EP1535203A1

EP1535203A1 - Editor and method for editing formulae for calculating the price of a service and system for automatic costing of a service

Info

Publication number: EP1535203A1
Application number: EP02774873A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Frédéric PLESSIS; Christophe Trompette
Original assignee: Highdeal SA
Current assignee: SAP SE
Priority date: 2002-08-13
Filing date: 2002-08-13
Publication date: 2005-06-01
Also published as: WO2004016066A2; US8719074B2; AU2002341048A1; US20060155654A1

Description

Editor and method for editing service price calculation formulas and automatic service valuation system

The invention relates to an electronic editor for calculating the price of a service suitable for establishing said formula in a format directly usable by an electronic valuation system, the electronic valuation system being suitable for establishing the price for a service to starting from information on the service consumed, contained in consumption variables, and using said formula, said editor comprising an electronic calculator capable of establishing the calculation formula and of recording it in the first storage means of information.

There are many online services available today through the global spider web, also known as the "World Wide Web". Payment for these services is also made online and, for this, there are automatic valuation systems associated for example with billing systems.

The automatic valuation systems are responsible for establishing the price of the service consumed or to be consumed which must be billed by the billing system. This price is calculated from information on the service consumed contained in consumption variables and predetermined price calculation rules.

To establish these price calculation rules in an electronic format that can be used by automatic valuation systems, a calculation rules editor is necessary. In these editors, the electronic calculator is conventionally a computer on which software for editing calculation rules is executed and the recording means are formed from the hard disk of this computer.

Known editors allow a user to enter calculation rules associated with priority levels. The calculation rules are of the form:

If Condition 1 Then Action 1 where: - Condition 1 is a logical function whose result is True or False, and

- Action 1 is a mathematical function for calculating a price.

The mathematical function, like the logic function, includes variables intended to be replaced by the value of a consumption variable when calculating a price from this rule by automatic valuation systems.

Priority levels are used to resolve any conflicts or contradictions between several rules by assigning a priority level to each of them. The priority level allows automatic valuation systems to determine which of the rules that may apply which should be executed first. Thus, the priority levels determine the order of execution, by the valuation systems, of the different rules.

However, the results obtained with known publishers are not satisfactory. In fact, the more it is necessary to create a large number of rules for calculating a price, the more the chances of creating conflicting rules increase and the more difficult it is to manage these conflicts using priority levels. However, errors in the priority levels of the rules lead to incoherent functioning or to a malfunction of the automatic valuation systems which execute them.

The invention aims to remedy this drawback by proposing an editor simplifying the establishment of a formula for calculating the price of a service in a format usable by an electronic system for automatically valuing this service. The invention therefore relates to an editor as described above, characterized in that the computer comprises:

a module for acquiring said formula in the form of a tree structure formed from nodes, interconnected by arcs, each node being associated with a calculation operation intended to be executed by the valuation system to establish the price of the service, and the relationships by arcs of the nodes between them defining the order by an order relationship in which said operations must be carried out by the electronic valuation system, and - a module capable of automatically converting the tree structure acquired in a format directly usable by the electronic valuation system and of saving the tree structure converted in the first means of information storage. Using the editor above, the user enters his formula to calculate the price of a service in the form of a tree structure. However, this organization according to a tree structure makes it possible to define simply and graphically the order in which the operations of calculating a price must be executed by the valuation system without having to explicitly define priority levels. In the above editor, it is also the position of the node in the tree structure that defines the context in which a price calculation operation must be performed by automatic valuation systems. Thus, thanks to such an editor, it is no longer necessary to explicitly assign priority levels as in known editors.

