Atlantic Tele-Network Inc presented the following on "End-to-End Revenue Assurance in a Group Company Environment" in April 2011 at the TeleStrategies Revenue Assurance and Management Conference.
2. Atlantic Tele-Network
We are a telecommunications company that provides
service to under-served markets in North America and the
Caribbean. Through our operating subsidiaries, we provide
both wireless and wireline connectivity to residential and
business customers, including a range of mobile wireless
solutions, local exchange services and broadband internet
services
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3. ATN Approach
Build a Diversified Portfolio of Telecom Businesses
Operate in underserved and niche markets
Compete effectively through:
Market tailored service offerings
Superior customer care
Empower local management teams
Acquire – Invest – Enhance
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5. ATN Subsidiaries
Name Region Type
Alltel U.S. Top Ten Wireless Operator providing
CDMA Wireless services
Commnet Rural U.S. Wholesale Roaming operator providing
Wireless – both CDMA & GSM Voice and Data
GT&T Guyana Subscriber service providing offering
Landline, Internet and GSM facilities
BDC / Bermuda HSPA+, CDMA and GSM Wireless
CellularOne Network operator
Islandcom Turks and Caicos 3G GSM Wireless Operator providing
Wireless subscriber service & international
roaming.
Choice U.S. Virgin Internet (WiMax) & 3G CDMA
Islands Wireless Operator
Sovernet Vermont, U.S. Internet and telecom services provider 5
6. Revenue Assurance Concept
Revenue Assurance – the use of data quality and
process improvement methods to improve profits,
revenues and cash flows without influencing demand.
(TM Forum).
Revenue Assurance as a separate department is
becoming more common.
Cross functional groups within Finance, IT, Network,
Billing and Operations.
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7. Revenue Assurance Maturity
Level 0: No revenue assurance practices, processes,
policies or tools are in place.
Level 1: Basic revenue recovery consists of ad
hoc, manual audits – small teams or individual
efforts. Some revenue is recovered.
Level 2: Basic project and process management
involving repeatable tasks is implemented.
Level 3: Revenue recovery shifts to revenue
assurance with greater automation.
Level 4: Leakage is quantitatively understood
and controlled. Formal processes and controls
are in place.
Level 5: Revenue assurance shifts to revenue
management. Revenue assurance practices,
processes and tools are analyzed for
performance and continuous improvement.
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8. Our Original Vision
Commnet Wireless Revenue Assurance Solution
Manually driven excel based RA approach
Outsourced rating and billing vendor
Manual periodic check on accuracy and completeness
Limited budget and resources
Evaluated different approaches
Hosted
Licensed
Hybrid
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9. Proof of Concept
POC conducted by cVidya for Commnet Wireless
Early findings proved to validate early assumptions
Initial review led to internal process changes
cVidya RAP approach
POC discoveries led to quick ROI
Validated that all revenue streams required review
Provided enhanced reporting from raw data
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10. Change in Perspective
Enter ATN Corporate
Other subsidiaries were faced with same challenges.
I.e., Manually driven excel based RA approach
Business plan to share services/cost to subs.
Technology allowed for sharing hardware infrastructure.
Leveraging the license to maximize value.
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11. Our Current Vision
Common Revenue Assurance solution
End to end visibility at a corporate level to all markets
Consistent reporting across business segments
Consistently applied metrics for all markets
Leveraging the combined scale of implementation
Provide Tier I applications to smaller subsidiaries who
otherwise could not financially access these applications
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12. Revenue Assurance Guidelines
CFO and local GM’s are the clients
Whatever impacts our finances needs control
Revenue leakage from billing
Revenue leakage from fraud
Revenue leakage from provisioning
Roaming reconciliation for voice and data
Billing conversion and validation
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13. Shared Services Concept
Leveraging the shared services concept
Sharing of set-up and design across operating units
Shared Services is not just Revenue Assurance
Shared data and RA controls
Company-wide implementations
Single location for hardware and infrastructure
cVidya’s approach allowed for single license/multi-market
implementation
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14. Shared Services Implementation
Revenue Assurance for all ATN companies
Created shared services group
Monitor RA system
System Administration
Control Creation & design
Shared Services is not just Revenue Assurance
Contracts and compliance
Roaming and billing
Testing and documentation
Fraud initiatives
Shared knowledge
Hybrid installations
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15. Where are we now?
cVidya / ATN shared services implementations
RAP – Phased Rollout to subsidiaries
Commnet Wireless
GT&T
Others
FraudView – active implementation
BusinessView – active implementation
RBV – Q4 2011
Use tools for Billing conversion validation
Alltel Wireless
Commnet Wireless
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16. How are we planning to do it?
Build and expand controls and measurements
Share the setup and design between companies
Use of common footprint to share knowledge
Use integrated implementation to expedite growth
Replicate any successes across business lines
Support other Finance operations
Audit support (SOX - SAS70, Internal and External)
Discover ways to use data across enterprise for
dashboard presentation, analytics and reporting.
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17. Prepare for success
Review business needs
Identify areas of revenue and data streams
Provide risk based assessment, driven by value
Design documentation to match business needs by
subsidiary
Gain acceptance from business owners
Deliver project jointly with cooperation from key
stakeholders at each business
Provide feedback and cooperation to maximize
functional ROI at a subsidiary level 17