Testing

Blog

  • Whats Whys and Analytics

    Whats Whys and Analytics

    For a good part of the last two decades, companies have been building software solutions to solve enterprise problems either as a product or as a service or a blend of both. From getting rid of physical files, removing manual calculations, going online, centralizing operations, automating processes, to recent trends like cloud & analytics, software solutions have been constantly going through major transformations.

    But in most phases till now, software products & solutions to large extent have only looked at the “what”s of customer needs. Do they need a report displaying some data? Do they need a user interface to store information? Do they need automation of some task? Do they need a workflow to track progress?

    A lot of product companies work on basis of the motto ‘What customers want is most important’ & these requirements eventually become the only input to the product roadmap.  But are products just about that? Customers know what they want, no doubt. But do they know what they can get?  The famous quote by Henry Ford, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”, is probably the root of all product innovations.

    It’s time the “why”s take the driver’s seat. If a customer wants a feature, it is important to understand why they need it. If they want a report, the first step probably should be about understanding why they need it. For example, a report depicting the margins for products launched in past 6 months is probably being used to decide which products should be discontinued & where the investment should increased or where more marketing focus is needed. So why not tell them that directly instead of throwing out a report & leaving the rest for interpretation?

    A recent conversation that we had with a Communication Service Provider (CSP) is a perfect example. The need as explained to us was to monitor margins for different content services & television packages launched by the CSP. With multiple parties involved in the value chain, it was proving to be difficult to monitor margins taking the retail revenue & the partner costs into consideration. We were asked if we could allow analysis of the cost/revenue/margin data with filters like products, amounts & regions. Of course, we could do that. That is table stakes. What we wanted to know was what they did, with that data. It came out that the aim was to understand low & high performing products, low & high performing regions so that discounts, promotions etc., can be launched to boost sales. We said, ‘Great! So we’ll give you that directly’. We will profile the cost/revenue data and tell you where you should be launching a new promotion campaign. We’ll build the intelligence that you manually apply today so that you can concentrate on bigger things.

    I’m sure you’ve heard of the word ‘analytics’ in hundred different contexts in the industry today. If you are wondering what it’s all about, then this is it: Showing you results in terms of the whys .  At Subex, the basis of product development is the whys of market & customer needs. Our analytics platform ‘Rocware’, our virtual RA analyst ‘Zen’, our integrated analytics module in Wholesale Partner Management are all about the whys of a CSP’s business.

  • Content Settlements: Are the operators in control?

    Content Settlements: Are the operators in control?

    Content and data services are fast growing areas among CSP offerings and are a climbing source of revenues. Profits made by CSPs from content services ranges around 60-70% of the cost of sale. Though there is the occasional threat, mostly around reduction in Revenue shares due to an increase in regulatory charges, this market cannot be neglected.

    Operators are now seeking to deploy sophisticated “User Engagement” based models in order to ensure partners/content owners are paid based on the actual consumption of the service and not just based on subscription, thereby determining the actual value addition that the services in question provide.

    While operators acknowledge the potential in the VAS market, many are struggling to manage the operations when it comes to content billing and settlements. The sheer growth on Content and VAS offerings and increase in number of players in the market, content billing can no longer survive on Microsoft excel and access based manual computations.

    Although the retail billing of content services may be based on their offering structure, like Subscription based billing or event based / on-demand billing. The Interconnect settlements prove to be a greater challenge. Due to a multi-party environment, it is essential to calculate the Revenue share per party keeping in mind the margin which the operators intents to earn. Some of the common models which govern the agreements between CSPs and their Content Owners are the tier based agreement; slab based rating; flat revenue sharing; subscriber based revenue sharing.

    Content market is not a static business environment. New services are launched regularly. The on-boarding (or off boarding) of a new offering should not be a cumbersome. The ever changing contracts between the operator and their partners need the settlement solution to be extremely flexible. One of the vital criteria of the system should be the ease with which it can be con­figured in order to positively impact the go to market time.

