We examine the root causes of billing errors and their potential impact. Tried and tested techniques are described for assessing current performance levels, setting appropriate performance targets, and managing the technology and business processes to achieve an optimal level of revenue assurance. The business case for implementing and maintaining a revenue assurance function is examined and examples of current regulation and the obligations placed on operators are described. In sessions, leaders will combine formal classroom presentation with case studies and attendee involvement through TONEX Roadmaps ®. Participants will walk away with a series of tangible mindset to immediately apply optimized Revenue Assurance implementation strategies.
section I: revenue assurance processes
Introduction
- Overview of Telecom BSS/OSS
- What is Revenue Assurance?
- Examining the current definitions
- Why Revenue Assurance is important
- The Billing Process Model
- The root causes of CDRs and billing errors
- Technology Definitions
- Switches, mediation, billing and customer care systems
- People Factors
- Culture and communications
- Network management, marketing, customer services and billing departments
- Populating the Billing Process Model
- Revenue assurance department as a profit center
- Revenue loss occurs at the product design
- Problem of debt collection
Importance of Revenue Assurance in Today's Market
- Pre-Sales and Sales Processes
- Cost-Effective Service Provisioning
- Discovering Errors in Network Integrity
- Mediation System as a Revenue Assurance Tool
- Rating, Tariffing and Billing
- Effective Collection Processes
- Reducing Bad Debt and Fraud
- Policies for Termination and Churn Management
- A Total Optimized End-to-End Revenue Assurance Strategy
Measuring to manage performance
- Revenue Assurance Complexity and Advantages
- Tools and Methods for RA Improvements
- Processes
- Capabilities
- Tools
- Technologies with quantifiable, monetary benefits
- Revenue Assurance's Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- The cost of failures lost revenue and customer complaints, illustrated with real life statistics and case studies
- Benchmarking against competitors as a key input to setting your own performance targets
- Deciding what to measure and how Setting performance targets what is reasonable, economically achievable and retains competitive differentiation
- Performance reporting
The role of auditing in revenue assurance
- Using the Billing Process Model to design an effective audit program
- Who should audit? The audit team skills
- Getting business value from audits and keeping audit costs down
Regulation: Issues and the operator response
- What are the regulators' concerns?
- Number disputed account complaints; fear that billing is out of control
- Inability to verify that complex rating plans have been correctly implemented
- The operators' responses how to educate and reassure the regulator and your customers
- The business case for revenue assurance
- Creating the business case for Revenue
- Assurance staffing, skills, timescales to show a return on investment and costs
Section II: Revenue assurance implementation
Some major revenue assurance processes
- Tables Management
- Event Management and Control
- Error Management
- End-to-End Reconciliation
- Invoice Processing and Distribution
- Rate and Invoice Verification
- Systems Interface Management
- Problem Resolution and Tracking
- Metrics and Management Reporting
- User Acceptance Testing
Why is Revenue Assurance so Important to Today's Telcos?
- The Cost of Revenue Leakage
- Establishing RA Priorities
- Distinguishing Between Network Provisioning and Service Provisioning
- Service Provisioning in the Organization
- Inventory Management
- Provisioning and Activation
- Provisioning Fixed Network Services
- Provisioning Basic Mobile Services
- Provisioning in Next Generation Networks
- Systems for Automated Service Provisioning
- Workflow Management
NETWORK OPERATIONS
- Network Provisioning Errors
- Assuring Network Integrity
- Use of Network for Non-Revenue-Generating Traffic
- Various Technical Frauds
- Detecting Network Fraud
MEDIATION
- CDRs and IPDRs
- Detecting, Aggregating, Correlating and Distributing of data
- Filtered Data
- Loss of CDRs/IPDRs at the Switch and at the Mediation
- The Role of Mediation in IP Applications
- Customer Intelligence
- Network Measurement Applications
- QoS Measurement
- Network Optimization
- Role of Middleware and EAI
RATING AND BILLING
- How Billing Impacts the RA's Bottom Line
- Potential Problem Areas
- Problems with the Billing System
- Problems with Staffing
- Problems with Outsourcing
- Printing and Formatting
- Issues with Billing Cycles
- Problems in the Billing Process
- Interconnect Billing
- Problems with Dishonest Trading Partners
COLLECTION TO MINIMISE BAD DEBT
- Debt Collection Processes
- Problems of Third Party Debt
- Tools to Control Bad Debt
TERMINATION & CHURN MANAGEMENT
- Ensuring Error-free Deactivation
- Churn Management
- Why Churn Management is Important
- Organizational Aspects of Revenue Assurance
- Managing Mergers and Acquisitions
- Integrating Prepaid and Postpaid Mobile Services
- Partner Relationship Management for Next Generation Services
- The Impact of Next Generation Networks and Services
Sources of Revenue Leakage
- Why Revenue Leakage Occurs?
- Potential Causes for Revenue Leakage
- Collection Failures
- Parsing Failures
- Overrun Error Logs
- Bad Correlation
- Time Expirations for Matching
- Billing System Rejection
- Identification Failure for Higher Order Events
- Other Sources
Revenue Assurance Audits
- Sale & Marketing
- Ordering & Activation
- Customer Care
- Network Operations
- Inter-connection
- Rating & Invoicing
- Finance
- Fraud
Revenue Assurance Best Practices
- Process Improvements and ROI
- Overcoming organizational barriers to Revenue Assurance program
- Overcoming cultural barriers to Revenue Assurance program
- Automated OSS-to-BSS Reconciliation
- Interconnection Billing Disputes
- Tools to Stop Revenue Leakage
- Reporting Tools
- Testing Tools
- Analysis Tools
- Adaptive Revenue Assurance
- Tools and Methodologies
- TONEX Revenue Assurance Framework
- Operation Assessment and Improvement
- Major Future Problems
- Advanced Topics
- Case Studies and Workshop
