CSPs are embracing the concept of business assurance, survey reveals
A new TM Forum study reveals revenue assurance programs are evolving into broader business assurance programs across the telecommunications industry.
15 Apr 2020
CSPs are embracing the concept of business assurance, survey reveals
A new study conducted by TM Forum’s Business Assurance collaboration team demonstrates how revenue assurance (RA) programs are evolving into broader business assurance (BA) programs across the telecommunications industry, an effort spurred in large part by the need to develop a data-centric, proactive umbrella framework for addressing risk, financial and otherwise.
In stark contrast to RA, BA diffusely moves beyond leakage and fraud management to cover assurance around cost, assets, regulation, digital ecosystems, transformation and customer experience. RA is simply one key dimensions of BA.
TM Forum members working in revenue assurance began focusing on business assurance two years ago, and currently the BA team is developing best practices in business assurance for communications service providers (CSPs) and their suppliers. These include building a data-centric framework to help firms address the new risks that come with new technologies and business models.
The team defines business assurance as something that: “integrates assurance and risk management disciplines into an overall proactive data-centric assurance framework, with the goal of continuously protecting and improving financial integrity, while enhancing business value and customer experience.”
Solotorevsky and the rest of the team hope it will because the risks of not transforming business assurance are high; operators will not be able to compete against more agile competitors or create future value.
TM Forum’s BA team conducts an annual survey to gauge the industry’s progress in evolving toward business assurance. Here are some of the key insights we found from the combination of 89 vendors and CSPs:
In stark contrast to RA, BA diffusely moves beyond leakage and fraud management to cover assurance around cost, assets, regulation, digital ecosystems, transformation and customer experience. RA is simply one key dimensions of BA.
TM Forum members working in revenue assurance began focusing on business assurance two years ago, and currently the BA team is developing best practices in business assurance for communications service providers (CSPs) and their suppliers. These include building a data-centric framework to help firms address the new risks that come with new technologies and business models.
The team defines business assurance as something that: “integrates assurance and risk management disciplines into an overall proactive data-centric assurance framework, with the goal of continuously protecting and improving financial integrity, while enhancing business value and customer experience.”
“We knew the industry needed business assurance, but everyone had different views about what this actually is,” says Dr. Gadi Solotorevsky, Revenue Guard, Amdocs who also co-leads the Forum’s Business Assurance group. “It took us more than a year to crystalize a definition and to sign a manifesto. But the big question was: Will this be embraced by the industry?”
Solotorevsky and the rest of the team hope it will because the risks of not transforming business assurance are high; operators will not be able to compete against more agile competitors or create future value.
Survey results
TM Forum’s BA team conducts an annual survey to gauge the industry’s progress in evolving toward business assurance. Here are some of the key insights we found from the combination of 89 vendors and CSPs:
More than 80% of survey respondents are familiar with the Forum’s definition of BA
Source: TM Forum
More than half have already established, or are soon to establish a BA structure and division
More than two-thirds of those surveyed said their CEOs would consider a special BA department
Game-changing tech
A key finding of the survey is CSPs are beginning to use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in business assurance.
“The use of machine learning as a standard central part of business assurance has the potential to revolutionize BA,” Solotorevsky says. “We are just seeing the beginning of the process.”
Firms can use AI models to help them understand their data and implement machine learning algorithms to improve operations and business support, so it bodes well that about 10% of survey participants are already applying machine learning in BA, while over 50% plan to.
A TM Forum Catalyst proof of concept called The Open AI Business Assurance Marketplace is showing how AI and application program interfaces (APIs) can help reinvent telco fraud protection and revenue assurance for the digital world. The system predicts events in the network as well as the related impacts on infrastructure and associated services, and then automatically responds with preventive and/or corrective actions to prevent the problem reaching the customer.
In their report based on the survey findings, BA team members said they are surprised to see that the size of CSPs’ RA/BA departments has been decreasing and that automation is listed as one of the weakest capabilities amongst respondents in terms of executing their business assurance roadmap.
“I wonder, if there´s also a decrease of functionality or maybe the work is split across different departments,” considers Katrin Tillenburg, Senior Business Analyst Consultant and an active member of the BA team.