    While future of content seems to be bright, Operators need to be mindful that:

    • “OTT players are growing” and here to stay
    • “All you can eat” usage models is coming to an end and “Capped usage” models will prevail
    • “Targeted” content era begins
  • Wholesale Carriers – What if they go beyond protecting only their customers against fraud?

    Wholesale Carriers – What if they go beyond protecting only their customers against fraud?

    Fraudsters in telecom have always been attracted towards conducting cross border (international) frauds. Reasons such as lack of any country’s jurisdiction, anonymity, cross country non-cooperation and to top it inter operator & inter carrier competition have always provided the much exploited environment to conduct frauds.

    Let us start with some industry recognized fraud loss statistics posted by CFCA. The top 4 fraud loss categories reported by CFCA in 2011 were:

    • $4.96 Billion (USD) – Compromised PBX/Voicemail Systems
    • $4.32 Billion (USD) – Subscription/Identity Theft
    • $3.84 Billion (USD) – International Revenue Share Fraud
    • $2.88 Billion (USD) – By-Pass Fraud

    Considering a well accepted fact in telecom that “Subscription/Identity Theft” fuels other fraud types such as IRSF, all fraud types in the list somewhat end up generating (mostly) international traffic. Domestic traffic involvement in these frauds is found to be minimal.

    Whenever an international fraud is identified by an operator at the source of traffic generation, it is generally followed by blocking the traffic to that destination as a preventive action. As an additional step, which is quite rare, a legal action is also carried out against some local goons involved in generation of the traffic identified as fraudulent. But, as we all know, the actual masterminds and the owners of the destinations identified as fraudulent remain free to explore another way of generating traffic to these destinations through any other operator, located anywhere in this world.

    To make situation worse, a retail operator, sometimes is not even able to identify the root cause of the suspect spike or pattern seen to some of the non-risky or non-hot numbers/destinations as the traffic might be generated by exploiting certain arbitrage, FAS or other rogue interconnect revenue generation scenarios occurring down in the call transmission. Result, the operators give it a pass all because they do not detect any direct impact to their revenues.

    But, what if the wholesale carriers, who carry traffic to these destinations also join this unending fight against fraud, with a goal of not even notifying and protecting their direct customers to avoid contractual disputes, but with a higher goal of sharing their intelligence with all of their customers, suppliers and standard fraud forums, whenever a potential fraud case is identified.

    Let us see how a wholesale carrier is better placed than a retail operator in identifying and protecting against the overall fraud chain which flourish on inflation of traffic to cross border (international) destinations:

    • Wholesale operator sits in the middle of fraud source and fraudulent destinations which provide it a capability of having a holistic bird’s eye view over the fraudulent traffic from different customers (originations) to different suppliers (terminations) and can pin point the exact destination or number series which is receiving fraudulent traffic.
    • Carrier can block the traffic to that destination or a specific number series within that destination, thereby not only protecting one customer to which the traffic belonged to, but all of them who may push a similar traffic anytime in future.
    • Post blocking, the wholesale carriers are also capable of pressurizing the suppliers (other carriers or operators) to take action on the fraudulent parties or number series involved in the fraud racket by stopping the payments or the whole traffic to that supplier rather than individual series. Sharing information and risks against a rogue supplier in the wholesale market can also help avoid supplier to switch the partnership with other carrier.
    • A wholesale carriers is also better placed than retail operators in identifying any specific suspect international traffic for fraud and fraud proofing the entire customer/supplier base through feedback. Intelligence collected through any fraud case identified over any customer traffic can be seamlessly passed on to all customers and suppliers in order to protect them from similar threat. This will specially empower the customers who are retail operators by helping them stop or reduce generation of fraudulent traffic at the source itself.

    The following figures will help understand how the intelligence flow will help fight cross border telecom frauds:

    Presence of a fraud identification and analysis mechanism in the wholesale carrier hands will also help the carrier meet the “anti fraud” clauses present in modern RFP requirements posted by the potential customers and will also help develops confidence to get into anti fraud amendments and best efforts based loss repayment contracts with the customers/suppliers, thereby earning more customers.

    Said that, the approach will only be successful when there is enough participation from the wholesale carriers around the world, who because of the current telecom scenario, are also suffering from diminishing margins and dropping profits due to the cut throat competition.

