National ICT R&D Fund

Technical R&D Projects

Funded Projects

Conversion of NGOSS Compliant, Web 2.0 Enabled Mediator, Rater and Biller Applications

Principal Investigator:
Systems Research Private Limited, Islamabad www.systemsresearchltd.com
Project Director:
Mr. Shahid Hamid Mir	shahid.mir@systemsrsearchltd.com
Project Details:
Start Date: August, 2008	Duration: 19 months
Project Cost: PKR 38.3 million	Project Funding: PKR 38.3 million
Project Status: In progress.
Technical Progress Reports Submitted: Project Commencement Report, Q1, Q2 and Q3, Q4, Q5 and Q6 reports. Pending Reports: None. Deliverables Submitted: 1: Report on completion of office expansion work, list and delivery orders of the hardware purchased, list and license copy of developers machine’s Windows license, installation and testing reports of hardware, signed acceptance letters by the newly hired employees, report on training activities 2: Report on training of Open Source development, report on knowledge transfer of Web 2.0 technologies, report of visit to service providers mentioned in the project plan, analysis report of conversion methodologies and Open Source Web 2.0, system design document according to Open Source / Web 2.0 requirements, document of database design in Open Source tools, document of application process design in Open Source Web 2.0 Tools, written test cases 3: Compiled and running code 4: Testing and Quality Assurance reports including: unit testing, integration testing, GUI standards testing, usability testing, guerilla testing, input boundary testing, temporal testing, performance test report, stress test report, end to end interface test report, report on debugging, error fixation and Re-testing, quality assurance report 5: System documentation, User guide, Data dictionary Pending Deliverables: None.
Financial Audit Reports Submitted: Audit reports for the year ending 31st May, 2009.
Project URL: http://www.systemsresearchltd.com/ExecutiveSummary.htm
Detailed proposal is available here.

Executive Summary

Open source Billing and Customer Support software is a suite of applications that will fulfill all basic requirements of back office Billing and Customer Care of any Wireless or Wireline Service Providers.

This project is about converting our existing Enterprise Mediation, Rating, Billing and Customer Care (CC) Applications Suite to an Open Source, Web2.0 enabled and NGOSS compliant suite of applications that would facilitate the Cellular and Landline Service Providers and Integrated Telecom Service Providers.

The scope of this project includes conversion of an Enterprise Billing and Customer Care solution which has been designed and developed by our team in Systems Research into an Open Source Web 2.0 enabled and NGOSS compliant applications suite.

The Suite of Applications is as follows:

Mediator (To be converted to Open Source, Web2.0 enabled and NGOSS compliant application)
Rater (To be converted to Open Source, Web2.0 enabled and NGOSS compliant application)
Biller (To be converted to Open Source, Web2.0 enabled and NGOSS compliant application)
Customer Care (To be converted to Open Source, Web2.0 enabled and NGOSS compliant application)
Inventory management (To be developed as Open Source, Web2.0 enabled and NGOSS compliant application)
Fraud Management (To be developed as Open Source, Web2.0 and NGOSS compliant application)
Business Intelligence (To be developed as Open Source, Web2.0 and NGOSS compliant application)

There are multiple academic objectives of this project. Open Source concept is new and emerging fast. This application will be a real world precipitation of this concept. We can offer research and study to take these applications to the next level of sophistication by graduate level students in universities through their research, surveys, and comparative analysis studies. Students can write their Masters Theses in various areas of Back Office applications of Telcos.

Industrial objectives of this Billing and Customer Care solution are the most important. Wireless and Wireline Telco’s, VOIP service providers, postpaid and prepaid calling card companies, small sized Telcos such as Independent Telcos can cut their billing, customer care and OSS cost drastically by using this application with small customization according to their own business processes.

The development process of this project is planned in a way that can help new developers gain experience in the back office applications of a Telco Service Provider. We intend to develop a new generation of engineers / analysts who have a basic CS or a Telecom Engineering degree into professionals who will be sought after by the Telecom Service Providers.