Business complexities. Revenue opportunities.IBM Revenue Assurance Solution for Telecommunications Industry

IBM Business Consulting Services

deeper

Capturing revenue during a time of slow growthThe idea of competitive advantage has

undergone a radical change in the

telecommunications industry over the

last few years. Back when companies

were seeing double-digit growth, the

advantage went to those who could

lure the most new customers with

the best new offers. While this is still

important, and while the competition

to gain and retain customers is still

tight, slowing growth has compelled

companies to seek revenue from new

sources that they can better infl uence

and control. As a result, revenue-

capturing and cost-saving measures

are emerging as some of the most

effective ways for telecom businesses

to fi nd a competitive edge in a

challenging economy.

If you’re like many telecoms, your

existing processes are probably

“leaking” revenue, meaning that

systems and processes across

your business do not enable you

to collect all of the revenue you are

entitled to. Points of revenue leakage

exist in all areas across the service

cycle. Leakage occurs because

of ineffective or outdated processes,

with revenue being mishandled or

simply lost in the shuffl e of increasingly

complex interconnect agreements. A

number of factors contribute to revenue

leakage. Chief among them are the

high operational costs for maintaining

a billing support system (BSS) and

an operational support system (OSS)

across disparate systems connected

by custom applications and manual

processes. Systems are simply being

used for purposes other than those for

which they were designed, with bundled

products and data products becoming

increasingly intricate. In addition to the

technical complexity, business processes

cut across functional boundaries and

are prone to the error inherent in manual

handoff operations. The human factor is

another part of the equation: with people

leaving or switching jobs, the roles they

play in preventing revenue leakage are

sometimes abandoned.

Identifying revenue leakage throughout

the quote-to-cash cycle—then making

the necessary changes to retain and

capture that revenue—is not just good for

business; it’s critical to meet regulatory

billing accuracy requirements.

Connecting you with a comprehensive solution The challenges are there. And so are

the opportunities to streamline your

operations and realize real business

value. The IBM Revenue Assurance

Solution for Telecommunications

Industry delivered by IBM Business

Consulting Services can help you

realize that value. IBM has the breadth

of experience and deep industry

knowledge to help you more fully

detect and prevent revenue leakages

and cost ineffi ciencies. From processes

to systems and enterprise management

to billing, we have the tools and

know-how to help you regain and

improve your fi nancial controls, and to

implement them in self-funding cycles.

IBM can enable your business to

implement the changes to people,

processes and infrastructure that

can help you reach a new level of

responsiveness, gain the agility and

capabilities that can help you improve

your efforts for retaining customers,

enable more effective revenue

capture, navigate the complexities of

interconnect agreements and meet

Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.

What is revenue assurance?The IBM Revenue Assurance Solution is

designed for the specifi c requirements of

the telecom industry and is aimed at:

• Improving revenue generation:

focusing on pre-contract areas such

as customer churn, and pricing and

credits for improved revenue stability,

including accurate, timely billing

followed by a thorough collection

process

• Preventing revenue leakage and

reducing operating costs: improving

effi ciency at all points along the quote-

to-cash cycle

• Enhancing cash fl ow: by billing

accurately on a timely basis and

improving the effectiveness of cash

collection processes.

IBM has the broad capability to offer

a truly integrated revenue assurance

solution that is designed to encompass

the various facets of your business

transformation, from strategy, process

and open standards-based telecom and

information technology (IT) architecture

to outsourcing and fi nancing. We provide

revenue assurance solutions that address

your needs across the entire revenue

value chain, as opposed to specifi c

points within the process.

In providing a solution, we take a

holistic look at processes, systems and

organizational aspects of your revenue

value chain. We help you fi nd the

revenue assurance solutions that can

realize value quickly. IBM combines the

revenue assurance expertise, systems,

process and organizational skills with

the ability to integrate the solutions

together. Additionally, IBM complements

these skills by bringing together software

vendors that deliver telecom-specifi c

revenue assurance software tools and

solutions. And IBM can integrate these

comprehensive solutions across the

enterprise.

