RA Tools Overview

It is difficult to get a good, honest overview of revenue assurance tools. Vendors tell you about the tools they offer, not the tools they do not offer. Have you ever noticed how every year their product offerings get broader and broader, yet they never said there were gaps in the offering the year before? ;) Consultants always play safe and tell you about the state of tools three years ago, so telcos do not try something new and blame the consultants when it does not work. Of course, the three-year-old tools might not work either, but that is a different problem. And nobody talks about the niche tools provided by niche providers (except the niche providers, of course) although these may be better suited to the needs of some customers than the multi-purpose offerings pushed by more mainstream suppliers. Well, if you want some advice on how to go about negotiating the minefield of automating revenue assurance, you came to the right place. I have just added a new presentation about revenue assurance tools to the site. Take a look at it on the downloads page. It identifies two possible goals for automation: improved detection (what most vendors talk about), and improved correction (which most vendors conveniently forget to mention). Then the presentation recaps on the Four C’s that form the basis for all processing and hence is the subject matter for all revenue assurance, and explains the types of tools suitable for detecting errors within each of the Four C’s. Finally, the SPIRIT mnemonic is introduced, giving the six golden rules that should be followed by any telco before it starts deploying new tools. If you want to find out more, look here.

Eric Priezkalns
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.