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  • Porqué la Gestión del fraude impulsada por la inteligencia artificial

    Porqué la Gestión del fraude impulsada por la inteligencia artificial

    La inteligencia artificial (IA) no es nueva y existe desde hace décadas. Sin embargo, con la llegada del big data y la computación distribuida que está disponible hoy en día, es posible desarrollar el verdadero potencial de la IA. Desde lo que comenzó como una historia interesante en las películas de SCI-FI hasta programas como Alpha-Go, que ha estado venciendo a los humanos, la IA ha ido evolucionando. La IA también se ha diversificado en varias subcategorías, como aprendizaje automático (Machine Learning), aprendizaje profundo (Deep Learning), aprendizaje reforzado (Reinforced Learning), etc.

    Una estrategia eficaz de gestión de fraude (FM) incluye 3 pilares importantes: detectar, investigar y proteger. Creemos que la IA puede influir positivamente en los 3 pilares de la gestión del fraude, desde la reducción de falsos positivos hasta la ayuda en el análisis de la causa raíz y la creación de una experiencia de protección mejorada para el cliente.

    En esta publicación, me gustaría analizar el pilar inicial de la estrategia de gestión del fraude: “Detección” y analizar la influencia de la IA en este paso tan importante. Un enfoque tradicional para la detección de fraudes ha sido a través de motores de reglas, que podrían ser:

    • Condiciones
    • Umbrales
    • Expresiones
    • Evaluación de patrones de datos

    Estas son ampliamente conocidas como soluciones determinísticas, donde un evento desencadena una acción. Los mayores pros y contras de este enfoque es que se necesita la intervención humana para alimentar la lógica.

    Por ejemplo: para una detección basada en umbrales, los humanos tienen que alimentar al motor de reglas de que el recuento de registros por encima de cierto umbral es sospechoso.

    Los siguientes diagramas muestran cómo se ve esto:

    Después de mirar el diagrama anterior, surge una pregunta importante: ¿este valor de umbral debe ser una línea recta o puede doblarse en función de cómo se comportan los datos? Ahora hay formas de que el motor de reglas se comporte como se menciona en el diagrama,

    por ejemplo, en lugar de tener una sola regla, tengamos múltiples reglas

    • Por categoría de cliente
    • Por destino
    • Por edad de los clientes

    Y multiplique eso con otras dimensiones en los datos que son

    • Número de teléfono
    • Número de llamada
    • Número llamado
    • Código de país

    Y multiplicar eso con otro conjunto de medidas por dimensiones

    • Cuenta
    • Duración
    • Valor

    Y arroje mil millones de dimensiones adicionales a los conjuntos de datos.

    Rápidamente los equipos de FM terminan con algo como esto:

    Pero lo que querían o soñaban era esto

    Ahora bien, no estoy diciendo que los equipos de FM no estén lo suficientemente capacitados para volar, pero un equipo de gestión de fraude en un proveedor de servicios digitales moderno debería centrarse más en otros factores importantes.

    Entonces, veamos cómo una clase muy evolucionada de Inteligencia Artificial conocida como Aprendizaje Automático ve este problema. En lugar de que los humanos proporcionen información de dominio o umbrales, los algoritmos de aprendizaje automático extraen datos de comportamientos fraudulentos históricos y crean modelos. Luego, estos modelos se utilizan para evaluar conjuntos de datos de producción reales para calificar si cierta actividad es fraude o no. Una ventaja es que estos modelos son muy buenos para observar los conjuntos de datos de múltiples dimensiones y medidas al mismo tiempo y concluir si el evento es un fraude o no.

    Por lo tanto, este enfoque ayuda a lograr múltiples KPI de los equipos de gestión de fraude allí al aumentar la eficiencia.

    • Mayor precisión: debido a que la IA puede aprender y adaptarse a los escenarios empresariales más rápido, la IA puede aumentar significativamente la proporción de verdaderos positivos
    • Reducción del tiempo de detección: qué tan rápido se puede detectar un evento de fraude
    • Autoaprendizaje: cómo durante un período los escenarios comerciales cambiantes y la estacionalidad de los datos pueden adaptarse a la detección de fraudes
    • Inteligencia contra el fraude: cómo se pueden aprender y clasificar los comportamientos del cliente o de cualquier otra entidad para una mejor detección del fraude.
    • Proactividad: capacidad para extraer patrones desconocidos que no se habían visto anteriormente en los datos.

    La aplicación de la inteligencia artificial tiene sus propios desafíos importantes y requiere un nuevo marco de pensamiento; sin embargo, al observar el tsunami de datos que ha afectado a los equipos de gestión del fraude, parece que un enfoque profesional de IA solo ayudaría a los equipos de gestión del fraude a escalar aún más.

