Cartesian serves leading Telcos in every vertical market — fixed and mobile, global carriers’ carriers and service providers. As an illustration of the breadth of our skills, we present a selection of case studies covering consulting and Ascertain product implementation.
Click on a link below to read a summary and/or download the case study
- Customer care & billing migration of 4 million subscribers at ish
- Revenue Health–check at European triple–play operator
- Next Generation IP mediation at a US carrier
- Triple-play provisioning at ish
Ascertain Product Implementation
- T–Mobile (UK) Customer Data Integrity Project
- Re–rating service – Ascertain Rater provided on an ASP Basis
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Consulting Case Studies
Customer care & billing migration of 4 million subscribers at ish
Following the disposal by Deutsche Telekom of their cable interests, new investors acquired the largest franchise Kabel NordRheinWestfalen, and the brand name ish was conceived. The strategy for ish was to upgrade the existing CATV network to support IP-based broadband services, with a target of 250,000 potential customers within the first year.
The ish business plan was to upgrade to an IP network and offer a triple-play service of telephony, broadband internet and digital TV. The existing outsourced billing solution could not support the launch of these new services, and so needed to be replaced.
ish engaged Cartesian to select the new customer care & billing solution and to manage its implementation, including migration of the existing subscribers. Cartesian also provided project resource while ish went through the lengthy process of recruiting and training staff. As members of the ish team, these Cartesian consultants supported the launch of the new services, Euro conversion, and a number of subsequent upgrades and migrations. Cartesian also provided subject matter expertise in the areas of finance and billing.
The success of this project was acknowledged by Billing Magazine’s 2001 Globe Award for ‘Outstanding Implementation’.
Case Study (Opens in a new window) 
Revenue Health–check at European triple–play operator
Cartesian played a valuable role in the early stages of this client’s investment in Revenue Assurance. As a result of our Revenue Health-check, the client was able to identify where leakage was occurring, where controls in the primary revenue stream could be improved and how to mitigate other revenue risks. We offered immediate suggestions that would help, and we estimated the costs and benefits of longer term solutions.
Our approach made full use of our Control Framework tool to present our findings in an easily understandable way. The Control Framework tool has been developed by Cartesian to ensure a full and effective control environment. It allows the operator to maintain an effective control environment long after the Revenue Health-check is complete.
Next Generation IP mediation at a US carrier
A US carrier set out a five-year plan to deliver an IP network with global coverage. This would enable the carrier to launch innovative IP services like content distribution, value-added internet hosting, and usage-based billing for traffic conveyance. The carrier asked Cartesian to assist them with billing their new IP services by implementing an innovative mediation solution based around XACCTusage. Cartesian implemented the system with its interfaces to upstream and downstream systems as well as suspense and revenue assurance management tools. The complete solution provided the essential link between IP network service usage and profitability.
Triple–play provisioning at ish
Following the disposal by Deutsche Telekom of their cable interests, new investors acquired the largest franchise Kabel NordRheinWestfalen, and the brand name ish was conceived. The strategy for ish was to upgrade the existing analogue CATV network to support IP-based broadband services, with a target of 250,000 potential customers within the first year. The services were to include high speed internet, voice telephony, digital television and interactive TV, turning ish into a triple-play operator.
Cartesian’s role was to assist with the selection and then the implementation of a robust yet flexible broadband provisioning system for this business-critical area. This was achieved, integrating it fully with the new billing and customer care system and the upgraded network within the required timeframe, thus enabling the company to begin offering the new services on a timely basis.
Ascertain Product Implementation Case Studies
T–Mobile (UK) Customer Data Integrity Project
T–Mobile (UK) has built up an industry-leading revenue assurance team with strong process and control capability. In 2003 the team made a decision to implement a software solution targeting customer data integrity between their OSS/BSS platforms and network elements. The aim of the project was to tackle data integrity issues around provisioning which could cause revenue leakage where billing is out of step and stranded assets where the network is not correctly provisioned, whilst at the same time ensuring customer satisfaction, thereby reducing the number of calls to the call-centre and cutting churn.
Although T–Mobile (UK) had carried out similar audits in the past as a manual exercise, it was impossible to reconcile reference data for T–Mobile (UK)’s many millions of subscribers on a sufficiently frequent basis.
T–Mobile (UK) therefore decided to evaluate the available software tools on the market. This system selection process was characterised by T–Mobile (UK)’s knowledgeable and rigorous approach. Following a detailed RFI stage, selected vendors were asked to undertake a ‘live’ demonstration of their tools over a two-day ‘Proof of Concept’ session.
As a result of the selection process, T–Mobile (UK) chose Cartesian, a leading independent technical consultancy and software development business delivering products and services to the telecoms operators. Cartesian were selected both for the capability of their ‘Ascertain’ toolset and also for their flexibility and ability to work with T–Mobile (UK) as a team.
Re–rating service – Ascertain Rater provided on an ASP Basis
Our client – a leading mobile operator – decided to engage a managed service provider that would independently verify its rating, to ensure the highest level of billing accuracy for its customers. The service has to handle both the monthly standing charges and usage charges for individual events including bundling, promotions and discounts.
A key objective was to demonstrate bill accuracy, in particular, from a customer’s viewpoint: that is, the information on the bill about the call and the tariff at which it was charged is clear and complete and in accordance with the published data. This includes “small-print” items like rounding or minimum duration.
Cartesian was able to demonstrate the suitability of Ascertain Rater as a basis for a re–rating service, and that a simple business processes could be set up at both our client and Cartesian to ensure a smooth and timely ASP operation.
Cartesian’s service has proven to be extremely valuable and the service has recently been extended to support pre-paid customers as well as post-paid. The system was shown to be highly flexible and Cartesian was able to tailor the solution to the specific requirements of the client’s service offering.