According to other characteristics of the editor in accordance with the invention:

- the computer includes a display module of the tree structure being acquired or acquired;

the acquisition module is capable of creating under the command of a user a first level node in said tree structure only associated with an operation of activating the son nodes of this node in response to the reception of a new value for one of the consumption variables processed by a calculation operation associated with one of the child nodes; the acquisition module is capable of creating, under the command of a user, a first level node in said tree structure, only associated with an operation of activating its son nodes and the calculation operation associated with these last, at predefined time intervals; the acquisition module is capable of creating, under the command of a user, a processing node in said tree structure, only associated with an operation of calculating a new value from the values of the consumption and preexisting calculated variables and assigning this new value to a consumption variable or to a preexisting or new calculated variable;

the acquisition module is capable of creating, under the control of a user, a decision node associated only with an operation of conditional activation of all of its child nodes and of the calculation operation associated with these last, from the value of a consumption variable or a calculated variable;

the acquisition module is capable of creating, under the control of a user, a sharing node only associated with an extraction operation, from the value of a consumption variable or of a calculated variable, of a range of values included, either between a lower bound and an upper bound, or outside of these bounds, the child nodes processing the range of extracted value;

the acquisition module is capable of creating, under the command of a user, a node in the tree structure only associated with a unit conversion operation of a calculated value;

the acquisition module is capable of creating, under the command of a user, a termination in the tree structure, only associated with an operation for calculating a price and with an operation for stopping the course of the tree structure by the recovery system;

it comprises second means for storing information containing a library of prerecorded nodes respectively associated with configurable operations predefined in advance, and the acquisition module comprises a sub-module for selecting the nodes contained in the library, a sub-module for linking the nodes selected using the sub-module for selecting a parent node, and a sub-module for configuring the configurable operations associated with the nodes of the library

The invention also relates to an electronic valuation system capable of automatically establishing the price of a service from information on the service consumed, contained in consumption variables, and using a calculation formula. established by an electronic editor according to any one of the preceding claims, the system comprising: - a receiver of information on the consumed service capable of recording this information in the consumption variables,

means of storing information containing the formula for calculating the price of the service, characterized in that it comprises an electronic calculation unit capable of executing the operations associated with the nodes and the terminations of the calculation formula, in response to the information received by the receiver so as to traverse the tree structure of the formula for calculating the root node to at least one of the terminations by successively executing the conditional activation operation of the parent nodes then only the conditional activation operations associated with the nodes wires activated until activating at least one termination associated with a price calculation operation and executing it to automatically establish the price of the service.

The invention also relates to a method for establishing a formula for calculating the price of a service in a format directly usable by an electronic valuation system, the electronic valuation system being able to establish the price of a service from information on the service consumed contained in consumption variables, and using said formula, characterized in that it comprises: - a step of acquisition of said formula in the form by an electronic computer of a tree structure formed from nodes linked together by arcs, each node being associated with an operation intended to be executed by the electronic valuation system to establish the price of the service, and the relationships by arcs of the nodes between them , defining the order by an order relation in which said operations must be carried out by the electronic valuation system, and

a step of automatic conversion by the electronic computer of said tree structure acquired in a format directly usable by the electronic system for valuing and recording the tree structure converted into information storage means.

According to other characteristics of the method according to the invention: - the acquisition step comprises: a sub-step for selecting a node from a library of prerecorded nodes, the prerecorded nodes being associated respectively with configurable operations predefined in advance,

- a sub-step of linking the node selected during the selection sub-step to a parent node,

- a substep for configuring the operation of the node linked to the parent node during the link substep.

The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows, given solely by way of example, and made with reference to the drawings in which:

- Figure 1 is a schematic view of the architecture of an automatic valuation system of a telephone service associated with an editor of formulas for calculating the price of this service, the system and the editor being in accordance with invention; FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a method for editing calculation formulas according to the invention, and

- Figure 3 is a view of a tree structure representing a calculation formula established using an editor according to the invention.

In the remainder of this description, a tree structure is defined as being a structure formed of nodes linked together by arcs. In this structure, with the exception of a root node, each node is linked on the left side to a single parent node. On the right side, each node is connected to none, to a single or to several child nodes. A node is said to be a “terminal node”, when it is connected on the left side to a single father node and to no son node on the right side. A terminal node thus forms the end of a branch of the tree structure.