    Para obtener más información sobre cómo la IA / ML transformaría los sistemas de gestión de fraudes, únase a nosotros en nuestro Seminario web sobre Aplicación de técnicas de IA / ML para la Gestión del Fraude para familiarizarse con AI / ML a través de una demostración en vivo.

    Regístrate ahora

  • Dealing with Bypass Fraud: Think beyond the boundaries

    Dealing with Bypass Fraud: Think beyond the boundaries

    Amid the fierce competition that the telecom industry is facing, sometimes we listen to stories of how lack of forethought of one Telco brings on illegal traffic on the network. This has serious implications such as revenue loss and unwarranted accusations among the operators affected by the fraud.

    Interconnect Bypass fraud is one such telecom scam costing the industry several billion dollars every year. It brings collateral damage to the networks involved, along with a massive impact on their profitability. Telcos could be imposed a hefty penalty for their failure to detect and resolve the issue on time. Further, it could bring serious business implications for all participating telcos. In the process of rampant blocking of suspicious traffic, sometimes traffic of genuine customers could get blocked, leading to customer dissonance and dissatisfaction along with loss of other business opportunities.

    Here’s an example of a Telco who suffered massively due to Bypass fraud.

    Why did this happen?

    The Telco had been massively impacted by off-net Bypass fraud, where the network of the operator was being misused to land fraudulent calls on the competitor’s system. Over time, the problem became so grave that the Regulatory Authority of the country had to step in and take charge of things. This eventually ended with the competitors blocking both fraudulent and genuine traffic from the Telco affected by the interconnection fraud.

    Investigations conducted confirmed that the huge differences between the International and local termination rates made the environment suitable for fraudsters to run their schemes. Moreover, it was also identified that there were not enough KYC controls in the country to facilitate certain onboarding checks which distinguish a genuine customer from a fraudulent one.

    The Repercussions

    There were multiple warnings and memos issued to the operator from the Regulator, indicating that the operator would have to face penalties if amendments are not made in time.

    Customers flooded the operator with complaints saying that their off-net calls were being barred without prior notice and for no fault of theirs. They also threatened that they would eventually churn out of the network if their services weren’t restored.

    The atmosphere grew so tense that instead of cooperating, the operators became more aggressive and indulged in a rat-race in trying to prove a point to the Regulator as to how better and efficient they were from the rivals in terms of detecting Bypass fraud cases.

    The solution

    With the understanding that Bypass frauds are rampant, Telcos need to direct their efforts towards incorporating advanced technologies such as AI/ML in their fraud management systems. This would help Telcos with early detection of fraud, as quickly as within 10 minutes of usage. Also, this would enable telcos to identify the various hidden complex patterns that otherwise might go undetected using traditional rule-based methods. These technologies can also help in monitoring the changing behavior without manual intervention.

    Furthermore, telcos need to build cognizance in terms of fraudulent behavior and the locations from where they are generated. Telcos need to understand what kind of products tend to get misused by these fraudsters. This would help telcos to nip things in the bud thus saving millions and keeping their brand image intact.

    On-Demand Webinar: Addressing Bypass Fraud through Artificial Intelligence

    Watch Now

  • How Blockchain can help Telcos deliver more value from the ‘Content’ business

    How Blockchain can help Telcos deliver more value from the ‘Content’ business

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Over the last decade, the telecom industry has seen 1239% user growth and added more than 483.3 million users. This opens new avenues for telecom operators to monetize new opportunities such as content with better reach to the consumers through wireless and wired business. It also helps them with a better understanding of consumers’ dynamic and ever-changing preferences. With the pandemic forcing people to the new normal of work from home, the content business has seen a sharp rise as people spend more time-consuming OTT services. Hence ‘Content’ is one of the favorite lines of business to expand. But monetizing the content partnerships is not as easy as the traditional interconnect partnerships. The content settlement models are dynamic and complex, and each partner can have a different settlement model, making it difficult for operators to achieve efficiency.

    It’s all about Content, Content, & Content…

    With lockdown restrictions in place, access to concerts, live shows, theatres, and other entertainment sources have been curbed, which brings in a lot of scope for Telcos to fill in customers’ entertainment hunger by enabling access over the internet. A big spike for OTT services has led to a huge increase in revenue for streaming video platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HULU, Disney+, HBO+. Partnerships models with television channels like Vodafone Play with 300 Live channels and VoD services have made the content more accessible, especially for the customers from growing economies like India.

