Viva Las Vegas – Revenue Assurance Las Vegas Style

R Mattison’s Podcast

As we come to the end of yet another great year, it seems appropriate to sit back and reflect on what GRAPA have accomplished and what is in store for the next twelve months. Our last event of the year was I believe, at the most appropriate place I could imagine for a revenue assurance class–beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada.

What, you may ask, Las Vegas? Sin city? How does that rank as an appropriate location for a meeting of revenue assurance professionals? Take a moment, and think again, about exactly what revenue assurance and telecommunications is all about. If you believe that revenue assurance is a staid, conservative financial and janitorial function or revenue assurance is about is being conservative, tedious, boring and uninteresting and most critically eliminating risk, then you are right, Las Vegas should be the last stop on the revenue assurance training tour.

However, if you believe, as I do, that revenue assurance is not about eliminating risk, but learning how to mitigate that risk, then Las Vegas suddenly looks different, doesn’t it? Where better to have a serious discussion about risk taking then the city of Las Vegas?

Interestingly enough, our time in Las Vegas coincided with several other events. (No, GRAPA training was not the biggest event of the season.) Actually, while the training went on, we also saw glimpses of the Las Vegas marathon and the National Finals Rodeo competition. It was quite an interesting bunch. But, venue and environment not withstanding, the real action was neither out on the “strip” nor in the casinos. No, the real rousing good time was right inside of our classrooms.

We had quite a great assortment of students in this class. We hosted regulators from Haiti and the US, consultants from Ericsson, Ernst and Young, and several other firms, a couple of CFO’s, and revenue assurance professionals from cable, VOIP and wireless telcos in Africa, Latin America and the US. As you might imagine, with such a diverse group of people, we had many things to talk about, and many new insights to share.

If you would ask me to describe this last event of 2009 with one word, I would have to say exciting! Maybe it was the hotel (the Monte Carlo hotel was very nice, possibly the best venue we ever had for our events). Maybe if was the environment, being in the midst of all of that positive energy; marathon runners, rodeo cowboys and the crowds of people out to have a good time. Certainly, a big part of it was the people themselves. This group of people just seemed to click–identify, and communicate with each other in a way that was truly gratifying to witness and participate in.

While we reviewed the usual subjects and topics, the greatest emphasis and interest focused on the “leading edge” role that the revenue assurance teams are playing in more and more telcos. What we found, across the board, was that every telco represented was:

a) Investing heavily in new technology and new product and service offerings.

b) Is experimenting heavily with newer, riskier and more creative service offerings

In other words, the real telco operations model that we talk about and teach about in the class is alive, well and thriving everywhere you turn. It was amazing to see that the excitement that people had carried over from the classroom discussions to the breaks, lunch and the after class over dinners.

By Friday I was sure of one thing, that the new insights, positive energy and empowerment that the students felt would be creating big changes in the way their companies will perform in 2010, and that revenue assurance people will be a big part, and often a driving force in that process. I cannot think of a better or more appropriate way to put a cap on our 2009 year.

Consider how the year started with the doom and gloom that typified that “great crash” of 2008/2009. Now look at exactly how empowered the majority of the telcos are, and how critical the role of revenue assurance is going to be to the success of these companies in 2010. It is actually quite awe inspiring and humbling to see.

With this, our last blog and podcast of 2009, I will end on that note–a note of enthusiasm and gratitude to all of the GRAPA members that have helped us succeed in 2009, and awe and excitement about just how incredible 2010 is going to be for all of us. We will end this particular podcast, as we started it, with a short sound clip of the entire Las Vegas Revenue Assurance Choir, singing their rendition of VIVA Las Vegas.

Until next year, this is Rob Mattison saying … have a great holiday season and …. be safe.

Revenue Assurance and Internal Auditing – Training in Kuwait

R Mattison’s Podcast

Recently, we finished yet another breakthrough-training event for GRAPA. I was privileged to provide our core curriculum class to a room full of experienced telcom internal auditors from around the world.

This event, sponsored by Protiviti, Internal Audit provider to telecoms across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, saw 30 IA professionals certify in Revenue Assurance, with many opting for the special training and testing verifying their expertise in IFRS, GAAP, FRAUD and Internal Audit.