The orientation of the tree structure from left to right is chosen here only by way of illustration and the technical teaching described here also applies to tree structures oriented in other directions.

FIG. 1 illustrates an electronic automatic valuation system 2 and an electronic editor 4 of calculation formulas implemented within the framework calculating the price of telephone calls made using a telephone network 6.

Calculation formulas editor 4 includes an electronic calculator

10 associated with first means 12 for storing information and with a user interface 14. The means 12 for storing information, formed for example by a memory, comprise a prerecorded library 16 of nodes.

The prerecorded nodes form generic models of nodes intended to be copied and whose copies are intended to be assembled into a tree structure.

These pre-registered nodes are each associated with a configurable operation predefined in advance. Each of these configurable operations, once the parameters have been defined, corresponds to an operation intended to be executed by the system 2 when the corresponding node is activated.

The configurable operations are intended to react according to information contained or received by the system 2 or to process this same information. In system 2, each piece of information is recorded in a variable associated with a name allowing it to be uniquely identified. Thus, one of the main parameters of each operation is the name or names of the variables that the operation must process and / or the name or names of the variables according to which the operation must be activated. All of these variables are recorded in what is called here a valuation context.

The library 16 mainly comprises five families or types of nodes. The first family has only one node called "root". The main, and for example the only function of this root node, is to form the root of a tree structure.

The second family of nodes gathers so-called first level nodes associated with an operation capable of activating the child nodes in response to an event. This event is for example the reception of information on the consumption of a service. In this case, this first level node will be called hereafter “event node”. The event processed by the event node, is either an ordinary event as in the example describes here the reception of information on a telephone call, ie an exceptional event such as the reception of information on the termination of a contract.

Another example of a first level node is a recurrence node which will be described later.

The third family of nodes brings together so-called processing nodes, associated with operations capable of calculating new values for variables and of recording them in the context of valuation. Once the processing operation has been carried out, these nodes are intended to activate their child nodes. A converter and a processing node are examples of nodes belonging to this family and are described in more detail below.

The fourth family is formed by decision nodes having in common that they are each associated with an operation of conditional activation of all the child nodes. This conditional activation operation depends on the values of the variables in the valuation context. These nodes do not modify the valuation context. Two examples of this family of nodes, that is, a decision node and a sharing node, are described below.

Finally, the last family of nodes are terminations. Each termination is a terminal node associated with an operation for calculating a price and / or an amount from the values of the variables in the valuation context. These endings have in common that they are intended to stop the route by the tree structure enhancement system. An example of the termination of a price calculation is also described below. The library 16 here comprises, by way of example, the following nodes: a converter, a processing node, a termination for calculating a price, a decision node, a sharing node and a recurrence node.

The converter is a node associated with an operation of converting a variable from the valuation context into a converted variable. The predefined operation associated with the converter accepts as parameter the name of the variable in the valuation context, the mathematical function to be executed to convert the variable and the name of the converted variable in which is recorded the result of the conversion operation once it has been carried out.

The converter is for example intended to carry out scalings, unit conversions or calculations of the age of a file knowing its creation date.

The processing node is for example intended to calculate, from successive values of one or more variables of the calculation valuation context, an evolution of this value recorded in an evolution variable. This operation accepts as parameter the name or names of the variables, a mathematical calculation function involving the current value of the calculation variables, as well as one or more of their previous values, and the name given to the evolution variable.

This processing node is specially intended for carrying out cumulative operations or statistical operations such as averages or the like, from arithmetic operations for example.

The termination of price calculation is associated with an operation of calculating a price and recording it in a price variable from the values of one or more variables of the valuation context. In a similar way to the previous nodes, the variables, the mathematical function of computation connecting the variables and the name of the price variable are configurable. This computation termination is intended to form a terminal node of the tree structure and forms a stopping point for the execution by the system 2 of the tree structure.