Some of the areas addressed by

the IBM Revenue Assurance

Solution include:

• Timely recording of contract changes

to help prevent incorrect pricing,

erroneous billing and high numbers

of issued credits—and to prevent

accounts from being under-billed,

uncollected or not billed at all

• Centralized management for

handling, tracking and storing

disputes and reconciliation issues

• Timely and accurate reporting and

audit trails

• Improved provisioning, order

management and contract

management

• A single view of data, including:

- Accounts receivables and

collection data, enabling

proactive management of

troubled accounts, more effective

collection efforts and the ability to

source customer billing records

- Customer data that enhances

customer service and marketing

efforts with key performance

indicators (KPIs)

• Support for transaction posting

from general ledger/sub-ledger to

accounts receivables to prevent

long processing times and

inconsistent dunning, payment and

collections cycles

• Reconciliation of circuits in use to

circuits being paid

• Review of billing system controls to

identify and fi x weaknesses.

Integration across the BSS/OSSThe IBM Revenue Assurance Solution

is part of the IBM Cost Optimization

and Strategic Transformation (C.O.S.T.)

portfolio of solutions. IBM C.O.S.T.

solutions and services for telecom

focus on simplifying the value

chains associated with customer

relationship management (CRM),

procurement, operations management,

network management and enterprise

management, including human

resources (HR), fi nancial management

(FM) and IT value management.

C.O.S.T. follows a top-down approach,

determining the potential for process,

activity and task improvements, and then

drives those improvements through your

key fi nancial metrics.

Delivering an end-to-end, integrated

approach from start to fi nish

IBM Revenue Assurance capabilities

optimize the benefi ts of your integrated

solution by applying a comprehensive

process understanding. We deliver

both business process and IT

capabilities, and our consulting covers

revenue assurance strategy, process,

business performance metrics and

organization change management.

We make a thorough assessment of

systems capabilities across networks,

middleware, hardware and software,

and our ability to provide outsourcing

services and fi nancing help you

keep your resources focused on your

business, rather than operating and

maintaining your IT systems. It all

enables better integration of business

processes, organizations, business

performance management and IT

systems—truly a business transformation.

We take advantage of the IBM Service

Provider Delivery Environment (SPDE)

framework, an architecture designed to

facilitate integration among disparate and

heterogeneous systems and different

point solutions, such as SAP Revenue

Management Contract Accounting

(SAP RM-CA) and Amdocs billing

software. SPDE’s fl exible and open

telecom and IT standards-based

approach supports multiple third-party

and legacy systems and was specifi cally

developed and tested to support telecom

applications. SPDE provides horizontal

integration of people, processes and

technology specifi c to the telecom

industry, achieved through a customized

and tested business process and

framework. The collection of software,

hardware and services helps to drive

revenue, cost and profi tability.

We use the IBM Telecom Data Warehouse

tool as necessary to consolidate and

rationalize various data marts, making

them more effective for users. It’s one

more way we’re able to provide a tightly

integrated solution.

Our alliances with various point solution

and telecom independent software

vendors (ISVs) can help you implement

a comprehensive revenue assurance

solution quickly and successfully across

areas that include:

o Billing—ADC, Portal Software, Inc.,

Amdocs, Convergys Corporation

o Provisioning—Syndesis, Architel

Systems Corporation, Nightfi re

Software Inc.

o Mediation—XACCT Technologies,

Intec Telecom Systems PLC, Comptel

Corporation

o SPDE—The SPDE Global Partner

Network (GPN) features telecom-

independent software vendors (ISVs)

that have recognized the value of

the SPDE architecture in the telecom

environment. Many offer software

solutions along the quote-to-cash

cycle, including edocs, Inc.,

KANA, Micromuse Inc., Nightfi re

Software Inc., PeopleSoft Inc., Portal

Software, Inc., Siebel Systems, Inc.,

Spirent plc, Telcordia Technologies, Inc.

and TeleManagement Technologies

Inc. (TTI), as well as other non-GPN

partners such as Amdocs, MDSI

Mobile Data Solutions Inc., SAP AG

and Zvolve Systems, Inc.