The group was brilliant, providing excellent proof of the professional competency and caliber of the internal audit profession. For those who thought internal auditors were not qualified to understand or wrestle with complex RA, Systems, Network and Operational Issues I can only say that “the proof is in the test scores”. As is common at training events, we had our share of controversy, and the revelation of a wide range of different personal experiences and “war stories” helped everyone better understand how big the IA and revenue assurance job really is.

This event reinforced my belief that in the battle for revenue assurance and fraud protection, there is a clear synergy and need for cooperation between the Internal Auditor and the Revenue Assurance Professional. This imperative is not new. GRAPA benchmarks have shown that Internal Auditors are traditionally the primary providers of requirements, and feeders of new domains into the revenue assurance arena.

More importantly, what became clear to this group of auditors was the many ways they can look to revenue assurance as their partners in discovering and containing revenue risks. Time after time, an auditor has come to me and said, “Oh my goodness, I should have turned this over to the Revenue Assurance team immediately!” Or, “I had no idea that things were this bad everywhere. I always assumed I simply didn’t understand what was going on, even though I thought something wasn’t right”.

Most interesting were our discussions about the various ways fraudsters penetrate the environment and steal money from the most obscure corners of the operational framework. I know that I speak for many revenue assurance professionals when I say that the enhancement of the knowledge, skill and insights that the internal auditors bring to the organization is a welcome addition to the battle that revenue assurance professionals fight every day.

Too often, I hear stories about revenue assurance professionals, when after identifying risks and communicating them to the CFO, were told the Internal Auditors signed off on them and they were overreacting. Nothing can be more frustrating then to have the proof of a problem and then have it dismissed because another operational area misread the situation. For this group of auditors, and the dozens of Internal Auditors we have already certified, this will no longer be the case.

The Auditors in our class came away with a great belief in the GRAPA standards based approach to revenue assurance; specifically that:

1. The primary purpose of revenue assurance is to:
   1. Build consensus based solutions within the organization
   2. Do their job with integrity and fairness
   3. Be sure that solutions are rationalized

And that the revenue assurance professionals’ primary responsibility is to:

1. Identify risk of loss
2. Quantify it into financial terms that everybody can relate to
3. Address that risk based upon managements appetite for that risk
4. Assist in the implementation of Corrections, Controls and Compliance reporting

Just imagine a world where the Auditors and Revenue Assurance professionals are on the same page. That is an exciting prospect.

For more information about what our internal auditors thought about the training and testing, and how they are putting it to use, check out the following sources:

1. The RA-Academy – Testimonials Page
2. The GRAPA Certification Site
3. The GRAPA Peeps – Blogs and the GRAPA Voice Newsletter

Yes, it is amazing what we can accomplish when we get together and work based on the same playbook. That is exactly what GRAPA is trying to accomplish (and what we actually are accomplishing in location after location).

Stay tuned for more partnership stories and opportunities to advance your career and the revenue assurance of your operating companies.

Until next time, this is Rob Mattison saying.. “ BE SAFE”.

Cape Town – My Kind of Revenue Assurance Town

R Mattison’s Podcast

There is a famous Frank Sinatra song that goes something like this:

This is my kind of town…
My kind of town,
My kind of people, too.

When it comes to revenue assurance, Cape Town is definitely my kind of town. Our second annual GRAPA South Africa Revenue Assurance Training and Certification event was held at the base of the famous “Lions’ Head” rock. The weather was typical of Cape Town: rain, cold, sunny, warm, windy, foggy, and then sunny again. Cape Town is famous for its erratic weather changes, but that did not stop us from having a productive and intensive five-day dosage of revenue assurance. We had participants from many of the South African telcos including MTN and Telkom, and we had quite a respectable representation from other African companies as well.

Cape Town with its beautiful scenery, nightlife, shopping and incredibly friendly atmosphere is clearly a favorite destination for many Africans. I think any city with a large surfing culture is a great place to hang out and enjoy life. Where else in the world can you sit over a cup of coffee and hear stories about diamond smugglers, gold exporting and the latest FIFA Football competition all in the same conversation?