The decision node is associated with a conditional activation operation of all the child nodes or daughter terminations linked to it. The activation of the child nodes is only carried out if an activation condition is satisfied. This activation condition is formed by one or more variables of the valuation context linked together by a logical function whose result is "True" or "False". The parameters of this conditional activation operation are therefore the name or names of the variables as well as the logic function. The logic function is typically performed using Boolean operators. This decision node thus constitutes a switch in the path of a tree structure, that is to say that the path of the son nodes or daughter terminations is not achieved if the activation condition is not satisfied. The sharing node is a particular decision node associated with an extraction operation from the value of a variable of the valuation context, from a range of values comprised either between a lower bound and an upper bound, or to outside its boundaries. Only the range of values extracted is processed by the child nodes or daughter terminations attached to this node. The parameters of this operation are the value of the lower bound, the value of the upper bound and the name of the calculation variable. In the embodiment described here, the lower bound or the upper bound can be equal to infinity.

These sharing nodes are for example intended for the realization of decreasing price calculation rules. Thus, these sharing nodes allow the following calculation operation to be carried out simply: the first ten products cost € 10 per unit, while products beyond this threshold of 10 cost € 5 per unit. A more detailed example of implementation will be described with reference to FIG. 2. The recurrence node is associated with an operation of periodic activation of all the child nodes and of reinitialization of variables of the valuation context such as the variables devolution. The main parameters to define for this node are the periodicity and the name (s) of the variables to reset after the periodic calculations have been performed. This node is specific to the realization of price calculation carried out periodically. For example, this recurrence node makes it possible to activate, at the end of each month, the calculation operations necessary for billing a telephone subscription.

The user interface 14 comprises a screen 18, a keyboard 20 and a computer mouse 22. The components of the user interface 14 are conventional and connected to the computer 10. The calculator 10 is intended to establish a formula for calculating a price recorded in an electronic format directly usable by the system 2. For this, it is, for example, able to execute software 24 for editing calculation formulas. This software 24 notably comprises a module 26 for acquiring a tree structure associated with a module 28 for recording this tree structure in second means 32 for storing information. The software 24 also includes a module 34 for displaying in a graphic form the tree structure being acquired or already acquired on the screen 18. The acquisition module 26 comprises a sub-module 40 for selection and copying a node in the library 16, a sub-module 42 for linking the nodes and a sub-module 44 for configuring the nodes.

The selection sub-module 40 is able to select under the command of a user one of the node models registered in the library 16, and to create a copy in a workspace displayable by the module 34. The sub-module 40 link module 42 is able to link together by arcs, the nodes present in the workspace under the control of the user so as to create a tree structure. Advantageously, the selection sub-module 40 and the connection sub-module 42 are adapted so that the user can build in the displayable workspace, a tree structure using only the mouse 22. For this purpose, these modules 40 and 42 will implement technologies similar to that of the Windows “explorer” interface, that is to say, for example, the technologies known as “copy and paste” or “drag and drop”. ". The configuration sub-module 44 is adapted so that a user of the editor 4 of calculation formulas can define the parameters of the operations associated with the nodes forming the tree structure.

The recording module 28 is capable of automatically transforming the tree structure acquired using the module 26 into a tree structure 48 recorded in the information storage means 32 in a format usable without any new human intervention by the system 2. During this step 88, the module 28 automatically converts the tree structure entered by the user into a format directly usable by system 2 and saves the tree structure thus converted in the information storage means 32, for example, the acquired tree structure is automatically transformed into JAVA code from Sun Microsystem, in which each node corresponds to an object having as attribute:

- a pointer to the parent node,

- a pointer to the child node, and

- a property containing the configured operation to execute.

This Java code is directly executable by any computer equipped with a Java virtual machine. For more information, the reader will refer to "The Java Language Specification" by Bill Joy, Sun Microsystems, 2 ^nd edition.

