2 CREATING THE OFFERS

Rate&Bill comes for free to all small and medium

service providers whose billing project lasts less than

180 man days

Tips

FREE

OFFER



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When creating contract, the customer will choose service package named rate plan. In this rate plan we have al-

ready configure offer and services. Now he have the liberty to choose even by offer or by service with smart

check box.

Each client must respect rules of rate plan between offers and services to have a suitable offer.

Figure 5.3

Here if you can see we have three red parameters : listeners, Traffic, Offer, those three parameters must be set

when we create contract: listeners: number of connection, see fist column of SHOUTcast hosting bandwidth

plans. Offer : Customer traffic second column.

Section 5: The Offerings 5.2 CREATING THE OFFERS

Proposal for projects are free for all companies. Proposal covers fice

stages including Requirement Assessment; Project Charter Ap-

proval

Tips

100% FREE

PROPOSAL



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The inscription of client must pass with account creation. This inscription will offer all information to the system;

personal info, contacts and if the client have relation between other client as child or parent to manage payment

responsibility. Here, the rate plan is added to an already existing one and mandatory parameters set.

Figure 6.1

Section 6: Other Functions 6.1 PLACING THE OFFERING ON THE CONTRACT

Take advantage of our partnership programs and have an all in one

package consisting of a CRM, ERP and any other enterprise applications

or interest

Tips

Rate&Bill allows you to collect, store and retrieve detailed customer information

Switch customer from one group to another with ease. Applying new offers and rate plans



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The party merely feeds the system with information on the customer. After creating the party, two or more con-

tracts may be created and assigned to the account created. A contract therefore represents all separate mutually

independent offers/packages a client enjoys. One can check account to print invoice alongside other account de-

tails for the customer.

The new contract is created as shown in Figure 6.2 below

Figure 6.2

Section 6: Other Functions 6.2 CREATING THE CONTRACT

Have access to 24/7 web and telephony support from all around the

world

Tips



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Figure 6.3

Each contract may be accessed for transaction history and other information on any particular account.

Figure 6.4

Section 6: Other Functions 6.2 CREATING THE PARTY

Have access to 24/7 web and telephony support from all around the

world

Tips

View your full array of services. Select only those you want to apply at any time.

6.3 CREATING THE INVOICE



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Figure 6.5

Section 6: Other Functions 6.3 CREATING THE INVOICE

Rate&Bill is offered in six different project sections… you can have as

many as six levels of the project free of charge

Tips

Use the function to offer returns to the customer upon usage of any particular service.

Use splitters to split billing time intervals

Use Counter settings to specify the customer’s assigned monthly value, and charge rate. Eg. 600 minutes

may be offered by setting step @ 1 and reset every @ minute.

Activation fee does not need to be charged real-time so no need for string settings

Set default counter parameters to set any future parameters that may be added



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This is a simulation of one user who has 12 listeners and he has choose traffic of 100 GB and he consume 120 GB

in the end of the month, so our system rate him 7 if you can see in the yellow field in the left table, in the right

one you can see red field it means that our system will execute this rule of rating

Figure 6.6

Section 6: Other Functions 6.4 RESIMULATING THE TRANSACTION

Rate&Bill is offered in six different project sections… you can have as

many as six levels of the project free of charge

Tips

Some services are mandatory as others remain optional.

Some services may be mutually exclusive and cannot both be placed onto a single contract



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Essentially, Rate&Bill is a fast, efficient and smart Billing and customers care system that can be used by small,

medium or large service providers to build attractive offers an charge customers on real time or on batch. Grace

to his flexible design, Rate&Bill is able to support any kind of service provider on different markets : Telecom

operators, Internet service provider, web hosting provider, web streaming provider, media services and many

other small and medium scale service providers.

Rate&Bill was designed to rate customers for a various types of charges :

Service Usage charge : telephony, mms, Data bundle, video downloaded, hosted domain.

Recurrent charge: Monthly/Yearly subscription fees.

One-shot charges : Charge for after specific events:

Service activation, deactivation , suspension and reactivation charge

Contract activation, suspension and reactivation charge

Support adding other customizable events

Section 7: Conclusion

Email [email protected] for your free proposal or call us on Tel:

(+971) 04-268-3901 | Mob: (+971) 050-718-6452

Tips

Customize invoice template with your company logo, advertisements, promotions and other in-

formation for the customer.

Wrong transactions or wrong amounts charged may be changed with a very simple set of functions without

any difficulty .

23

WEB SOLUTIONS

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Rate&Bill: Use Case


Contact US

For more information about

the product, promotions and

packages please contact

Marketing department

Tel: (+971) 507186452

(+971) 567650376

Email: [email protected]

www.rateandbill.com

ABOUT THE FOUNDER

Use a SMART Billing and Customer Care System… Use Rate&Bill

Mr. Hosni Hamdi, the CEO and Manag-

ing Director of Rate&Bill Company

Limited, started his career in 2006 as a

JAVA/J2EE Developer in Tunisia. With

humble beginnings, he later worked as a

BSCS IX R3 Consultant in Talan, a well

know Information Technology and ser-

vices firm in France.

Mr. Hamdi later settled in Dubai as a BSCS IX R3 Developer in

ERICSSON, where he implement change requests in BSCS to ful-

fill Business and marketing requirements. He developed new

change requests in CX, CMS, JBOSS Workflow, AQ Listener,

scheduler, EAI integration etc. He also played a crucial role in pro-

duction support, as part of a fast track team which was responsible

for fast resolving production issues. After 2 years of exceptional

performance, he moved up in his career in ERICSSON as a BSCS

Solution architect. He conducted end-to-end solution design across

multiple systems (BSCS, CRM, OM+, EAI, ICS and Self-care);

wrote end-to-end solution design documents to fulfill Business re-

quirement; and produced high level and low level design docu-

ments for BSCS. He later worked for Accenture in the same posi-

tion carrying similar roles and responsibilities as a billing system

architect. Among the numerous years of experience, Mr. Hamdi

has a frontline project manager experience with Oracle.

Before retiring to form and manage Rate&Bill, a dedication to tele-

com billing systems, Mr. Hamdi led a team of professionals in cre-

ating a system based on the many years of experience with multi-

national telecoms operators. Putting together the strengths and

flaws of existing systems, Rate&Bill (v1.0) was born.


Watch our video on

Visit our website for more views on how our system works

http://www.rateandbill.com

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