Communications Industry Group

Revenue Assurance for

Telecommunications Companies
How Accenture Helps Telcos Achieve High Performance
by Minimizing Revenue Leakage

Few communications companies will escape the

impact of todays challenging economic times,
whether those impacts involve shifting demand,
increasing costs or the emergence of new risks.

Indeed, one of the challenges many telcos

struggle with is ensuring they are billing
for and collecting all the revenue they
are due. Accenture research has found
telecom operators, on average, lose at
least 1 to 2 percent of their revenue
because of network and accounting
inefficiencies, increasingly complex
technology and delivery models, a focus
on metrics that do not ensure orders
translate into cash and lack of visibility
into the customer-to-cash cycle.
Telcos generally are aware of these
challenges and, in fact, have attempted
to solve their revenue assurance problems
through various initiatives. Unfortunately,
these initiatives generally focus on the
symptoms and do not address the
underlying process and technology
issues that cause revenue leakage.
Accenture has developed the Accenture
Event to Cash Solution, an end-to-end
approach to addressing revenue leakage
that overcomes the shortcomings of
traditional efforts and helps telcos take
major strides toward high performance.
Telcos that have adopted Accentures

solutionwhich addresses both the

business and technology sides of revenue
assurancehave realized cost savings of
between 2.5 and 3.5 percent in little
more than three to four months for a
comparatively minor investment. Such
results are welcome in any business
environment, but are especially critical
during todays uncertain times when
cost containment is a priority for telcos
everywhere.

practices, as well as identify and prioritize

the main sources of revenue leakage. We
also develop a new revenue assurance
organization design (including definitions
of new business processes, roles and
responsibilities) and create a new revenue
assurance function strategy that promotes
the function to the broader enterprise and
helps facilitate the functions integration
with other key areas of the company, such
as fraud and credit management.

An end-to-end approach to
revenue assurance

In the Definition Phase, we work with the

telco to develop a set of target business
results it would like to achievethat is, in
what areas it wants to improve revenue
assurance and by what degreeand
subsequently define new key performance
indicators that will help the telco measure
its progress toward reaching those targets.
Using Accentures established process
models, we then design new revenue
assurance business processes that will
enable the telco to more effectively identify
and address sources of revenue leakage.
Also during this phase, we help the telco
identify a set of short-term initiatives or
quick wins to resolve the high-priority
issues rapidly so the company can begin

Accentures approach to revenue assurance

spans four phases, each of which
encompasses a set of activities that
address specific revenue assurance
challenges (see Figure 1).
In the Startup Phase, Accenture conducts
a detailed assessment of a telcos revenue
assurance function and capabilities, as
well as all areas of the company in which
revenue leakage can occur. As part of
these activities, we benchmark the
companys existing revenue assurance
maturity level against leading industry

Services
Startup Phase
Assessment
Function Organization
Design
Function Strategy
Definition

Definition Phase
Key Performance
Indicators Definition
Business Processes
Design
Quick Wins Definition
and Implementation

Deployment Phase
Solutions and Services
Design and
Implementation
Business Processes
Deployment

Tuning Phase
Business Processes
Tuning
Solutions and
Services Tuning and
Enhancement

Foundation
Accenture Delivery Methods
Accenture Communications Solutions Revenue Assurance Assets
Skilled Professionals
Figure 1. Accentures approach to revenue assurance encompasses four key phases
and leverages Accentures extensive resources and capabilities.

generating cost savings immediately and

gain management commitment to further
revenue assurance improvement.
In the third phase, Deployment, the new
revenue assurance capabilities go live.
During this time, we implement the newly
designed revenue assurance business
processes and design and roll out the
relevant pre-packaged technology
solutions that support the new revenue
assurance organization and processes.

their business goals. These methods are

the result of three decades of experience
in creating and running large-scale
projects; they support the entire project
life cycle in management, development
and operations.

The Accenture Revenue Assurance

Solution. Telcos benefit from the
assets and benchmarks Accenture has
developed through dozens of revenue
assurance projects.

The final phase, Tuning, involves refining

and enhancing the revenue assurance
business processes and solutions for
optimal performance, enabling the telco
to support the ongoing review, detection
and repair of future issues that could
lead to revenue leakage and bottom-line
degradation.
Throughout the four phases, Accenture
leverages its proven revenue assurance
resources, practices and assets:
Accenture Delivery Methods. Our
methods provide the framework to guide
our global, multidisciplinary teams on
how best to help our clients achieve

Skilled professionals. Accentures global

project teams comprise professionals
with significant experience not only in
revenue assurance, but also in OSS/BSS
implementation and the broader telco
industry.

By capitalizing on Accentures revenue

assurance experience, tools and practices,
telcos can achieve immediate and
sustainable cost savings while
substantially reducing overall risk.

High performance through

revenue assurance
Accentures ongoing High Performance
Business research initiative has found that

a distinctive trait of a high-performance

business is the ability to proactively use
a downturn to improve its competitive
positionprudently cutting costs while
also sharpening its customer focus, driving
operational excellence, and carefully
acquiring capabilities and assets. A revenue
assurance initiative can play a major role
in such actions.
Importantly, telcos should avoid initiatives
that address only a small portion of their
revenue assurance issuesand generally
provide only temporary relief. Instead, they
should follow the lead of the forwardthinking telcos that have taken a more
comprehensive and proactive view of their
operations to minimize the instances of
revenue leakage and its impact on their
bottom lines. These enterprises have
adopted the Accenture approach to revenue
assurance and have generated sustainable,
positive business results quickly. In the
process, they also have helped build the
distinctive capabilities that can enable
them to control costs in todays uncertain
economy and position themselves for high
performance when economic conditions
ultimately improve.

Copyright 2011 Accenture.

All rights reserved.
Accenture, its logo, and
High Performance Delivered
are trademarks of Accenture.

Contact Us

About Accenture

For more information, please

visit us at www.accenture.com/
RevenueAssurance.

Accenture is a global management

consulting, technology services and
outsourcing company, with more than
215,000 people serving clients in more
than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive
capabilities across all industries and
business functions, and extensive
research on the worlds most successful companies, Accenture collaborates
with clients to help them become
high-performance businesses and
governments. The company generated
net revenues of US$21.6 billion for
the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2010.
Its home page is www.accenture.com.