Course 9006: Revenue Assurance Boot Camp

The TONEX Revenue Assurance program helps you understand basic concepts and best practices. The aim of the Revenue Assurance Boot Camp is to provide processes and methodologies that help plug the drain on revenue and maximize profits for telecom service providers.

Learn how to:

• Optimize end-to-end Revenue Assurance Strategies and Implementation
• Outsmart fraud by subscribers and distributors
• Discover the importance of cost-effective service provisioning
• Understand how the mediation system can be helpful as a revenue assurance tool
• Understand the impact of copyright issues
• Receive and utilize a review of fraud management systems and processes
• Review audits and tests that can be used to identify errors in network integrity
• Discover cost-effective customer retention strategies
• Understand proper data mining and data warehousing will impact the Revenue Assurance implementation
• Understand the impact of next generation networks and services on Revenue Assurance .

Key Topics

• Overview of TONEX Revenue Assurance framework
• Revenue assurance objectives, processes, best practices and standards
• Tools and methods for RA initiatives
• Revenue Assurance Functions and Applications
• Revenue Leakage Issues
• Billing and Mediation
• Interconnect Billing
• Overview of CDRs, AMA, CIBER, TAP, IPDR
• Inter-Carrier Billing
• Inter-Carrier Billing Verification
• Inter-Carrier Billing Validation
• CABS Verification
• Customer Data and Records
• Usage
• Price/rate Plans
• Telecom Fraud Management
• SLA Management and QoS
• Margin Management
• Mediation Functions and Features
• Tarrifing
• Invoicing and Collection Process
• Usage Analysis
• Order Entry Errors
• Detecting Fraud
• CRM
• Churn Management
• RA KPIs
• Taxation and Regulation
• Credit Management
• Risk Mitigation
• Network Optimization ( PSTN, SS7, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS, CDMA2000, ATM, IP, Cable)
• Traffic Engineering
• Switch-to-Bill Reconciliation
• Network Management / Inventory / Reconciliation
• SS7 Usage Analysis
• Ordering, Provisioning & Network Reconciliation Systems
• Emerging services: VoIP, IP Centrex, MPLS and IP VPN
• 'End-to-End' RA success

 Course Agenda 

Revenue Assurance (RA) Processes 

• What is Revenue Assurance (RA)?
• 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

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
• The idea of Revenue Maximization
• 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, xDRs 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 MINIMIZING BAD DEBT 

• Debt Collection Processes
• Problems of Third Party Debt
• Tools to Control Bad Debt

Termination and Chrun

• 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
• Price Plan & Rate management
• Major Future Problems
• Advanced Topics
• Case Studies and Workshop

•  Working on Revenue Assurance KPIs for GSM and GPRS Networks
• Billing KPIs
• •Fraud KPIs
• Capacity Management and Technology deployment KPIS
• •Technology Operations KPIs
• OSS helpdesk KPIs
• Technology Operations Support KPIs
• CRM KPIs
• Network Economy and Quality Assurance KPIs
• Developing RA Strategy
• Product development & RA
• Product assurance & Advanced product assurance