Deep Forensics and Deep Controls

There is nothing I enjoy more than spending five days with a group of intensely dedicated revenue assurance professionals, hashing out the details of how best to do revenue assurance in diverse operational environments. As usual, there were several points of controversy we needed to work through, and at times, the “atmosphere” in the classroom was as tumultuous as the weather. This time, discussion centered on roaming and the method for containing credit risk when customers who roam on another carrier’s network exceed their credit limit.

Roaming risk is increasingly an area where carriers are losing a lot of money. Carriers around the world have reported tens of millions of US dollars worth of losses due to roaming fraud (internal, external and partner based). It seems that trusting the TADIG and IDREG processes as the “final word” in revenue assurance for roaming revenue can be a serious mistake.

Many people assume they understand the process, but the specifics and details of managing roaming risk can be incredibly complex. The reason is, no matter how well you handle your own credit management and High Usage Report processes, you have no control over what your roaming partner does. Exacerbating the problem is that the GSM Association has been trying to require Near Real Time management of customers and their credit risk, but the number of carriers actually ready, willing and able to implement this aggressive new standard is far from unanimous. The result is that every carrier is maintaining a different level of sophistication and capability when it comes to Roaming Credit management and if you are not careful, you will experience large revenue risks that you did not realize you had.

One solution that GRAPA members are implementing is covered under the concepts of “deep forensics and deep controls”. These terms were created for, and are still utilized in assuring Virtual Network Operations relationships, but we are finding the concepts, controls and approaches are equally relevant to roaming cases. Deep forensics is the process of being aggressively involved in understanding how your partner intends to implement and complement your roaming credit management strategy.

A deep control is a control implemented by the partner and shared with your organization so you can keep current on the shared credit exposure that a roaming relationship represents. (The GSM Association Near Real Time Credit monitoring solution, where the partner sends the actual TAP FILES to the partner, so that the carrier can do its own Traffic, Fraud and Credit risk analysis is a perfect example of this type of control).

After debate and controversy, we were able to develop a better understanding of the different ways to implement these solutions and greatly increase everyone’s understanding and appreciation of the risks and issues they need to address when they return to their own operating companies.

I love this business and I am always impressed with the incredible dedication, intelligence, curiosity and commitment to digging down to the root of the problem that typifies the revenue assurance professional.

Certification, Credential-ization

This week also saw the graduation of another group of certified bachelors of revenue assurance. I am amazed at the rate at which people are being certified, as well as the diversity of people involved–with many people certifying in Revenue Assurance, Fraud and Internal Audit. Our newly instituted standard bank of questions has been “calibrated” and we continue to raise both the bar and our confidence that certification establishes a real value to employers for both existing employees and new hires.

Our new certification tracking pages are posted on the GRAPA site. Certified GRAPA member now have their own personalized home page, showing their membership and certification status, including courses completed, tests taken and grades assigned. (These pages are password protected and available only to the members themselves).

In addition to this news, GRAPA continues to pursue our “credential-ization” efforts. We are negotiating with several universities in Asia, Africa and North America, to offer a sanctioned GRAPA certification for new college graduates. Just imagine a new generation of revenue assurance professionals trained in GRAPA standards at the beginning of their careers! We continue to pursue recognition and verification of the GRAPA standards by a number of global industry certification bodies and work for the acceptance of GRAPA training for continuing education credit with internal audit standards and certification bodies. All of these processes take time, but we are well on the way to accomplishing all of the objectives.

GRAPA has surpassed yet another milestone: 3000 registered members. I never thought we would have that many people. Clearly, the number of people who are getting into revenue assurance is growing along with the rest of the industry. Now, we have set our goals even higher. We have members from over 1300 operating companies around the world and next month we will launch a series of campaigns to increase our membership numbers
on
a region-by-region basis.

In December, we will make a concerted effort to bring our program to North America with our Las Vegas Revenue Assurance event and our Bundling and Reseller Assurance Town Hall meeting run by our US National Chair John Myers. In January, we will launch our Spanish Language website, blog and translated versions of the standards books available free to our members in Latin America, and later in the year, similar programs will be launched for Northern Asia and South East Asia.

Yes, GRAPA is growing faster than we ever imagined, so stay tuned. So until next time, this is Rob Mattison saying… Be safe.

How Do you Certify an Entire Country?

R Mattison’s Podcast

I have got to tell you, no matter how long I am in this business, and the longer I am associated with GRAPA the better it gets.

