PROBLEM
A leading analyst firm in the wireless telecommunications industry needed to develop a program to detect fraudulent activity. This company operates by utilizing various wireless carriers and each individual carrier uses a different internal system. They did not have the means to examine and compare points of disagreement between the amount of minutes used by a customer and the amount of minutes purchased. Detailed records needed to be received and translated into a common language and placed in common location in order for the company to monitor fraudulent activity. The organization was unable to detect negative balances and over- usage; they did not have the appropriate tools.
SOLUTION
A database needed to be created so they could capture all the information from the carriers in a common place with a universal language. From there, applications needed to be developed to work within the database. For this particular project Everett Consulting Company (ECC) partnered with this leading telecommunications company and developed a Fraud Prevention Application. This application enabled them to monitor minutes used by a customer and cross-reference that information with the amount of minutes purchased. Additionally they can monitor all account activity and review accordingly.
RESULTS
MAX database was created. The core of MAX is to receive records, translate the different formats and put the information in a common location where all employees can work with it. Everett Consulting Company (ECC) was brought in to assist in the development of the application and programming. MAX creates an alarm, which is activated by abnormal account activity, such as an account reaching a negative balance. The alarms are based in certain patterns and one example of an alarm is as follows:
Handset balance – When an account goes into a negative balance an alarm is set off signaling that something may be wrong. The fraud department begins an investigation of this account by first looking at the accounts activity and establishing whether or not there had been a pattern. They then proceed ahead with their investigation. The interpretation and quality of the information obtained allows for a quicker detection. There is also a case manager provided by this application to determine if the alarm is flagging fraudulent activity. They now have verifiable means of observation based on factual knowledge. This was not possible before MAX was developed.
TECHINCIAL PROCESS
APPLICATION OVERVIEW
The MAX GUI (Graphical User Interface) has 2 primary functions, reporting on CDR (Call Data Recording) and alarm data. This document will outline the technology platform used to accomplish this task. The criteria used in selecting the platform are:
The platform is a JSP (Java Server Pages) WEB application written in WebLogic Workshop with no applets.
COMPONENT ARITECTURE
Since the MAX system was tasked to be a J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) solution, it was decided early on to use a best–in–class J2EE container. With its overwhelming amount of awards and acceptance in the Java community, Weblogic by BEA was chosen. When determining the best User Interface development and implementation architecture, many factors drove a decision to use Weblogic Page Flows. These include:
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Proven Architectural Model – Weblogic Page Flows utilizes a MVC (Model View Controller) architecture. MVC architecture has been accepted throughout the IT (Information Technology) universe as the proper design pattern for Internet/Intranet browser based solutions. In the Java community, Apache Struts popularized MVC architecture. Weblogic Page Flows is an extension of the basic Apache Struts code base.
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Ease of development – A drawback to utilizing Apache Struts, Spring, Velocity and other MVC solutions is that many of the application and deployment settings are done through XML (Extensible Markup Language) files. Errors in flow and broken links are common and cannot be detected until post–deployment and it is only visible when a broken link is accessed. Weblogic Page Flows utilizes a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) development environment that allows developers to quickly create and update site flow. The environment then generates the needed XML deployment files.
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Accuracy of development –BEA's development environment Workshop integrates with Weblogic. This integration allows for dynamic debugging in the development process.
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Future of the solution – Weblogic Page Flows is an architecture that has been released into the Open Source Community as the Apache Beehive project. This means that many more developers will adopt the solution and that this solution will be fully portable among current and future J2EE container manufacturers.
BUSINESS BENEFITS
Everett Consulting believes in foreseeing future problems and adjustments to the application and designs accordingly. The Value Ad, relating to the estimated value that is added to a product at each stage of its manufacture, is ECC created something that’s expansible and reusable to span all the business units of this organization. This is primarily because the application is broken up into intelligent logical entities that have the ability to share. It allows you to modularize multiple people working on the same thing at the same time. ECC delivered a program that flags abnormalities and sets off an alarm in the system. We are currently working with this organization to create additional applications that will help to further improve their business.
