Category: (6) eTOM Process Type
Process Identifier: 1.6.12.1.7.5.2
Original Process Identifier:
Maturity Level: 3
Entities who perform the billing process externally 'on behalf' of a business. Various variants exists where the full path is not outsourced
There are specialized outsourcing vendors or CSP's who will perform the billing function externally 'on behalf' of a business, rather than a business performing billing using an application maintained internally. From a Billing Perspective it is a further specialization than MVNO Billing Model, insofar no Carrier/CSP internal services (like network usage) will be consumed but product /service consumption might from any other source. For this scenario it should be note that there are no explicit contractual relationship between the BOBO provider and the party that receives the bill/invoice. Also the invoices are explicitly decoupled from accounting (A/R). An outsourced approach such as this requires the exchange of usage and latest customer details (e.g. whatever is required for rating/pricing calculations, details of the customer's products and their postal address), and will result in invoices / bills generated 'as if' the original business had done them internally. The business logos and contact details on the invoices produced by the 'billing on behalf of' (BOBO) vendor will be those of the business outsourcing their billing. The BOBO vendor will usually not have any of their details present on the invoice, the BOBO vendor is providing a transparent 'back office' billing function that the end customer is unaware of. BoBo is not a type of contract but indicate a set of services that is performed as a transparent middleman. (Transparency usually in one direction only). A good reverse example is Cloud “as a Service” revenue models, where expertise are insourced to the CSP/DSP. For BoBo, the service flow is the direct opposite of a traditional “XaAS” from the perspective of a CSP/DSP, in that a Business Party with an Existing customer base (not the customer base of the CSP). This business party “buys” the CSP’s “service skill” to perform “Billing” and can therefore save the overhead of maintaining such infrastructure, staff, licenses, skill. These BoBo Service Capability is offered as number of processes towards an external entity. Hence one would expect equivalents sub-process equivalents in PRM/ Order Management etc. and it is usually managed by a product line separate from retail. It is significant to mention additionally since a very important step in standard accounting needs to be treated differently: that the A/R & A/P accounts of the CSP/DSP are not booked directly (not own revenue) and are booked to separate journal outside the normal cash flow.
This was created from the Frameworx 16.0 Model