The future of the RA telecoms market and how to guarantee success
It’s heartening news for all of us in the Telecom Revenue Assurance market that the global value of the sector is expected to increase from $1.8 billion (2020) to $4.5 billion by 2025.* The increasing adoption of 5G networks, the growing number of mobile devices, and the rise of IoT (Internet of Things) devices are all major contributing factors to this growth trajectory.
However, as we all know, the forecast is one thing – but are operators seeing this right now in their own quarterly and annual results – and if not, what’s the barrier at operator level?
The challenge, without doubt, is complexity. The more complex a telecom operating environment, the higher the risk of revenue leakage and fraud, which leads to critical financial problems – inaccurate billing which upsets the customers, inaccurate revenue recognition which upsets the CFO, and that’s before you even introduce new business models such as data-driven pricing and service bundles.
As telecom networks and services become more complex, the challenge for us, as revenue assurance solution providers is to ensure the successful adoption of cloud-based solutions, and the use advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) – solutions we know can make a significant contribution to a customers’ financial integrity and reputation.
Cloud-based solutions offer scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, while advanced analytics and automation tools enable real-time monitoring, detection, and resolution of revenue leakage and fraud.
Revenue assurance solution providers are particularly adept at integrating data from multiple sources, including network elements, billing systems, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. For many vendors, this is a complex and time-consuming process, requiring sophisticated data analytics and integration capabilities.
Pointing towards the future, the holy grail for solution providers will be the ability to automate the use of software and tools to streamline revenue assurance processes, thus improving accuracy, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.
What we’ve learned is that by eliminating manual data entry and processing, and replacing it with automation, we are successfully:
• Reducing the risk of errors and inconsistencies in revenue assurance processes;
• Reducing the time and resources required for revenue assurance activities, enabling us to process more data in less time;
• Enabling us to scale operations more easily, handling larger volumes of data and expanding our services as needed;
• Facilitate more advanced data analysis and reporting, enabling us to identify trends, anomalies, and potential issues more quickly and accurately.
What’s also a game changer is the range of tools and techniques that are becoming more readily available to solution providers, including machine learning algorithms, robotic process automation (RPA), and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. These will help to automate routine tasks such as data collection, cleansing, and validation, as well as analysis and reporting.
With all these advancements in technology however, it is important for providers to carefully evaluate their automation needs and capabilities, as well as to ensure that any automation tools used are reliable, secure, and compliant with industry standards and regulations. But dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s is a small inconvenience when we are talking about a $4.5 billion global payoff, wouldn’t you say?
Sean Killeen | Founder and Director of Business Development | Xintec
*According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, Telecom Service Assurance Market by Component (Solutions (Fault and Event Management, Performance Management, and Quality and Service Management) and Services), Operator Type, Deployment Type, Organization Size, and Region – Global Forecast to 2026″, Published November 2021