    But this opportunity has come with its complexities – Telcos, now, cannot afford to be lax when it comes to managing multiple solutions for myriad combinations for its evolving customers. It needs to move beyond its traditional aggregator-based content partnership to more direct engagement, including its customers, to create innovative content and sell on the telco platform. The below image covers some of the known and some to-be partnership models of a Telco:

    With Telco (as Digital Service Provider) as a direct partnership with content creators (individual or companies), it can take care of some of the major challenges of Content Creators (in any form) like time spent for an exclusive distribution contract, revenue sharing (of content aggregator approx. 40% margin) and time to market.

    On the other side, Telcos wants to remove the dependency on intermediators or Content Aggregator platforms. Additionally, Telco can use its position to make some of its consumers/subscribers as Partners like an App Developer in Play Store or use this opportunity to convert its subscribers to provide innovative content or content review.

    Furthermore, Telco can carve Values Adds for its niche category to access Chatrooms with Celebrity and Personalities, and more such live marketplace opportunities with premium prices. This brings in loyalty and revenue to Telcos and keeps its consumers engaged over the network. And to mention a WIN-WIN arrangement for both Content Creator and Telco.

    Good collaboration leads everywhere

    And to bring trust and automation factors for these Partnership Models we discussed, Operators can leverage the advanced version of Blockchain Technology. Alvin Toffler said, ‘The great growling engine of change is Technology’ and Blockchain happens to bring that transformation in the Telecommunications domain.

    Blockchain technology has been around for more than a decade but recently started picking pace across industries for its transformational potential. Blockchain resolves a lot of solution complexity from ‘what to bill’ to ‘how to pay’ using a centralized, integrated, and trusted network.

    The Power Couple – Blockchain & Content

    Blockchain and Content strongly complement and supplement each other, making them a power couple. Below are some of the cases.

    Blockchain, as you see and know, will help the Telco to monetize the Content Platform. It can help get rid of Aggregator intermediaries, bringing to the table the most important and valuable propositions – Uncomplicated Business, Right Governance, and Trust. Beginning from Smart Contracts till Reconciliation, Blockchain complements and drives the common objectives. Here, the idea is to monetize blockchain technology to achieve a simple, governed, and secure platform to deploy a complete ecosystem of Content, managing its content partners till settlement and dispute over a unified solution.

    Learn how our Blockchain-based Settlements solution can help your organization

    Schedule A Demo!

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  • Top 3 mind-boggling views on the evolving nature of Revenue Assurance

    Top 3 mind-boggling views on the evolving nature of Revenue Assurance

    Now that I have your attention, I’ll move to the actual topic. Ever since I’ve started heading up the Revenue Assurance product line at Subex, one question has inevitably been asked by almost everyone I meet – What would the RA product look like <Insert preferred number> years from now?

    Don’t get me wrong – this is exactly the kind of conversation that I find stimulating. I find that letting your imagination run wild actually helps you find the perfect, ideal solution. Now from that point on, it’s a matter of identifying the key roadblocks and challenges and trying to overcome each one – or finding an insurmountable one, which means we go back to redefining the end-state.

    In my thought journeys so far, I have three candidates so far who I believe are the greatest things since sliced bread (if sliced bread was RA). Each of the following options are based on three distinct challenges which I would love to overcome, namely

    • control/influence over the whole BSS/OSS roadmap,
    • a genius level understanding of cyber-ecosystems and of course,
    • my personal favorite, the complete trust of all the subscribers of my customer.

    Do feel free to post in the comments which one is your personal favorite, or better yet, your own thought journey. Now onto the great reveal! My top three candidates (in a utopian environment for RA professionals) for the future of RA systems are:

    • Self-Correcting Telecom Stack – Now to achieve this, I only need to be bigger than Huawei. In a nutshell, this idea involves OSS/BSS systems which talk to each other on an on-going basis. So if a customer of the network is getting frequent dropped calls, they automatically get upgraded to a priority slice with the CRM sending across a “Sorry, my bad! No more dropped calls for you today!”. Another fun situation – if I see my service is deteriorated from a 100 Mbps to a 25 Mbps for some customer, then it automatically sends a message to the billing platform to work at a lowered rate until normal service resumes (and of course the message to the customer, ”Sorry John, my network planning team was incompetent in terms of guesstimating the actual peak capacity. We’ve reduced your billing rate and given you 20GB top-up for each day you see this”). I’m talking about network switches and charging platforms and partner settlement systems actually talking to each other in terms of assuring integrity and correctness. This approach would truly bring back the “customer” to the term “customer-centric”!
    • Bot-net based auto-correction – Lets assume for the moment tat being bigger than Huawei takes a little more effort than keeping your new year resolutions. In that scenario what can we do? Me, I like to take a leaf out of the IT operations world – we use intelligent agents on all network elements. Let call them Bots, because it does a little more than monitoring key KPIs. The idea is similar to the previous one, except instead of each element having a built-in communication heartbeat protocol, we have a bot-net deployed across your entire operations. Now what happens in afore-said bot-net? Well, every single update to key configuration or profile parameters is communicated in byte sized messages through the bot-net to all relevant up/down-stream elements. For example, in case of a dynamic tariff plan change, the bot at the provisioning element communicates with the bot residing on the charging element as well as the bot on the network side. The charging system bot verifies that for that particular subscriber, the rate plan has been changed and the network side bot then confirms that the QoS allocation for that subscriber has in fact been upgraded. We can also have PCEF/PCRF bots to verify aspects about Fair Usage policy, max up/download limits etc. What a wonderful world we’d live in where the only possibility of any mismatch happens when the bot-net is down!
    • RA as experie nced – Okay, so maybe building an intelligent, communicative and corrective bot-net is not what I spend Sundays on. Is there no way forward for RA software – fret not, there is one more idea up our sleeve. What if, with the consent of all the subscribers in an operator environment, we send RA agents on the phones of our subscribers. The RA agent essentially monitors usage on the network, up/download volumes, services available, billing/charging profile hashmaps and essentially any network related faults. Imagine all these device-bots (or as I like to call it, the Dendrones) then communicate with the central server (or as I like to call it, the BRAIN). Discrepancies are identified on a per device/profile/event basis, and corrective actions are executed in event-time. This approach would give an outside in view to Opcos, something which may be sorely missing in most RA departments today. Most importantly, this would significantly obfuscate the complexities of the network and focus on the deliverable – Predictable, Consistent and Quality service to our subscribers. Tres MAGNIFIQUE!!!

    Of course, these are the musings of someone who wants RA tooling to become simple enough to be comprehensive, and yet light enough to allow for dynamic expansion with minimal time to market for new controls. Do let me know in the comment section which option makes sense to you, or conversely, let speak about why something wouldn’t work. Either way this is a topic which I believe has crossed all our minds at some point or the other – collectively, we might find a new thought  journey which makes sense to all of us.

    Learn More on How Our Business Assurance Can Help You in Assuring Your Business

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    The article was originally published at Commrisk

  • Consolide y optimice su negocio mayorista: 3 formas que puede adoptar para aprovechar al máximo su ecosistema B2B existente

    Consolide y optimice su negocio mayorista: 3 formas que puede adoptar para aprovechar al máximo su ecosistema B2B existente

    El negocio de la voz internacional eventualmente se convertirá en WhatsApp; Facebook Messenger el que lidera la carrera junto con WeChat, QQ, Viber y otros que le siguen y, en general, toman hasta 5 mil millones de usuarios activos mensuales. Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype se están apoderando del negocio de las conferencias telefónicas de voz para empresas, pero incluso con estos factores de impacto, el negocio de interconexión internacional está aquí para quedarse al menos durante la próxima media década.

    En la conferencia virtual GSC recientemente concluida, las empresas de telecomunicaciones destacaron el cambio en el negocio mayorista. En general, el negocio ha experimentado un repunte debido al COVID-19, pero las categorías han cambiado.

    Por ejemplo, las llamadas de voz internacionales han aumentado debido a la reducción de viajes. Pero por otro lado, el roaming se ha reducido por la misma razón.

    Debido a la situación de la pandemia, hay un cambio repentino en la dinámica del mercado y las empresas de telecomunicaciones buscan aprovecharlo al máximo.

    La Conferencia Virtual de GSC también destacó muchos hechos y enfoques que prevalecen entre los operadores en este momento. Algunos de ellos fueron:

    • Cambio en el ecosistema mediante la consolidación de seguimiento rápido
    • Iniciativas de automatización en conciliación, controles crediticios
    • Nuevas asociaciones en comercio de volumen, operaciones de intercambio
    • Investigaciones de fraude mejoradas como fraude de proveedores, Smart FAS, SIMBOX, etc.
    • Mejorar las iniciativas de ecosistemas asegurados mediante investigaciones, correcciones y prevención adecuadas en áreas como disputas, controles de crédito, cobros, calificación, etc.

