UCentric Tariff Editor
- Jim Coble
Overview
This article will show you the method behind creating a UCentric compatible call tariff and how to edit an existing tariff within UCentric.
Prerequisite Items
Acquire existing tariff
The first step we need to make in order to create the tariff is to acquire an existing tariff from the customer or the PSTN/Carrier provider. This should easily be easily obtainable from the provider e.g. Gamma, BT etc. We will use the tariff they supply to edit our master tariff.
Check over the tariff to make sure the minimum information is there. Included should be:
Country Names
Peak, Off Peak and Weekend Rates (this may be one set rate depending on the tariff)
Landline, Mobile, Non-Geographic and Premium services costs
Get the master tariff
For the tariff creation you will need to use the master tariff template. This is available in the installation location:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MITDynamic\UCentric\Core\Basic Call Tariff MASTER.xlsx
If you do not have UCentric installed on your system, please contact the support manager to acquire the Master Tariff.
Once you have the located the master tariff template, MAKE A COPY as you should keep the ‘clean’ unpopulated version available for future projects.
Building the tariff
Tariff Tiers
In the master tariff locate the ‘Tariff Tiers’ tab and scroll down to A207.
All rows before 207 should be retained, as this is the default “fall back” if a tier cannot be located.
Essentially this means that if a specific tier for a given number is not matched, it will revert to the ‘standard’ tier (BT Business) for that destination.
The first step is to take all country names (Both landline and mobile) from the received tariff and copy/paste them directly into column A. You should expect in excess of 400 records to be entered in this stage. You must then copy / paste the call rates into the corresponding Peak (G), Off Peak (H) and Weekend (I) columns.
For all remaining empty cells copy the data shown in Row 2, apart from the ‘tierCarrierName’ which should be named as the tariff you are working on e.g. Virgin Media. This should be outputted in the same format as shown below.
The columns are defined as:-
Column Name | Usage | Example Value |
tierName | “Friendly” name for the tier | “Local Calls” |
tierComments | Description of the tier | “Standard local calls” |
tierChargeType | Type of tier | Always ‘1’ for calls (other values reserved) |
peakDays | Days that are “Peak” | 1111100 (MTWTFSS) |
peakStartTime | Peak start time for peak days | 25200 (value in seconds from midnight) = 07:00 |
peakEndTime | Peak end time for peak days | 68400 (value in seconds from midnight) = 19:00 |
peakRate | Peak rate cost per ‘period’ | 0.025 (e.g. 0.025 per 60 seconds) |
offPeakRate | Off-peak cost per ‘period’ | 0.010 (e.g. 0.010 per 60 seconds) |
weekendRate | Weekend cost per ‘period’ | 0.005 (e.g. 0.005 per 60 seconds) |
period | Seconds in each period | 60 (e.g. per minute cost) |
increment | Charging seconds | 1 (e.g. charged ‘per second’) |
minCallCharge | Minimum call cost | 0 |
setupFee | Setup fee before per x charging | 0 |
delayBeforeCharging | Delay in secs before charging | 0 |
tierCarrierName | Carrier Name | Virgin Media |
Location List
The Location list tab contains the geographical locations for UK town and cities. This should not be edited unless instructed to do so. The location list details each geographic (UK) dialling code and it’s longitude/latitude.
locationName | dialCode | gLat | gLng |
Coventry | 24 | 52.4068 | -1.5197 |
Northern Ireland | 28 | 54.7877 | -6.4923 |
Sheffield | 114 | 53.3811 | -1.4701 |
Nottingham | 115 | 52.9548 | -1.1581 |
Bristol | 117 | 51.4545 | -2.5879 |
International Locations
The international Locations tab is where you will be defining the costs for each worldwide location. The process for this is very simple but lengthy. To make this process easier you should have the original tariff as well as the master tariff on display simultaneously.
All international countries should be present on the list as well as satellites. Each location is assigned a pre-set tariff tier these generally range from Chargeband 1-14 however there are a few others as well. Using the tariff acquired by the customer, replace the chargebands with the corresponding country names.
You may find that some countries on the master tariff are missing from the supplied tariff, if you see this keep the current pre-set chargeband in place.
You will also see many duplicates in the master, fill these out with the duplicate chargebands, these are duplicated as they represent different dialling codes in the regions.
The result of this should be formatted as below.
In summary; The “Tiers” column should match either a newly created tierCarrierName column entry in the Tariff Tiers tab, or an existing one in rows 1-207
Non-Geographic and X-Refs
This tab as with the Locations list tab should be left alone and should only be edited if you are specifically asked to do so.
The X-Refs tab should be the last to be edited. All data from this tab should be deleted apart from the headers. Some tariffs will require you keep this information so make sure you check before deleting.
NOTE: X-Refs tab is not required for UK tariff tables – This is provided for international dial-plans where “Local/Regional” tiers exist.
Saving and Storing
Make sure that once you have completed the tariff that it is the .xlsx format making sure to clearly label the tariff name and the year e.g. VirginTariff2019.xlsx. The tariff should then be stored within the customers folder and added to a shared folder where the tariff can be made accessible for future projects. If the tariff features an uplift this must be clearly labelled in the name e.g. VirginTariff2019_v2.xslx.
Editing tiers within the application
There is also the option to edit individual tiers within the web application – but as this can be a lengthy process, is only recommended for minor changes.
From the Administration tab, select “Charging Tiers”
From this screen you can click on Edit in any tier to override the rates.
Applying the tariff to UCentric
In order to import the tariff to UCentric you must navigate the UCentric folder. This is usually located at C:\Program Files (x86)\MIT Dynamic\UCentric\Core. Once in the folder open the UCTariffImporter.exe program. This is what is used to apply the new tariff to UCentric.
Make sure the Tenant is set to ‘Default Tenant’ and make sure ‘Ignore unmatched tiers’ is ticked. Now click ‘Import Tariff’, select the excel tariff file and wait for a few seconds. You will now be presented with an alert box asking if you want to wipe the existing tariff tiers. If you are importing a brand-new tariff click Yes, however if you are adding to an existing tariff click No.
The tariff will now start importing, this should take around 30 seconds to a minute depending on the size of the tariff. Once this has been completed you can close the importer.