This module 28 is also able to be activated via the user interface 20.

The telephone network 6 comprises, for example, two telephone sets 50 and 52 connected to each other via a first information transmission network 54.

The information transmission network 54 is also connected to an information server 56. This information server 56 is capable of recording and transmitting, to the automatic valuation system 2, digital values representing information about the service consumed. For this, the information server 56 is connected via a second information transmission network 60 to the automatic valuation system 2. The information transmitted by the server 56, in the context of the simplified example described here, is the instant of start of call, instant of end of call and the telephone number called for each telephone link established at l help from the network 54.

The information transmission network 60 is also connected to a subscription terminal 62 intended to register the new subscribers of the telephone network 6. This subscription terminal 62 is capable of transmitting, via the transmission network of information 60, a subscription information to the system 2. It is for example produced from a conventional computer. The automatic valuation system 2 includes an information receiver 70 associated with an electronic calculation unit 72 itself associated with the information storage means 32.

The receiver 70 is able to receive the information on the consumed service which is transmitted to it by the information server 56 and the subscription terminal 62. It is also suitable for automatically recording the digital values corresponding to the information received on the consumed service in consumption variables of the valuation context. The valuation context is, for example, recorded in the information storage means 32. System 2 includes as many consumption variables as information on the service that can be received. Thus, in the example described here, the system 2 comprises four consumption variables V1, V2, V3, V4 corresponding respectively to the time of call start, to the time of call end, the number called, and subscription information.

The calculation unit 72 is for example made from a conventional computer server comprising a clock 74 intended to indicate the current date and time and executing software 76 for automatic valuation of a service. The software 76 is able to execute each operation associated with an activated node. In particular, since in the case, for example of first level nodes and decision nodes, the operation consists inter alia of activating one or more child nodes, the software 76 is therefore suitable for traversing the tree structure 48 by executing step by step, the operations associated with the nodes as they are activated. In order to initiate the course of the tree structure 48, the software 76 is able to activate a first level node in response to the reception of a new value for a consumption variable in the case of event first level nodes or in cooperation with clock 74 in the case of recurrence nodes.

The software 76 is associated with a recording module 78 intended to record the price established by the software 76 in a database 80 contained in the means 32 for storing information. The module 76 also records, together with the price of the service consumed in the database 80, an identifier of the person to be billed.

The software 76 is adapted to automatically resolve a conflict between several decision nodes linked to the same parent node, each of these decision nodes being associated with an operation for processing the same calculation variable. The software 76 is able to resolve such a conflict, for example, by activating only the decision node whose conditional activation condition best corresponds to the situation encountered. Thus, only one of the ramifications or branches which extends to the right of the tree structure from the conflicting decision nodes is traversed by the software 76. Thus, in the embodiment described here, only the sharing nodes allow the traversal by the software 76 of several of the ramifications which extend to the right of the tree structure from the same parent node.

The software 76 is also suitable for automatically ordering the various calculation operations which would be simultaneously executable. For example, in the case where a first and a second calculation operation are simultaneously executable and or the first operation establishes a calculation variable necessary for carrying out the second operation, the software 76 first executes the first operation and then only the second operation.

The operation of the editor 4 of calculation rules and of the automatic valuation system 2 will now be described with the aid of FIG. 1 and with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 in the particular case where the services to be valued are those of telephone network 6.

The first step in bringing the automatic valuation system 2 into service consists in creating the calculation formula using the editor 4 and saving it in the information storage means 32.

To create the calculation formula, a user of the editor 4 begins with a step 82 of creating a root node by selecting, using the selection sub-module 40, a node from the family of root nodes. This node is for example not associated with any configurable operation since its only function here is to form the root of the tree structure. The next step is a step 84 of creating a tree structure from the previously created root node. It consists in creating the tree structure by adding in successive stages, child nodes. The addition of a new node to the tree structure begins with an operation 85 of selecting a node from the library 16 using the selection sub-module 40. This operation then continues with an operation 86 for linking the node thus selected to one of the nodes of the tree structure using the link sub-module 42. Once the new node is linked to a node of the tree structure, the operation associated with the latter is parameterized using the parameterization sub-module 44, during a parameterization operation 87.

