Revenue assurance is used both to identify an operation conducted within telecommunications service providers and is a common term for a similar small business unit. Revenue assurance is a proactive solution to potential or real issues with under-performance activities, most often related to billing and revenue collection.
A specialized revenue assurance department may undertake some of the procedures associated with identifying, rectifying, or preventing errors, although responsibility for revenue assurance is often diffuse and varies greatly with the provider’s organizational structure. For a company with a typical organizational split, revenue assurance obligations generally lie between the directorates of Finance and Technology, however, revenue assurance programs are also implemented in a business unit or marketing department.
What is revenue assurance?
Revenue assurance (RA) telecommunications services are the use of data quality and process improvement methods that improve profits, revenues, and cash flows without affecting demand. That is now defined by a working group of the TM Forum based on research documented in its technical overview of revenue assurance.
It can also be defined as the process which ensures that all products and services provided by the Telecom Service Provider are billed in accordance with the commercial customer agreement by ensuring the integrity and accuracy of the network, billing, and configuration across network platforms and systems. In several telecommunications service providers, a dedicated revenue assurance department leads to revenue assurance.
Industries that are progressively adopting the concept of revenue assurance:
Healthcare
The analysis of the profit margins of hospitals and healthcare organizations makes it more critical than ever for the company to make the most of its revenues. Providers of revenue enhancement tools take a detailed look at the business process and find strategies to improve and maximize the revenue streams.
These services consider a range of functions, ranging from coding to financial refund. Revenue leakage is a moving target, thanks to healthcare reform, constantly changing payer rules and disparate advances in technology and this pervasive problem continues to tighten the squeeze on already compressed margins.
Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)
Today the banking sector is giving a dedicated focus on the implementation of revenue assurance. The organizations’ CFOs’ (Chief Financial Officers) priorities are to protect, monitor, and control any potential revenue leakage, whether through fraud, manipulation, or adjustment. With the declining margins and new opportunities/services on the horizon, success for corporations cannot rely solely on state-of-the-art networks; and technology alone will not guarantee business benefits.
The recent industry changes to convergence within the telecommunications, media, and technology (TMT) industry and the advent of other players including Over-the-Top (OTT) players make revenue assurance more important than ever before for providers to ensure robust strategies and systems. The timely inter-operator settlement is also a big concern for the CFO to ensure the fund flow for smooth operations and development within the organization.
Telecom
Revenue leakage is one of the biggest worries impacting telecom companies worldwide. Real-time revenue monitoring is based on reducing the time difference between detecting fault and reconciliation. The technology, with analytics at its core, helps service providers to identify the threat as soon as it happens and initiate the resolution phase within hours of system launch.
Within a few minutes, the files collected at the source are pushed to the real-time revenue assurance system. Analytics plays a crucial role in securing RA in real-time. The complex algorithm separates the data based on a set of parameters so that anomalies can be quickly and accurately detected. Advances in real-time RA also promise controls on revenue leakage near real-time, and even real-time. RA control output can provide additional insights into each transaction which can be used to improve sub-optimal processes.
Emerging trends in the revenue assurance industry
A rise in the use of subscription-based economy
Patterns of consumption change and companies try to keep up. With the advancement of technology, the expansion of digitization at all rates has seen the highest growth in recent years. The rise of the Internet in the last decade has brought about a new form of business that has transformed the way companies operate today.
Everything has now been digitized from ordering food to booking flights. With content ranging from basic details to entertainment just a touch away, accessibility has been a problem in the past. With such a dramatic shift in direction, the importance of ease of use in product use has increased in value. This also implies that consumption is no longer limited by geography and has made content and services available around the globe.
Rising focus of businesses on enhancing customer experience
Many challenges are facing Telecommunications players from cable companies to fixed-network services and mobile operators. The main areas are commoditization and the cable cutting of voice and data services because over-the-top (OTT) options are available.
In addition, aggressive newcomers are providing solutions to networking, such as fixed wireless. All these issues disrupt communications service providers with conventional revenue sources. As competition in the ICT industry intensifies, prices are not enough to satisfy and ensure customer retention. Telecommunications customer satisfaction begins to mean more in connection with an excellent experience than with price.
Need for automation solutions for revenue assurance: RPA
In recent years, RPA has emerged in leading industries. RPA helps an enterprise increase profit and product margins. RPA is becoming a business tool more and more. The telecommunications industry is continuously growing. The 5G promise is a massive improvement. For them, robust networking and service continuity is essential and very important.
They move to RPA to reduce costs, improve customer service, increase operational efficiency, and improve data quality to accomplish future projects in the telecom industry. RPA offers the telecom industry a high degree of versatility and resilience to handle problems as it moves. Telecommunications companies compete to provide their customers the fastest, best, and most affordable services.
Beyond Revenue Assurance: The Rise of Business Assurance
The initial phase of the revenue assurance market was known for its functions of monitoring revenue streams from a switch to billing. The primary goal of these functions was to detect leakages with a latency of more than 24 hours. With the success of the income assurance function itself being measured on the value of the identified leakage, the larger the finding, the greater the perceived success of the income assurance function.
This being a model that works since the age of 2G services, entire RA functions were built on the basis of identifying leakages. Digital transformation has significantly increased overall risks for telcos and multi-service, multidisciplinary offerings, such as banking, retail, and digital content, in today’s reality. The revenue assurance department of various organizations is compelled to shift from only assuring sales to ensuring business models, extending the focus of business assurance beyond revenue management.
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