“This is an area we need to monitor closely in the coming years as we recognize that the challenges of business assurance are exponentially greater in the context of growing new digital services that go beyond connectivity, delivered through partnership models. It will be critical to a successful diversification strategy of operators that there is enough investment in the areas that will assure customer trust”, Joann O’Brien, Vice President, Digital Ecosystems, TM Forum
The results also show a trend of declining regular use of business assurance key performance indicators (KPIs), for all KPI types (see figure below).
“This is a warning sign that CSPs should focus on KPI measurements to stay efficient,” cautions Marius Sagatavičius, RA & FM & Risk Expert, Telia, and active contributor to the BA team.
As telecommunications operators evolve and diversify their product portfolios, having a comprehensive BA framework that addresses the accompanying risks will be key to realizing the customer trust needed to grow business beyond connectivity and across complex ecosystems.
“My personal impression is, that telcos are on their way from RA to BA, to higher maturities and more coverage. Together with new technical challenges, the first steps are made, but there´s still a long and winding road to go,” adds Tillenburg.
In terms of further Forum activity, Solotorevsky reveals, “The direction is clear, but there is still a lot of work: defining best practices, incorporating them into the eTOM, creating maturity models, etc. The TM forum Business assurance team is working on this.”
For BA practitioners to get full value from the report, we suggest deep diving into it, question by question, chart by chart. We advise you to use the report as a structured self-reflection tool, and for planning your very own assurance journey.
We consider this work to be highly strategic and a key pillar of the Digital Ecosystem initiative and warmly welcome new participants. We also have an engaged an open community to share and debate with! Please check our LinkedIn group and get involved in a discussion. Or for more information about the Forum’s work in business assurance, please contact Nancy Lyness.
Heed the warnings
In their report based on the survey findings, BA team members said they are surprised to see that the size of CSPs’ RA/BA departments has been decreasing and that automation is listed as one of the weakest capabilities amongst respondents in terms of executing their business assurance roadmap.
“I wonder, if there´s also a decrease of functionality or maybe the work is split across different departments,” considers Katrin Tillenburg, Senior Business Analyst Consultant and an active member of the BA team.
“This is an area we need to monitor closely in the coming years as we recognize that the challenges of business assurance are exponentially greater in the context of growing new digital services that go beyond connectivity, delivered through partnership models. It will be critical to a successful diversification strategy of operators that there is enough investment in the areas that will assure customer trust”, Joann O’Brien, Vice President, Digital Ecosystems, TM Forum
The results also show a trend of declining regular use of business assurance key performance indicators (KPIs), for all KPI types (see figure below).
“This is a warning sign that CSPs should focus on KPI measurements to stay efficient,” cautions Marius Sagatavičius, RA & FM & Risk Expert, Telia, and active contributor to the BA team.
The way forward
As telecommunications operators evolve and diversify their product portfolios, having a comprehensive BA framework that addresses the accompanying risks will be key to realizing the customer trust needed to grow business beyond connectivity and across complex ecosystems.
“I would say that it is more important for CSPs to improve assurance coverage of advanced service technologies where the business models are most likely to be evolving,” suggests Sagatavičius.
“My personal impression is, that telcos are on their way from RA to BA, to higher maturities and more coverage. Together with new technical challenges, the first steps are made, but there´s still a long and winding road to go,” adds Tillenburg.
In terms of further Forum activity, Solotorevsky reveals, “The direction is clear, but there is still a lot of work: defining best practices, incorporating them into the eTOM, creating maturity models, etc. The TM forum Business assurance team is working on this.”
Harvesting the report
For BA practitioners to get full value from the report, we suggest deep diving into it, question by question, chart by chart. We advise you to use the report as a structured self-reflection tool, and for planning your very own assurance journey.
We consider this work to be highly strategic and a key pillar of the Digital Ecosystem initiative and warmly welcome new participants. We also have an engaged an open community to share and debate with! Please check our LinkedIn group and get involved in a discussion. Or for more information about the Forum’s work in business assurance, please contact Nancy Lyness.