It is also possible to carry out the previous operations in a different order. For example, it is possible to select a node and then configure it before linking it to the tree structure. Then, the previous operations 85, 86, 87 are repeated to add new child nodes to the tree structure being created until obtaining the desired tree structure corresponding to the calculation formula that the system 2 must implement.

Once the desired tree structure has been created using the acquisition module 26, this is recorded during a step 88. During this step 88, the module 28 automatically converts the tree structure entered by the user in the format directly usable by the system 2 and saves the tree structure thus converted in the information storage means 32. In the particular case described here, the tree structure created using the editor 4 of calculation rules is for example that shown in FIG. 3.

This tree structure includes a root node 99. This node makes it possible to group in a same tree structure both operations intended to be activated in response to the reception of new values for the consumption variables and operations intended to be activated periodically.

The node 90 comprises three son nodes 92, 94 and 96 of the first level. The node 94 is associated with an operation to activate its daughter termination 98 if the updated consumption variable is V4, that is to say that it is the creation of a subscription. The daughter termination 98 is associated with a calculation operation of a constant price of € 20, regardless of the value of the consumption variable V4. This corresponds to a flat rate for setting up the telephone line.

The node 92 is associated with an activation operation of all the child nodes if the updated consumption variables relate to a telephone call. It is therefore here an update of the value of the variables V1, V2 and V3 respectively indicating the instant of start of call, instant of end of call and the number called.

This node 92 is connected on its right to a converter 100, a processing node 102 and a decision node 104.

The converter 100 is configured so as to calculate the duration of the telephone call from the consumption variables V1 and V2 which respectively represent the instant of start of call and the instant of end of call. The result of the conversion is saved in a converted variable V5.

The processing node 102 is associated with an operation of cumulating the successive values of the variable V5 previously calculated, this cumulation being recorded in a variable V6 of evolution of consumption.

The decision node 104 is associated with an operation for activating all of its child nodes if the updated consumption variable is the variable V3, that is to say the number called.

It is connected to three decision child nodes 106, 108 and 110. The node 106 is associated with an operation to activate its daughter termination 112 of calculating a price, if the telephone number contained in the variable V3 begins with "06", that is, it is a call to a cell phone. The termination 112 is associated with an operation for calculating the price of the telephone call by multiplying the duration of the call V5 by a rate T1. The decision node 108 is connected to two child nodes 114 and 116.

The operation associated with this node 108 is an operation for activating all of the child nodes if the telephone number called begins with "0". The child nodes 114 and 116 are nodes for sharing the variable V5, that is to say the duration of the call, between two intervals, the first interval defining the peak hours while the second interval defining the hours hollow. Thus, node 114 is associated with an operation for extracting the duration of the call which was carried out in the interval 8h-20h, while node 116 is associated with an operation for extraction of duration of l call that was made either before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m.

Two terminations 118, 120 for calculating a price are respectively linked to nodes 114 and 116. Termination 118 is a termination for calculating a price associated with an operation of multiplying the duration of the call made during peak hours by a T2 rate. The termination 120 is associated with an operation for calculating the price formed by multiplying the duration of the call made either before 8 am or after 8 pm by a rate T3.

The node 110 is connected to a daughter termination 122. This node 110 is associated with an operation for activating the termination 122 if the telephone number called starts with 00. The daughter termination 122 is a termination for calculating a constant price , whatever the duration, equal to 0 €.

The node 96 is a recurrence node associated with a monthly activation operation of a decision child node 124 and of reinitialization of the variable V6 once the monthly calculation operations have been carried out.