    A medida que los ingresos tradicionales se están agotando, las empresas de telecomunicaciones pueden adoptar muchos cambios pequeños dentro de todo el ecosistema B2B para optimizar y proteger los ingresos. Aquí hay tres aspectos que pueden ayudar a las empresas de telecomunicaciones a lograrlo:

    • Consolidación
    • AAA
    • Prueba del futuro

    Consolidación: una empresa de telecomunicaciones típica tiene múltiples servicios B2B que se pueden clasificar en tres industrias principales:

    Venta al por mayor:

    (Concentración de voz global, mensajería, interconexión, roaming, conectividad, centros de datos)

    Digital:

    (TV, IoT, M2M, servicios de análisis de datos, servicios de seguridad, servicios OTT, etc.)

    Empresa:

    (IPVPN, IPLC, centros de datos, servicios en la nube, servicios de Internet, WiFi empresarial, etc.)

    Una solución convergente que puede consolidar y ejecutar todos estos negocios en una sola plataforma con implementaciones de múltiples inquilinos, proporciona la consolidación necesaria para optimizar tanto el gasto CAPEX como el OPEX.

    Soluciones AAA: automatizadas – precisas – aseguradas

    Solución preparada para el futuro: una solución que puede extenderse aún más a futuros negocios B2B. Los modelos económicos en evolución entre socios necesitan un sistema que pueda generar nuevos modelos mediante la configuración. Flexible para procesar y administrar fuentes de datos de varias empresas.

    La plataforma Subex Partner Ecosystem Management puede ofrecer una experiencia de gestión de socios B2B convergente que puede abordar todas las necesidades de cualquier tipo de negocio B2B de una empresa de telecomunicaciones.

    Tener múltiples soluciones de múltiples proveedores aumenta la complejidad y también el costo operativo. Subex puede ayudarlo a aumentar su estrategia B2B y proporcionar una solución convergente que puede optimizar y acelerar su viaje hacia la digitalización.

    Si quieres saber más sobre la solución

    Ponerse en contacto

  • Top 3 evolving dimensions of risks in 5G

    Top 3 evolving dimensions of risks in 5G

    As the world prepares to see the promise of 5G being realized at scale, it also makes sense for risk management professionals to think outside the box. It is not hyperbole to call 5G an inflection point in the history of telecom. With unprecedented technical capabilities, 5G also allows for the realization of very innovative business models.

    But along with these unprecedented capabilities comes significant risk. In a hyper-connected world driven by digital identities, some of these new offerings introduce significant vulnerabilities that can translate to direct loss or opportunity loss. At Subex, some of the key dimensions we are tracking to build the risk matrix for 5G are:

    Digital Partners

    A large number of new offerings in the 5G universe are multi-partner driven (e.g., virtual sports, video gaming, Augmented Reality packages, virtual studios, etc.). While these offerings can be potential game-changers in an operator’s revenue mix, the integration points from legacy to digital as well as multi-stack environments have traditionally shown large potential for leakages. It is important to note that in the telecom industry, specifically in Revenue Assurance, system integration issues have always tracked as a critical reason for leakages.

    Enterprise Offerings

    It wouldn’t be a mistake to call 5G the first “Enterprise-centric generation.” If we break down the promise of 5G into its basics (Enhanced Mobile Broadband, Massive Machine Type communications, and Ultra-Reliable, Low-Latency Communications), it becomes easier to imagine the potential enterprise 5G use-cases. However, the enterprise has always been an area in telecom, which has significant assurance related challenges. Issues like dynamic inventory, manual contract modifications, service to billing verification, account margin & profitability analysis, etc. will only be compounded in the 5G world.

    Digital Order Management & Provisioning

    While this might seem a relatively easy area, it is important to remember that new business models would be access-based as opposed to usage-based. Internet-driven companies already follow this model (e.g. Netflix), and it is a logical assumption that with a large product bouquet, operators might move into similar models based on multi-service bouquet-tiers. For example, I might be paying $30/month for the basic communications package (VoLTE, OTT apps) or $50/month for the media package (Video Conferencing + Basic) and so on. In such models, we might be provisioning partner-APIs, activating profiles based on digital on-boarding, verifying digital identities, etc. Furthermore, the projected “self-service” capabilities for the subscribers of all telcos will create a need for real-time assurance checks, which would mitigate systemic breakdowns.

    Of course, the actual risk matrix extends far beyond the three control areas listed above with brand new complexities coming up in terms of data management, access to dynamic configuration tables, moving from CDR to signal analysis, black-box platforms, and volume & velocity of data. At Subex, we are revamping both our domain and technical capabilities to be “Beyond 5G” ready. With a brand-new risk framework that leverages our “Active Risk Intelligence” approach complemented by a Big Data ready, Machine intelligence-enabled Next Generation Platform (NGP), Subex would be your ideal partner for both Business Assuranceand effective futureproofing. By leveraging our advanced cyber-security capabilities (Subex Secure) and our expertise in Anomaly Detection (CrunchMetrics), our new Business Assurance product is the ideal application to help you keep pace with business in the Digital Era.

