Panel Debate: Data Warehouses and Revenue Assurance

By Eric Priezkalns 7 Apr 2009

For podcast 5, I was joined by not one, but three guests. Mike Willett, Director of Fraud and Revenue Assurance for Telstra, President of the Australasian Telecommunications Fraud and Risk Association, and fellow talkRA blogger, put the kids to bed and dialed in from Australia. Glenn Hovey, ex-Global Revenue Assurance Manager for Vodafone Group, took time out from packing his possessions before he moves home. Last but not least, Guy Howie, Director of Business Intelligence And Assurance Solutions (BIAAS) managed to find a precious half-hour slot between conference calls with his clients. I am grateful to all three for making the time to talk with me. As ever, all opinions expressed are those of the individuals participating, and need not represent the views of their businesses or other organizations they are affiliated to.

For the first debate, Mike, Glenn, and Guy discussed a perennial topic, but one that still causes a lot of disagreement: if, when, and how should RA utilize an enterprise data warehouse? Half an hour was barely long enough to hear what they each had to say. To compensate, I hope they will all participate in many more panel debates for talkRA. You can listen to the podcast by playing or downloading it from talkRA. Better still, subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, and you will never have to worry about missing a future episode.

Eric Priezkalns

Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), a global association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press. He is a qualified chartered accountant, with degrees in information systems, and in mathematics and philosophy.

1 Comment on "Panel Debate: Data Warehouses and Revenue Assurance"

Dan Baker | 29 Apr 2011 at 8:30 pm |

An enlightening panel discussion. Eric challenges these highly experienced RA experts on where data warehouses fit and don’t fit in the scheme of RA operations. Key issues explored:

* Where does it make sense to use a DW in revenue assurance? When is using a DW for RA an undue risk?

* Is there a relationship between DW use and RA department maturity?

* How do you evaluate whether a DW’s data architecture and design is a good fit for RA?

* In what ways do marketing and RA look at data analysis differently?

* Will the use of DWs increase or decline in RA?

* What are the likely implications for specialty RA vendors. Will wider DW adoption enable cross-industry BI tool vendors to take business away from RA vendors?

Great content. Sound quality could be improved.