You just never know what is going to happen, or what is possible when a group of sincere, intelligent, honest and well-intentioned people put their minds to the accomplishment of a monumental task. I had the privilege and honor or working with such a group of revenue assurance professionals in Uganda recently.

In order to appreciate why this is such a big deal, you need to have a little background. As the President of GRAPA, my goal is to bring training and certification to as many people as we can, at the best price possible. (Of course, the naïve among our readers will say, “Great, so give it away for free!”. Of course, if we did that we would not be able to do it for very long. It takes money to run an association like GRAPA, and getting people to pay for the training is the best way we could come up with to make it happen.)

This means that some people (especially the people in the larger telcos, and the larger, richer countries) have a much easier time of getting access to the training then those in smaller countries with lower customer counts and lower ARPUs. The result, unfortunately, is that many times, the people that need the training the most have the hardest time getting access to it. There are several things we have tried in order to fix this problem including web training (again, a disaster in exactly the places that need it the most) and other methods.

One of the things we have tried in the past is to put on a ‘co-op event”. This is how it works: all of the carriers in the same country or region get together and agree to cover the expenses, we have the event at their location, and the carriers share the expense.

In most places, although the people working on it tried, the politics and rivalry between the carriers made such an event impossible. Before now, our biggest success story was the awesome job that Henry Whyte did, putting together the GRAPA training event in Ghana.

So when Hawas Matta, our National Chair in Uganda, approached me with the idea of doing a co-op in Uganda I was skeptical to say the least. “How are you going to get your management team to agree to shoulder this risk?” I asked. “How will you avoid the inter-carrier politics?” However, Hawas assured me that he could make it happen. And, he did.

In an incredibly short amount of time, Hawas, with the full support of his management team at Zain Uganda, and with the support of the Zain Corporate group, was able to build the National Coalition of Revenue Assurance managers from every major carrier in Uganda, and get them to all agree to participate in the event! Unbelievable! It was an unprecedented act of coordination, win-win negotiation and cooperation.

For the first time ever, we at GRAPA are proud to announce that we have provided training for, and certified an entire country! Well not quite the entire country, but pretty darn close to it. Equally critical was the incredibly professional way the participants handled the experience. There were even some potential “inter-carrier” romances in the brew.

We had thirty revenue assurance professionals, including some Internal Audit, Fraud and I/T professionals, and we covered the entire core curriculum and Xtreme© training and testing during the allotted five days (we did go late a couple of times, but who is counting). At the end, we were able to award certification to most of the participants, with the commitment from every one of them that they would go back to their telcos and show their management teams how effective a true revenue assurance professional can be.

I think revenue assurance professionals around the world should look to the revenue assurance community in Uganda with considerable respect and pride. We can learn from their example of what revenue assurance professionals can accomplish when we put our heads and our hearts to the task of doing whatever it takes to get a job done.

I am proud and honored to have participated in this event. I hope and pray that we have many more experiences that are similar around the world, as we, as a professional community figure out what we can do, and how to do it. Really, there is no limit to what we can accomplish working together. That is what GRAPA is all about.

Again, my profoundest thanks to the management teams and revenue assurance teams from MTN, Orange, Warid, Hawas Matta and the Zain management team for making this happen.

Until next time, this is Rob Mattison saying…. Be safe.

I cannot tell you how excited I was to put on a GRAPA training event in the city of London. What many of you may not realize is that a subset of people in the world that believe that London is the heart and soul, the actual birthplace of revenue assurance.

Many of the “old-timers” from the Revenue Assurance league had their grass roots in the old British Telecom Revenue Assurance regimen. Without a doubt, those people did a lot to launch the profession and prove how revenue assurance added value to a major league telecom player. It is also true that London has one of the largest, strongest and most cohesive revenue assurance communities, with a large number of revenue assurance managers from the different telcos getting together on a regular basis and sharing best practices and “war stories”.

I was very honored to be invited to present to that group several years about, and I remember the meeting place; a grand old Victorian renovated “gentleman’s club” with domed ceilings and polished granite floors. It was cool. They were also great bunch of people.

Of course, since those “good old days” of the supremacy of British Telecom on the telecoms scene, many things have changed. BT is no longer the Lion of the industry. Recent statistics show them dropping drastically in the global standings (and even within the UK itself). The old school is moving out, and the new school in moving in.

