A usage service is a product provided on customer request and billed based on its consumption (in contrast to termed services, provided and billed on a recurring termed basis). Examples of usage services include video on demand (VOD), pay-per-view (PPV), telephony and broadband per byte. Usage services can be used in over-the-top (OTT) business models for subscription TV or mobile network operators and (like other services) can be ordered by customers through their subscription.

This guide aims to explain how CRM.COM modules interact and provide a comprehensive solution for managing all types of usage services.

Best Practice Solutions for creating and managing subscriptions:

Subscription Management

Usage Services in CRM.COM

Several CRM.COM modules interact to provide a comprehensive solution for the triple play and other businesses and to manage usage services, from the time they are created in the system until they are provided to customers.

Products and pricing (usage service catalogs)

Usage services must be created as products in CRM.COM, to be available for customers through their subscription. One product (e.g., a movie) must be created per service. In order to be available to a subscription, a product must be added to a usage service catalog (USC). USCs contain information on pricing and service validity, as well as information used by third-party provisioning systems.

Usage Detail Records (UDRs) are comprised of data on the use of usage services. UDR attributes can be defined in the system and assigned to the usage service when ordering. The attributes can be used as conditions for providing discounts (through usage service catalogs).

Additional discounts can be applied to usage services. They can be customized to meet your business needs and assist to increase sales. For example:

Watch 5 movies within the same week, for the price of 4.
Watch movies after 1:00 am and get a 50% discount.

There is also the option to import already rated usage services from third-party systems. In this case, additional discounts can be applied through CRM.COM.

Subscription usage billing rules

Billing term schemes establish contract term options and rules for billing subscriptions. For example, a rule can be defined that specifies how much can be consumed before a usage service is billed.

Subscriptions and ordering usage services

Customers must have an active subscription through which usage services are ordered and billed. The dedicated Add Service Usage subscription action allows users to search for and order available usage services. Services can also be ordered through third-party systems (such as a web portal).

A plethora of Web APIs can be used for integrating with CRM.COM for ordering usage services.

Billing and discounting usage services

Unless otherwise stated in the usage billing rules, usage services are billed as soon as they are ordered. If applicable discounts are set up in the system, the amount is automatically deducted from the total billed amount.

Integration to provisioning hosts

A provisioning provider system/host is an external system that is responsible for delivering signals to subscriber devices, based on the CRM.COM services of the subscriber. Provisioning hosts are required in order to use usage services from a broadband service provider or in a subscription TV implementation.

Examples of provisioning providers include:

A Conditional access system (CAS) delivering content to decoders for DTH and DTT subscriptions
A Video/IPTV platform streaming OTT content to tablets
The RADIUS server providing network service to a modem.
A TVOD service provider delivering content to devices i.e. decoders, and Applications

The provisioning providers/hosts must firstly synchronize their products with CRM.COM's Products (Usage Services), using CRM.COM's dedicated Web APIs that list all available Usage Services along with commercial metadata information. The products, metadata information and pricing information will then be retrieved from CRM.COM and displayed by the provisioning provider/host to the customers' decoders or Applications. When a customer places an Usage Service Management#order, the system forwards the request to the provisioning providers to supply the service.

CRM.COM is integrated with several provisioning systems, such as Conax Contego, Nagra, Perception, Verimatrix, Icarius, and Panaccess. Refer to Provisioning for a comprehensive list.

Business Example of Transactional VOD model

TVOD, or transactional video on demand as it is known, allows consumers to purchase content on a pay per view basis. Such model can be easily mapped to CRM.COM following the below steps

The Products are created as Usage Services, as explained above. Products can include commercial metadata information, which can later be used to distinguish their pricing
The Usage Service catalogs are created, as explained above, including all available Usage Services
The pricing is set up for each of the Usage Service created, through Price Plans and Pricing Strategy
TVOD provider synchronizes its products based on CRM.COM's Usage Services and using the dedicated Web APIs

For each customer who wants to view TVOD content, a subscription is created with billing model "Pay Before Bill" to ensure that the customer pays before the content is available for viewing. A Payment Gateway is necessary to ensure that the flow is completed successfully (e.g. Stripe Payment Gateway).

A third party system, i.e. a system responsible for content delivery, will communicate CRM.COM through Web APIs and order content per subscriber. CRM.COM will respond to the third party system allowing or denying the subscriber to view the ordered content based on various information some of them being the below: