As-is Process
Mediacom was using Navision as the core financial system. Most of the programming calculations were offline and took approx 3 FTE to complete on a monthly basis. The company had grown substantially since Navision implementation and Navision has started to become a bottleneck in monthly processing. Since Oracle EBS is the de-facto standard in cable industry, Mediacom selected Oracle EBS 11.5.10 to replace Navision.
As part of the financials implementation Mediacom looking at significantly automating programming payment processing to achieve better control and more manageability. The goal was to design a process that was scalable, to support increase in processing volume, and adaptable, to changing business landscape. It was expected that efficiencies achieved will allow existing staff to dedicate more time to value added tasks.
The following diagram shows high level process flow for the programming payment. In the diagram below, Sub stands for “Subscriber.” CSG is the third party order entry and billing system used for cable subscribers. National Cable Television Cooperative is a programming buying cooperative representing approximately 1100 cable operators.
Implemented Process –The following diagram shows the proposed process with PO and QP integration. The processes within the shaded portion are part of base EBS functionality and the processes outside the shaded portions are staging tables in a custom schema.
The unique nature of royalty payment process is that supplier does not really have the information necessary to generate an invoice. As a result, Mediacom generates the invoice is generated internally for payment. The calculation output is sent to the suppliers as supporting documents for payments.
Conceptual Data Model
The following describes the conceptual data model for key configuration elements that need to be addressed for this process.
- Content Provider = Vendor
- Service = Item (Bulk and Residential to be modeled as item revision)
- Subscriber Count = Item Quantities
- Payment Rate = Unit Price
- Headend = Ship-to-location
- Pricing Agreement = Price List Other Variables
Purchasing – Advance Pricing Integration Setup
The following profile options are required to enable purchasing – advance pricing integration. Some of these setups were different from the ones recommended on various metalink notes. Bas
QP: Licensed for Product
This profile option identifies which Oracle software application can use Oracle Pricing. This profile option was set to “Purchasing” at the application level.
QP: Pricing Transaction Entity
This profile option indicates the current Pricing Transaction Entity (PTE) in use. Only those contexts and attributes assigned to the current Pricing Transaction Entity will be available in the list of values onthe setup forms. Likewise, querying up setup data for price list lines, modifiers, and qualifiers, etc. will cause the description to be shown only for those contexts and attributes that are assigned to the current Pricing Tansaction Enttity.
This profile was set to “Procurement” at application level.
QP: Unit Price Precision Type
This profile option determines the Round To value that is defaulted on the price list. The rounding factor is limited by the number of positions allowed in the standard extended precision format of the price list currency.
This was set to “Extended” to enable unit price rounding to five (5) digits after decimal point. Most Mediacom contracts calculation require using unit price that are four (4) digits after decimal point.
Other Mandatory Setup
Oracle Purchasing calls advanced pricing engine only if a contract purchase order is used as sourcing document. Therefore, a contract purchase order was created for each supplier along with approprate ASL and sourcing rules so that items are sourced correctly during requisition import.
Example Contracts Setup
Tiered rate with channel placement discount
A sample contract of this type is summarized below.
If service is carried on channel number 30 and below, the following rate structure applies.
First 100,000 subscriber $0.44 per sub All sub > 100,000 $0.41 per sub

If service is carried on channel number 31 and above, the following rate structure applies.
First 100,000 subscriber $0.48 per sub All sub > 100,000 $0.45 per sub

Flat rate with a guaranteed minimum
A sample contract of this type is summarized below.
$0.55 per sub subject to a minimum payment of $100,000. No maximum limit.