This node 124 is associated with an unconditional activation operation of the child nodes 126 and 130.

The child node 126 is a decision node associated with an operation for activating a child termination 132 if the cumulative duration V6 is between 0 and 120 min. The price calculation operation associated with termination 132 is a flat rate equal to € 20.

The node 130 is associated with an operation for activating a daughter termination 134 if the cumulative duration V6 is greater than 120 min. The operation to calculate a price associated with termination 134 is a flat rate equal to € 10. Thus, the combination of nodes 96, 124, 126, 130 and endings

132 and 134 is intended to perform the following operation: if the total of the durations of telephone calls made during the last month is less than 120 min, then the subscription is invoiced at 20 €, otherwise the subscription is invoiced at 10 €.

Once the calculation formula carried out using the editor 4 is recorded in the information storage means 32, the automatic valuation system 2 is ready to operate. Thus, after each telephone call using the information transmission network 54, the following information is transmitted via the information transmission network 60 to the receiver 70: the instant of call start, the instant of end of call and the number called. The receiver 70 stores this information received in the consumption variables V1, V2 and V3. Here, for example, the start time of the call is 7.50 am, the end time of the call and 8.10 am, and the number called starts with 01.

Once the consumption variables have been updated, the automatic valuation software 76 begins to traverse the tree structure of the calculation formula starting from the node 90 towards the endings. To do this, it successively performs each of the operations associated with activated nodes. In the example described here, the node 92 is activated then the terminations 100 and 102 and the child node 104 are activated since it is only an update of the variables V1, V2 and V3. The activation of the termination 100 leads the software 76 to calculate the duration of the call from the variables V1 and V2, that is to say here 20 minutes, and to record this duration in the variable V5. Then, the software 76 performs the operation associated with the termination 102, that is to say that it accumulates the duration V5 with the durations previously calculated for the same user, this cumulative duration being recorded in the variable V6. The activation of node 104 leads the software to activate node 108 since it is a national call whose telephone number begins with the numbers 01. This activation of node 108 then leads software 76 to activate nodes sharing 114 and 116 as well as their respective termination 118 and 120. Then, the software 76 executes the operation of termination 118 and calculates the price for the 10 min of the telephone call which is between 8 h 00 and 8 h 10 It also performs the operation associated with termination 120, and calculates the price for the 10 minutes which are between 7:50 am and 8:00 am. endings reached, the route of the tree structure by system 2 stops.

These calculated prices are then recorded using the recording module 78 in the price database 80 for further processing, for example, by a billing system.

When the clock 74 of the calculation unit 72 indicates that the end of the month is reached, the software 76 activates the node 96, then the node 124 and finally is the node 126 if the cumulative duration of calls made over the month previous is less than 120 min, or node 130 in the opposite case. Assuming here that the cumulative duration of calls made during a month is less than 120 min, then termination 132 is activated, which leads the automatic valuation system 2 to apply the flat rate of 20 €.

Claims

1. Electronic editor (4) of formula for calculating the price of a service suitable for establishing said formula in a format directly usable by an electronic recovery system, the electronic recovery system being suitable for establishing, using said formula, the price of a service from information on the service consumed contained in consumption variables, said editor comprising:

- an electronic computer (10) capable of establishing the calculation formula and of recording it in first means (32) for storing information, characterized in that the computer (10) comprises:

- a module (26) for acquiring said formula in the form of a tree structure formed from nodes, connected together by arcs, each node being associated with a calculation operation intended to be executed by the valuation to establish the price of the service, and the relationships by arcs of the nodes between them defining the order by an order relationship in which said operations must be carried out by the electronic valuation system, and

- A module (28) suitable for automatically converting the tree structure acquired in a format directly usable by the electronic valuation system and for saving the tree structure converted in the first means (32) for storing information.

2. Editor according to claim 1, characterized in that the computer (10) comprises a module (34) for displaying the tree structure in the course of acquisition or acquired.