We decided to put on a training event in the UK with some misgivings. The “GRAPA style” of revenue assurance does not especially play well in the hallowed halls of the British Empire. Our “Xtreme” approach causes many of the “old school” RA people to scoff and claim that we do not know what we are talking about. However, with our successful track record of European events in Amsterdam, Luxembourg and Madrid, we decided to take the gamble and see if we could convince anyone in Old London Town to take GRAPA training out for a spin.

I am very pleased to report that the London event was a success on all counts. It seems that telcos in the UK are facing the same challenges faced by telcos around the world, and our European audience was surprised and pleased with what they got out of the event.

The focus of this particular group of students was different from other classes (but then, it always is). The issues that seemed most important and raised the most focus and attention in London were in the areas of Location Based Services, GPRS-3G Assurance, the special challenges faced when doing Virtual Network Operator Revenue Assurance and most critical of all, topics associated with Margin and Market Analysis. That one surprised me the most, but in retrospect, it makes perfect sense.

Riding though the tubes (subway train) all across London made the issues of the Telecoms market in the UK painfully obvious. Our hotel, the old Vanderbilt Hotel, was near the Gloucester Road subway station, and we held our training at our meeting rooms right on Trafalgar Square. (Talk about a great location.) Each day, as we took the tube to the classes, we were inundated by ads for discounted telecom services. I thought African price wars were brutal! For instance:

• Free international phone calls for life with this rate plan.
• Free SMS for 3 months.
• Free DSL, a free router, free long distance for 19.95 per month.

Unbelievable! I scratched my head, trying to figure out how any telco in the UK can make any money. Luckily, the local UK telcoms market was well represented, and we were able to look at this environment from a systematic, rationalized, profit based revenue assurance perspective.

What did we find? That margins are clearly tighter than ever, and telcos have to work hard to make their money, but there is still money to be made. However, what should come as no surprise to anyone is the fact that the telcos in the UK and Europe in general need a good, proactive revenue assurance commitment more than ever.

It is interesting the way that business, and cultures and situations parallel. Synchronicity I think they call it. Well, the synchronicity was thick in London that week. The London Tube  system is one of the most famous and reputedly, most dependable train systems in the world. However, what we found, to our dismay, was that many lines and stations were closed, due to a massive renovation project underway. It seems that to keep their city moving, and growing and changing, the city of London itself is going through some growing pains of its own.

Like the old tube lines, UK and European telcos are finding if they do not take hammers and chisels to outdated modes of doing things, and replace outdated approaches with newer, leaner and meaner approaches, no one will be stopping at their stations. Nothing could be more appropriate, and more in alignment with the GRAPA message. Telcoms is a dynamic business, and a successful revenue assurance professional has to do more than just keep up; they have to lead the telecom charge. The people attending our fourth European training event could not agree more with the message we are promoting.

We have already received a number of inquires from European telcos who are scheduling training at their locations for 2010, and we will begin plans for scheduling more European events the first half of 2010 as well. I am sure that our momentum will continue to grow as more and more European telcos discover and implement the GRAPA standards.

I am also pleased and proud to announce that at this event we successfully certified our first group of Bachelors of Revenue Assurance Professionals, including Revenue Assurance Professionals and Fraud Specialists.

For me, it was a great experience, and I look forward to meeting with, and finding out more about how our members are doing at the different UK carriers (along with the other Europeans). From here, it is off to Uganda and the first ever – National Training and Certification event, but I will talk about that next time.

Until then, this is Rob Mattison – saying….. Be Safe

I really love my job! Who else gets the chance to go so many different places and meet so many different, interesting, intelligent and talented people?

For the next few weeks, I will be teaching and working in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Usually at this point, I would joke about how my American friends have no idea where Luxembourg is, but I have a feeling that the majority of our GRAPA membership may not know either.

Luxembourg is nestled in the hills between Belgium, Germany and France. It is one of the smallest countries in the world, with a population of about 450,000 people. It has a duke, and covers only about 1,000 square miles (2600 sq km). They have their own language, Luxembourgish, (a mix of German and French), and the country has recently been declared the “safest place to live in the world”. Part of this is due, no doubt, to the fact that the citizens of Luxembourg are the richest people in the world (the highest income of any nation) and also not too surprising, they have more banks per capita than any other country (with over 220) .