    Want to discuss how you can drive a profitable business in the 5G era?

    Request Demo Now

  • Rating & Discounting: A granular way of re-defining settlement

    Rating & Discounting: A granular way of re-defining settlement

    CSP’s are regularly seeking new ways to drive user acquisition and revenue growth. As the ecosystem is moving towards partnership-based models for launching new services, communication service providers are partnering with new age digital natives to bundle their services along with theirs and create a holistic value for the end consumers. But the real question is – is it enough to bring in new partners without improvising their subscription and settlement models? This article tries to provide the answer to this question.

    Let’s, take a step back and see where the actual problem with current settlement models is. The first problem lies with – clashing of Partner’s digital offering with CSPs’ traditional way of settlement. Even though partners come with their subscription or modular services, CSPs’ still rely either on percentage-based revenue settlement or fixed revenue kind of settlement. Let’s take an example to get more clarity, AWS lambda services are charged with functions run time or resource utilization. If AWS and CSP decide to partner together in a B2B2X scenario to offer cloud service in a region, where CSP’s will have multiple direct partners or resellers in the market to sell the service, the only way CSP’s can do a settlement with a channel partner in the market is either by revenue sharing or fixed charges.

    The second problem is with CSP’s legacy system, which has not evolved to meet the requirements of new B2B settlement models. CSP’s still rely on their billing system, designed based on their end customers’ needs. However, they wholly ignore the fact that they need to build similar models for their partners. End customer models have evolved so much that operators can bundle their offering as per the customer’s taste, the penetration rate in a region, customer loyalty, and more. Whereas for a partner who provides these services, there is a flat revenue share model that exists, irrespective of whether one partner might perform better than the other partner.

    The solution lies in changing the perspective of CSP’s look at Partner’s or B2B2X settlement modeling. Let’s look at the picture below of the reseller model to overview the B2B Settlement model.

    Figure 1: B2B2X Settlement Sample Scenario

    In the above scenario, the Content partner provides various content services to end customers via the CSP platform. While Content partner offering is modular, there is no way that CSP can also do a modular settlement with their partners but to rely purely on revenue-based models without looking at market dynamics such as a penetration rate for a service in a region.

    This is where CSPs need to Build Their Models (BYI), which can help them define the economic models for settlement, not just based on the flat revenue. A settlement model, designed based on market dynamics such as subscriber penetration rate in the region, time of the day, the volume of the traffic, penalties, tier-based models, etc.

    In conclusion, Let’s take a re-look at the B2B2X settlement scenario with these economic models in place.

    Figure 2: Economic Modes in B2B2X Scenario

    These economic models give the CSPs and their marketing team the freedom to granularize their settlement models at different value chain layers. For instance, CSPs can choose different economic settlement models for their content partners, whereas a different model for their DCB partners is stated in the above diagram. This will ensure that Operators have multiple models to play with to maximize their revenue and provide a different settlement model for different partners using the same system.

    To summarize, with the growing need and demand of the bundle offer, CSP mustn’t be just looking into bringing new partners in their ecosystem and making sure that the right partners are rewarded, while also keeping their focus on revenue maximization.

    Want to know how our interconnect partner settlement and billing will enhance your business visibility

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  • Consolidate & Optimize your Wholesale Business: 3 ways you can adopt to make most out of your existing B2B ecosystem

    Consolidate & Optimize your Wholesale Business: 3 ways you can adopt to make most out of your existing B2B ecosystem

    The International voice business will eventually come down as WhatsApp; Facebook Messenger leads the race along with WeChat, QQ, Viber, and others following and overall taking up to 5 Billion monthly active users. Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype are taking over the enterprise voice conference call business.But even with these impacting factors, the International Interconnect business is here to stay for at least for the next half-decade.

    In the recently concluded GSC virtual conference, telco’s highlighted the shift in wholesale business. Overall, the business has seen an uplift due to COVID-19, but the buckets have changed.

    E.g., International voice calling has increased due to reduced travels. But on the other hand, roaming has reduced due to the same reason.

    Due to the pandemic situation, there is a sudden shift in the market dynamics, and telcos are looking to make the most out of it.