3. Editor according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the acquisition module (26) is capable of creating, under the command of a user, a first level node in said tree structure only associated with a activation operation of the child nodes of this node in response to the reception of a new value for one of the consumption variables processed by a calculation operation associated with one of the child nodes.

4. Editor according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the acquisition module (26) is capable of creating, under the command of a user, a first level node in said tree structure, only associated with an operation of activating its child nodes and the calculation operation associated with the latter, at predefined time intervals.

5. Editor according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the acquisition module (26) is capable of creating, under the command of a user, a processing node in said tree structure, only associated with a operation of calculating a new value from the values of consumption variables and preexisting calculated variables and assignment of this new value to a consumption variable or to a preexisting or new calculated variable.

6. Editor according to claim 5, characterized in that the acquisition module (26) is capable of creating, under the command of a user, a decision node associated only with an operation of conditional activation of the assembly its child nodes and the calculation operation associated with them, depending on the value of a consumption variable or a calculated variable.

7. Editor according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the acquisition module (26) is capable of creating, under the command of a user, a sharing node only associated with an extraction operation, from of the value of a consumption variable or of a calculated variable, of a range of values included, either between a lower bound and an upper bound, or outside these bounds, the child nodes processing the range of extracted value.

8. Editor according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the acquisition module (26) is capable of creating, under the command of a user, a node in the tree structure only associated with a conversion operation unit of a calculated value.

9. Editor according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the acquisition module (26) is capable of creating under the commands a user to terminate in the tree structure, only associated with a price calculation operation and an operation to stop the journey of the tree structure by the valuation system.

10. Editor according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises second means (12) for storing information containing a library (16) of prerecorded nodes associated respectively with configurable operations predefined in advance , and in that the acquisition module (26) comprises a sub-module (40) for selecting the nodes contained in the library (16), a sub-module (42) for linking the nodes selected using the sub-module (40) for selection at a parent node, and a sub-module (44) for configuring the configurable operations associated with the nodes of the library (16).

11. Electronic and valuation system capable of automatically establishing the price of a service from information on the service consumed, contained in consumption variables, and using a calculation formula established by an electronic editor according to any one of the preceding claims, the system comprising:

- a receiver (70) of information on the consumed service able to record this information in the consumption variables, - means (32) for storing information containing the formula (48) for calculating the price of the service, characterized in that it comprises an electronic calculation unit (72) able to execute the operations associated with the nodes and the terminations of the calculation formula (48), in response to the information received by the receiver (70) so as to traverse the structure tree of the formula for calculating the root node to at least one of the terminations by successively executing the conditional activation operation of the parent nodes then only the conditional activation operations associated with the activated child nodes until activating at least one associated termination to a price calculation operation and to execute it to automatically establish the price of the service.

12. Method for establishing a formula for calculating the price of a service in a format directly usable by an electronic system of recovery, the electronic recovery system being able, using said formula, to establish the price of a service from information on the service consumed contained in consumption variables, characterized in that it comprises: a step (84) of acquisition by an electronic computer (10) of said formula in the form of a tree structure formed from nodes linked together by arcs, each node being associated with an operation intended to be executed by the electronic valuation system to establish the price of the service, and the relationships by arcs of the nodes between them, defining the order by an order relation in which said operations must be carried out by the electronic valuation system, and

- A step (88) of automatic conversion by the electronic computer (10) of said tree structure acquired in a format directly usable by the electronic system for valorisation and recording of the tree structure converted into storage means (32) of information.

13. Method according to claim 12, characterized in that the acquisition step (84) comprises:

a sub-step (85) for selecting a node from a library (16) of prerecorded nodes, the prerecorded nodes being associated respectively with configurable operations predefined in advance,

a sub-step (86) for linking the node selected during the selection sub-step (85) to a parent node,

- a substep (87) for configuring the operation of the node linked to the parent node during the linking substep (86).