Luxembourg was not always this scene of wealth and tranquility. Most history buffs and movie fans are familiar with Luxembourg and its critical role in the famous “Battle of the Bulge” during World War II. In fact, I am sure that I am staying in the hotel where General Patton and Bradley stayed during a part of that battle.

So what, you may ask, am I doing in such a haven? Well, as usual, I am teaching a class in Revenue Assurance for a group of telco revenue assurance professionals and internal auditors from all over Europe. Our training class in Madrid went so well, that we decided to continue with our European coverage. By the end of this year, I am happy to say, we will have held three successful events in Europe: Madrid, Luxembourg and London.

It is clear that revenue assurance is not only thriving in Africa and the Middle East, but Europe has its own interest as well. Of course, the focus this week, while still covering the basics, has its own unique wrinkles as does every class we put on. This time, the emphasis has turned more and more to the issues of internal audit, IFRS and their relationship to the revenue assurance function.

It is amazing how incredibly complicated things get in our business. The good old days of “revenue is revenue” have been overtaken by oceans of regulations and laws that define what revenue is, what it is not and the myriad different ways that it can be computed, counted, collected and credited depending upon dozens of factors.

Yes, the simplistic revenue assurance professional of yesterday, who could simply count CDRs and let the managers worry about the rest are quickly fading to the background. Today’s revenue assurance professional must be part accountant, part I/T, part operations and part detective.

I am gratified to find that since the publishing of our 2009 standards, the financial community at large, and especially the audit community has responded with enthusiasm to the GRAPA message. Our principles of rationalization, integrity and consensus, and our insistence upon the positioning of revenue assurance as the partner and supporter of internal audit have resulted in a deluge of internal audit interest in training and certification.

In fact, over the next two months we are scheduled to train and certify over 35 internal and external auditors from a wide variety of operating companies and consulting firms across SE Asia, Africa, The Middle East, Europe and South America. This trend is one we hope to continue in the coming months and we are redoubling our efforts to gain official sanction from audit certification organizations so that auditors can get continuing education credit for their attendance at these events.

As well, I have continued my status as a member in good standing with the IIA, the Institute of Internal Auditors. No, I am not planning on defecting and becoming an Auditor. I just think that it is critical that we, as revenue assurance professionals, understand and find ways to work with and support our “brothers and sisters” in the battle to support telco financial integrity and fraud/revenue loss in all of its forms.

You can immediately tell the difference between the RA people and the IA people in the classroom. The Auditors, of course, are wearing conservative suits, ties and well-shined shoes. Their biggest concerns are fraud prevention and determining whether the correct controls and procedures are in place. The RA people are a bit more relaxed and informal, but share the same dedication to detail, completeness and getting to the heart of the problem.

The class started out, as it usually does, with many questions about territoriality and responsibility. “Who is going to be responsible for what,” and other such issues were the first thing we hashed out. After that, the tone of the class changed. We began the journey of discovering that there is more than enough work for everyone, and that territorial squabbles do nothing more than slow everyone down and distract us from the huge job that we face; figuring out how best to assure and secure telecom revenues in this crazy ever-changing world. By the end of the class, everyone agreed that there was a lot more work ahead of them and that by working together, everyone would benefit.

This process of consensus building and the development of a shared, cooperative and proactive vision of how we can all work together to accomplish our goals is a real benchmark of the training classes we deliver, and we hope to be able to continue this activity for some time to come.

For the rest of this year we have already scheduled training and certification events for London, Cape Town, Dubai, Kuwait, Mexico, and Jamaica. We will be finishing off the year with our last event of 2009 in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada.

That is enough rambling for this week. You know, I cannot help thinking about the fact that the people here have so much money, and are so safe, and that one of the reasons they have been so successful, is because they have focused on their own personal brand of revenue assurance. With that thought to inspire me, I look forward to a week of walking down cobblestone streets, passing by castles, farmhouses and picturesque rural vistas on my way to work, and feeling a real sense of safety and assurance–not just because I am in Luxembourg, but because I know that the job that we are doing is helping telcos around the world secure their revenues and improve their profit positions.

Stay safe,
Rob