Subex CEO Emphasizes Transition to ‘Multi-Vertical’ Vendor in TV Interview

Following the announcement of new orders from Telefónica and Saudi Telecom, Subex CEO Vinod Kumar appeared last week on India’s CNBC-TV18 business news channel to discuss the future of his company. Without prompting, he told his interviewers that Subex is…

…making a transformation from a risk management provider of the telecom (sic) to a digital trust provider in a multi-vertical scenario…

My recent article about revenue assurance failing to spread into other sectors highlighted the different growth strategies pursued by the two biggest RA vendors, WeDo and Subex. WeDo were overtly courting organizations in other sectors, including energy and healthcare, as recently as 2016. They sought to educate professionals in other verticals about the benefits of business assurance. However, WeDo abandoned this gambit even before they were acquired by Mobileum. Subex had been more tentative about expansion into other sectors, but this has morphed into an approach that involves reapplying their skills and technology to any amenable challenge. Describing themselves as providers of ‘digital trust’, along with security and risk management, allows Subex to use language they hope will resonate with customers in many sectors, instead of trying to teach them how to emulate telcos.

Kumar also talked about Subex being ‘front-runners’ in the field of IoT security, but admitted that the bulk of Subex’s revenues still currently come from telcos. He then projected that Subex would achieve non-telco revenues of between USD15mn and USD20mn within the next three years. You can watch the clip of Kumar’s appearance on CNBC-TV18 below.

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.