With the introduction of next-generation services and packages, complying with strict regulations, the emergence of increasingly advanced technologies, and the challenges associated with a communications service provider’s (CSPs) B2B channel partners, 2022 saw a significant and critical need for CSPs to enhance business assurance coverage. Playing an increasingly integral role of modernising business assurance are two technologies – artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
Even though 2022 saw a wide adoption of AI and ML tools, CSPs operating using simpler methods of assurance encountered higher operating leakage. According to a 2021 survey, conducted by the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), CSPs incurred consolidated worldwide losses of an incredible $149 billion, which includes operating leakages that resulted in customer losses.
Business assurance took centre stage in 2022
The significance of business assurance is growing immensely for CSPs, and as its evolution continues it will take on an increasingly critical role as a business enabler. In 2022 we saw four areas that exemplifies the significance of business assurance coverage and the need to enhance its scope.
With the introduction of next-generation services and packages such as the streaming of music and videos, the cloud, etc., telecom networks became and continue to become increasingly vulnerable to revenue leakage. As CSPs continue to respond to customer requests for complex products and services, the need to have a system that can plug revenue leaks will become even more critical.
Year-over-year regulations have become stricter, making compliance increasingly challenging on both the CSP and client side. Achieving compliance has become even more convoluted given the tightening of rules and distinctions, which are dependent on the location of the operating network.
To reduce churn and achieve a competitive advantage, CSPs must continuously develop and launch new services. To realise the ongoing development of complex deliverables, CSPs require new and agile technologies, as well as additional backend systems.
Also emphasised as a critical reason to enhance business assurance is the CSP’s B2B sales channels. This covers the integrity of the invoicing system and indirect sales through wholesale and brand partners, as well as everything from partner contracts through configuration validation and monitoring to the quality of service (QoS) provided to customers.
From a historic perspective, traditional assurance platforms and operations were developed for simple and separate systems; however, today’s CSPs operate in a more complex and dynamic ecosystem that includes several internal and external systems, partner solutions, and complex technologies; necessitating the need to modernise business assurance. To plug the gaps, 2022 saw the emergence of four key functions.
- Active risk intelligence – Enables the revenue assurance practice to look beyond leakage and devices and include holistic intelligence to allow additional business functions and mitigate probable risks.
- Analytics-driven business insights – Provides the ability to collect, enrich, and validate data from various network sources, making it a source of accurate, clean, and usable data for a variety of upstream process requirements.
- High availability and scalability – Supports decision-making by maintaining accurate visibility of network topologies and other contextual information.
- Reduced revenue leakage cycles – As CSPs continue to evolve business assurance, it’s important to realise that traditional leakage detection is still important to ensure that significant gaps don’t exist within their current processes.
The evolution of business assurance encompasses much more, including the need for CSPs to have the agility to quickly adapt to shifting customer requirements and new commercial possibilities. Additionally, business assurance teams are being asked to take on an increasing workload – specifically around providing coverage for the rising number of risks and assurance requirements. This is especially true in the context of new business models and the services that will be realised with 5G.
Business assurance: a forward-looking view
As 2023 continues to unfold, we are seeing business assurance taking an increasingly central role as a means for CSPs to operate within an increasingly complex and dynamic ecosystem.
Given the CSP’s internal resource constraints, AI and ML will prove to be indispensable in terms of process automation, corrective actions, and prioritisation of the CSP’s biggest risks. AI and ML will also be crucial in allowing a greater degree of automation for use cases such as driving business insights and improving accessibility for teams spanning multiple verticals; reducing manual intervention with end-to-end automation, while improving insight accuracy through clean and validated data; handling massive volumes of data, while lowering total cost of ownership (TCO) with elastic on-demand scalability; and identifying blind spots through data and using self-healing key performance indicators (KPIs) to prioritise tasks.
Throughout 2023 and into the future, business assurance will play a significant role as a business enabler. However, the business assurance procedures used by CSPs must be in sync with emerging technologies like 5G. For instance, given 5G’s current limited deployment, many CSPs can withstand losses incurred. However, the fast pace of 5G implementations will quickly make onboarding business assurance enhancements a necessity.
As we look to the future, modern business assurance will give CSPs a holistic solution that encompasses high-level self-reliance, an intuitive interface, AI/ML support, data-driven decision making, and efficient risk management.