Identifying and quantifying issues

and root causes within the revenue

process

When you work with IBM, you get off to

a quick start. Implementing the Revenue

Assurance Solution begins with reviewing

the list of issues that your business

commonly encounters across the telecom

quote-to-cash cycle and determining

how they impact your company. During

our initial assessment phase we use our

Rapid Diagnostic tool to quickly identify

and quantify your most pressing issues

through a series of targeted questions. The

process is tailored to the specifi c needs

of your business, always staying purpose-

focused. Our Rapid Diagnostic tool

includes data requests for developing the

right KPI measures, giving you the ability

to continually monitor the effectiveness of

your solution.

In the second stage, we use Telecom

Insight, an analytical tool with pre-built

data models tailored to the telecom

industry. Telecom Insight helps us

rapidly identify data issues based

on predetermined reconciliations.

The entire process works to pinpoint

your sources of revenue leakage

and to help develop an effective,

customized solution.

Implementing with self-funding

cycles in mind

The IBM Revenue Assurance Solution

is designed with time-to-value in mind.

We start by identifying quick ways to

deliver savings through process and

organizational changes—savings that

can be used, in turn, to fund your next

round of initiatives.

Our solution is built to address the

entire cycle. By quantifying the

tangible and intangible benefi ts, we

can prioritize how the processes and

systems are implemented. This is

designed so subsequent solutions can

work together in ways that help you

capitalize on your initial investment.

Industry expertise. IT know-how.The comprehensive and holistic

Revenue Assurance Solution from IBM

addresses the quote-to-cash process

in its entirety. Our comprehensive

approach is designed to provide the

various components required for a truly

integrated revenue assurance solution

across strategy and process, with

open-standards-based telecom and

IT architecture, including outsourcing

and fi nancing.

The IBM Revenue Assurance

Solution is based on our industry

expertise, knowledge and investment

in developing telecom-specifi c

solutions. We have worked with every

telecom company in the Fortune 100,

bringing us extensive experience in

implementing systems and solutions,

both as a systems integrator and as

a prime contractor. With a customer

list that includes a number of telecom

giants, we have the strength and

experience to handle engagements of

every size and level of complexity.

IBM industry success By addressing inventory issues, IBM has helped a major European telecommunications

company produce ongoing revenue recovery in excess of US$1.5 million per month since

September 2002.

Through our association with IBM

Network Innovation Labs and

the IBM Network Innovation Services

Center of Competence, we have

access to thought leaders, IT

architects and market experts

throughout the extensive telecom

community. And we’re able to deliver

this leadership and expertise to you

with help from our extensive network

of IBM Business Partners.

As part of IBM Business Consulting

Services, the IBM Revenue Assurance

Solution for Telecommunications

Industry is brought to you with a

deep understanding of the business

processes and organizations specifi c to

your telecom enterprise. We can help you

affect and manage needed change by

implementing the right systems, processes

and people.

IBM brings you our capabilities for fusing

business and IT in your enterprise, and

helps you move toward realizing the IBM

vision for e-business on demand™;

an enterprise whose business processes

—integrated end-to-end across the

company and with key partners, suppliers

and customers—can respond with fl exibility

and speed to virtually any customer

demand, market opportunity or external

threat.

Put IBM to work for youTo learn more about what the IBM

Revenue Assurance Solution for

Telecommunications Industry or IBM

Business Consulting Services can do to

help your business, please contact your

IBM sales representative, or visit:

ibm.com/bcs

G510-3636-00

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