[2016]
“How can we get more buy-in for revenue assurance?” was one of the questions that resounded throughout WeDo Technologies’ 11th annual User Group, and was addressed by WeDo’s own Market Strategist Tony Poulos, in his session on “Revenue Assurance at the Crossroads.”
As Poulos highlighted, Revenue Assurance (RA) can be an all-encompassing term, referring to any process that wants to make sure that money is collected. Yet despite how seemingly integral protecting revenue is to any businesses, many of the RA professionals in attendance agreed that they often struggled to convince their senior teams to justify the investment needed.
Poulos noted that frequently this is due to a lack of awareness of the vital role that RA plays, both amongst operators and digital service providers, with the latter having the misconception that as long as revenue is coming through the door, RA isn’t of interest. In addition, as operators shift to become digital service providers, businesses and RA professionals in particular, are evolving and finding themselves at crossroads, driven by digitalisation. It is therefore vital that we change the way we look at RA to ensure businesses understand its value in the digital age.
To achieve this, Poulos noted that disruption is essential. RA is often at risk of becoming a “business of diminishing returns,” with RA professionals so excelling at saving money that the vast amount of revenue they’re saving goes unnoticed. Disruption is therefore key in promoting the essential role of RA, both within a business and outside. One way of doing this, Polous suggested, was for RA professionals to go on holiday for a week and turn off all monitoring systems, which would almost instantly prove catastrophic.
Polous highlighted the terrifying prospect that as soon as fraud management software is disabled, fraudsters will know within 30 seconds, and will notify all their friends. As this shows, while the work of RA professionals and software may not always be recognised, they play a vital role in preserving revenues and reputations, and subsequently the entire business.
The notion of the evolution and development of RA and risk management was also discussed by business consultant and Commsrisk.com Editor, Eric Priezkalns, who talked about the need for more information and better information to effectively combat risk. For Priezkalns, knowing more is the antidote to uncertainty. For RA professionals, this means that they must invest in human skills and automation to support this, and build the knowledge needed to address the risks on the horizon. He noted that as risk management evolves to become more expansive, broader and more inclusive, having these tools and skills is more important than ever.
Only through assembling the right data, and all the elements we can in our arsenals, will RA be able to truly evolve and progress. Priezkalns stated that to help this, RA professionals must keep pushing the boundaries and including more in the scope of their company, and flagging issues which need to be on the RA roadmap.
Through focusing investment on tools and materials, working on existing designs, building skills and improving usage of data, RA will be driven forwards, and businesses will be better placed to mitigate risks, both now and in the future.