    The GSC Virtual Conference also highlighted many facts and approaches prevalent among operators right now. Some of them were-:

    • Change in ecosystem by fast tracking consolidation
    • Automation Initiatives in reconciliation, credit controls
    • New Partnerships in volume trading, swap deals
    • Improved Fraud investigations like Provider fraud, Smart FAS, SIMBOX etc.
    • Improving assured ecosystem initiatives by proper investigations, corrections and prevention in areas like disputes, credit controls, collections, rating etc.

    As the traditional revenue is drying, telcos can adopt many small changes within the entire B2B ecosystem to optimize and protect the revenue. Here are three aspects that can help telcos achieve that-

    • Consolidation
    • AAA
    • Future proof

    Consolidation: A typical telco has multiple B2B services which can be broadly classified into 3 major industries:

    Wholesale:

    (Global Voice Hubbing, Messaging, Interconnect, Roaming, Connectivity, Data Centers)

    Digital:

    (TV, IoT, M2M, Data Analytics Services, Security Services, OTT services etc.)

    Enterprise:

    (IPVPN, IPLC, Data Centers, Cloud services, Internet Services, Enterprise WiFi etc.)

    A convergent solution that can consolidate and run all these business on a single platform with multi-tenant deployments, provides the required consolidation to optimize both the CAPEX & OPEX spending.

    AAA Solutions: Automated – Accurate – Assured

    Future proof Solution: A solution that can be further extended to future B2B businesses. Evolving economic models between partners need a system that can generate new models using configuration. Flexible to process and manage data sources from various businesses.

    Subex Partner Ecosystem Management platform can deliver a converged B2B partner management experience that can address all the needs of any type of B2B business of a telco.

    Having multiple solutions from multiple vendors increases the complexity and the operational cost as well. Subex can help you augment your B2B strategy and provide a converged solution that can optimize and accelerate your journey towards the digitalization.

    If you want to know more about the solution

    Get in touch

  • Your business needs a Chief Trust Officer (CTrO). Here’s why.

    Your business needs a Chief Trust Officer (CTrO). Here’s why.

    Over the last decade, the term digital transformation has gone from being hyper-cool to being overused, and with born-in-the-cloud businesses now taking the center stage, there will perhaps be no need for ‘transformation’ one day. That said, all of the transformation that has happened has clearly led to a massive increase in the amount of data being generated and used.

    Being digital is great. It brings about agility, reliability, new revenue streams, better CX, more meaningful decisions, and a ton of other good things. However, it also brings with it the aspect of vulnerability and risk, the stakes for which are extremely high. In fact, here are some points for you to ponder over:

    • Over 1.7 MB data is generated per person per second, and 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every single day. But, do we trust the integrity of this data?
    • Partnerships and ecosystems are expected to unlock $100 trillion of value for business over the next 10 years. But do we trust our partner ecosystem?
    • More than 50% of the global population is currently online. Do we trust all their identities?

    Clearly, while the transformation to a digital world has opened up a barrage of new opportunities, there is one element that remains unaddressed (at least partially), and that is ‘Digital Trust’. Businesses have realized the importance of Digital Trust, and have initiated numerous initiatives in pockets to address it, but it is not yet a mainstream trend to have an executive appointed as the Chief Trust Officer (CTrO), who is responsible for all things related to Digital Trust.

    Now, if your organization already has a CTrO, then congrats, you’re one of the forerunners! However, if you are not one of those organizations who has made a decision yet, here are 5 reasons why you should onboard a CTrO.

    1. Digital Trust is beyond security (Just CISO is not enough!)

    The common misconception is that Digital Trust == Security. However, in the digital world, there are so many variables at play that the concept of Digital Trust extends way beyond security, and goes into the realm of Privacy, Identity, Risk, Credibility, Predictability just to name a few. This means that the CISO of your organization is only responsible for one element of Digital Trust, leaving out numerous others unattended. Of course, some organizations have taken the route of naming Chief Identity Officers and Chief Privacy Officers, along with CISO, but given that those elements simply tie up to Digital Trust, it might be best to simply have a CTrO in place.

    2. Trust initiatives will become mandatory

    As more and more businesses begin to understand the importance of Digital Trust, there is an increasing amount of emphasis laid on Trust as a determining factor to do business. A recent survey by IDC showed that by 2025, two-thirds of the G2000 boards will ask for a formal trust initiative that executes a road map to increase an enterprise’s security, privacy protections, and ethical execution. What this means is, if your business has to stay in the game, and even just pursue opportunities, you will need to have trust initiatives in place, and obviously someone to drive them.

    3. Digital Trust will be the strategic differentiator

    Competitive differentiation is extremely transient in the digital age. What is niche today, soon becomes commoditized, and businesses are in a constant search for that factor that keeps them ahead in the game. In such a scenario, Digital Trust will emerge to be the single-most-important factor to help organizations differentiate themselves. Hence, a key stakeholder that will be responsible for infusing Trust in the ecosystem.

