Revenue Assurance and Protection

A properly implemented Revenue Assurance strategy has been shown to add significant value to the bottom line for any telecommunications service provider.

Telecom revenue cycles are always faced with the risk of revenue leakage regardless of the region, scale or operations. It is often difficult to define the leakage as a risk or a just a business challenge.

Leakage are never fully detected. When leakages are detected, recovery is challenging and almost always not possible fully. A large portion of revenue leakage remains unrecovered. It is crucial for operators to assess the complete life cycle of capturing leakage data, identifying the leakages and recovering them. Timing of identification and recovery of leakages is critical since leakages recovered over an extended period of time often do not realize the potential value. As the time between the leakage and recovery increases, the probability and size of the recovery may reduce.

Successful revenue assurance depends on quick identification and prompt action to prevent leakages. A solution that incorporates the latest detection techniques and that can adapt quickly to the changing landscape of revenue assurance environment is the key to an effective revenue assurance practice.

If leakage recovery levels are higher, the total cost of recovery operations becomes profitable and self sustaining. It is essential for operators to strive to make the recovery operations profitable.

Revenue cycles are often prone to revenue leakages and leakages can occur anywhere across the revenue cycle - sales, activation, network configuration, CDR processing, rating and billing, credits and commissions, among others. It is vital for operators to make fool proof the different various aspects of their revenue cycle – technical, commercial, and financial.

Awareness and general understanding ensures that leakages of all forms are identified and subsequently recovered. However, technical areas such as networks or rating and billing have been highlighted as the most susceptible to leakage. This requires implementation of stringent policy and control through evolving technologies and innovative products in the market.

Such tools and techniques require specific knowledge, technical skills, and trained resources to operate efficiently. As the size and complexity of businesses grows, it is critical for network operators to use advanced tools and analytics to perform revenue assurance function effectively.

As technological shifts happens and operators migration from legacy systems to IP based systems, the focus of revenue assurance will move from CDRs (Call Data Records) to EDRs (Electronic Data Records) or IPDRs (Internet Protocol Data Records). The launch of new services, especially data related, require revenue assurance tools that are capable of understanding and analyzing information from new systems involved in service delivery. It is imperative that operators employ tools that are robust and flexible enough to handle these shifts. It is also important that the personnel involved with revenue assurance cycle are supported and trained by personnel who understand the new services to derive maximum benefit.

Zeteon provides advanced tools and services to help network operators detect and prevent revenue leakages while protecting thier revenue cycle.