    4. The concept of Digital Trust has an evolving roadmap

    Today, there are varied definitions of Digital Trust, with different scope and levels of coverage. It ranges from covering just security in its simplest form, to including multiple intangibles like transparency, credibility, reputation, etc. in some cases. What is important to note is that the fluidity of the concept of trust makes accountability and ownership difficult. The best way to craft a Digital Trust roadmap for your organization, and make sure you execute it – get a CTrO!

    5. Trust is non-replenishable

    They say it takes a lifetime to build trust, and a moment to break it, and forever to repair it. This statement holds good in the business context too. There are numerous instances of brands losing all credibility and reputation because of a single breach of trust, and in most cases, it is extremely hard to win the trust of customers back. In fact, a recent study by Edelman shows that 45 percent of consumers said that a brand would never be able to regain their trust after it displays unethical behavior or suffers a controversy, while 40 percent said they would stop buying from that brand altogether. All this only further cements the role of a CTrO as an extremely important one and makes it non-negotiable for organizations to have one.

    So, how is your organization approaching Digital Trust? Is it one of the strategic priorities? Are there people specifically responsible for it? Is there a plan to get a Chief Trust Officer in place? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

    Meanwhile, if you’re interested to read more about Digital Trust, you’ll find some useful material here.

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  • How Next Best Action can deliver higher customer value

    How Next Best Action can deliver higher customer value

    The recommendation engine or Next Best Action plays an essential part in influencing human preferences. Whether Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, or any other major company, we use their recommendations in our day to day lives. The next best action or the recommendation engine has a significant impact on the business performance both in terms of revenue generation and customer satisfaction.

    So why do operators need Recommendation Engine? Most of the telecom operators have a customer base in millions and hundreds of products. With so many products to match with customer’s, how do you identify the best product fit for each customer? And not to forget the multiple variables that are defining the customer behavior and needs.

    Businesses can use the output from the recommendation engine in multiple ways to drive their strategy. If the plan is to upsell or revenue enhancement, the business user can put an extra condition in the model that the price should be higher than the current subscribed price. If retention is the objective, a business user can set conditions for the recommended product to have the same price or less than the existing product customer is using. In the cross-sell case, we can follow the same strategy as the business wants customer exposure to new products.

    Other than tangible benefits that a recommendation engine can offer to business; it can provide a lot of intangible benefits to customers, like better experience, simplicity to choose, and satisfaction, leading to higher customer loyalty.

    Different approaches for Next Best Action

    The most popular techniques used are collaborative filtering and content-based filtering. Collaborative filtering means filtering out products that a user might expect based on actions by similar users and content-based filtering, also known as cognitive filtering, where product recommendations are made based on a comparison between the content of the items and a user profile. The collaborative filtering approach assumes that consumers with a similar profile may have the same needs and make similar choices while in content-based, the historical customer data form the basis for the recommendation.

    There are many other non-traditional and much more advanced methods such as deep learning, social learning, and tensor factorization that are based on machine learning and neural networks to power the recommendation process and take it to the next level. It will create a much efficient process for CSAT and retention.

    Building the recommendation engine is not enough

    Operators need a clear objective when implementing the next best action strategy. The recommendation engine might recommend a lower price product as the best fit for customers leading to revenue loss for the operator. So, it’s necessary to identify that the best-fit product meets both customer and operator objectives.

    Also, telecom products have different validity, which means a customer who had bought a product with 60 days validity will buy only after 60 days. So, the model must account for this purchase gap while recommending new products.

    One challenge that we faced with one of our clients was that customers were buying multiple similar products in a given month, making recommendations difficult. To overcome this, we decided that under each product type – Data, Voice, SMS & VAS, we would recommend the top 3-4 products. We accomplished this by providing rankings for products in recommendation basket. Ranking also offers flexibility to the business user that they can further add more conditions on products based on their strategy, such as up-sell, aggressive -sell, or cross-sell.

    We are currently achieving 70%-80% accuracy in the top 5 recommended products for different customer value segments.

    Do you need the Next Best Action strategy?

    Using customer interactions or insights is the best way to identify your customer behavior patterns and use them to provide the best recommendations to your customers. A recommendation engine can help you identify customer behaviors, buying patterns, and translate the insights into a hyper-personalized approach for your marketing campaigns. The result is a more in-depth user segmentation with clarity, higher LTV, and higher customer retention.

    Here is a Point of View on the importance of the Next Best Offer or Recommendation Engine for your business.

    Download the PoV