    This approach requires investment in order to empower the carriers with fraud analysis capability, which is not going to be made by medium and small players until and unless there is a huge value add shown to them or there is a direct pressure from majority of the customers and suppliers to act against frauds. And this can only happen when all the parties involved are determined for a fraud free environment and are able to create an environment of seamless intelligence sharing.

  • Subex Tweetup Series 1. Internal Fraud

    Subex Tweetup Series 1. Internal Fraud

    Subex Tweetup Series is a initiative for Subexians to share their knowledge and experience in the field emerging telecom trends and practices through Social Media interactions.

    Today, Mr Rohit Maheshwari (Sr Director Business Consulting APAC) shared interesting insides on Internal Frauds. Internal Fraud has been a key area of concern for telecom operators since long. With the advent of new services like IP Services, Mobile Money and others operators will stand more exposed than ever. Below link contains more information on the conversation with Rohit. Please feel free to comment and add more inputs…

    https://storify.com/ravishpatel/subex-tweetup-internalfraud

    Subex provides holistic revenue assurance coverage in a traditional circuit-switched as well as next generation packet-switched landscape, streamlines integration during a merger, and navigates a technology shift such as Internet of Things (IoT). Our solution meets the revenue assurance needs of mobile and fixed line communications service providers (CSPs), analog data networks, digital data service providers and triple / quad play enterprises. It drives revenue growth by extracting unbilled revenue, leveraging automation to identify revenue leakage, and safeguarding revenue streams from potential losses.

  • What kids can teach about Outsourcing??

    What kids can teach about Outsourcing??

    Let’s deal with the difficult one first – Managed Services and outsourcing is here to stay and grow. So, what does this have to do with kids? Well nothing direct, except that kids can help resolve one of the biggest barriers to outsourcing – asking for HELP!
    One thing I often notice, while meeting some of the prospects, is their reluctance to ask for help. The acknowledgement comes blatantly or subtly – there is a need to improve. The pressure of efficiency, productivity, reducing costs (or justifying with equal or exceeding returns) is mounting up on each one of them.  So, why hesitate to ask for help when there is a need? The top 3 inhibiting reasons are:
    a) Asking for help is considered a sign of weakness/failure
    b) Trust deficiency in the person who offers help
    c) Waiting for someone else to do it, so I cannot go wrong
    There have been many management theories propounding kids’ psychology. Without surprise, it holds well when it comes to breaking these barriers too. Let me explain how, with typical kids’ perspective and how business could go about doing it.
    Asking for help is a sign of weakness/failure

    • Kids view: Why? Why? Why? The ubiquitous question that drives every parent crazy is a Childs’ natural way to learn the world around her and develop cognitive skills. The kid sees it as an opportunity to be inquisitive, seek assistance (from someone who knows), learn something new and expand their horizon. The child doesn’t hesitate to ask for help  in its quest to face the world
    • Business way: Today while businesses appreciate hard work and diligence, they expect efficiency. Asking for help is a sure-fire way to achieve it. Seeking assistance is a fun way to solve a problem together and learn something new

      Trust deficiency

    • Kids view: Kids learn whom to trust and who not, either from the parents or slowly over a period of time
    • Business way: If past experience is something to go with and the trusted partner has delivered before, then entrust them with a new challenge. Else, if you are just starting, then start small, build confidence, before entrusting with bigger responsibilities

     Waiting for someone else to do it

    • Kids view: Walk into a classroom and ask for volunteers to try out something new – you will be amazed to see the numbers of tiny hands go up. Kids yearn for new things
    • Business way: Years of conditioning to be extremely risk averse has led to this state of mind. A well-planned and executed engagement will manage & mitigate the risks. Besides, many businesses have seen success the outsourcing way – there is enough precedence available. Go and get one for your benefit

    After all, kids do continue to teach us a vital lesson or two…

  • Who ate all the pie? The healthy eating approach to M2M

    Who ate all the pie? The healthy eating approach to M2M

    Sitting listening to one of the speakers whilst attending the ‘M2M: Beyond Connectivity’ seminar hosted by European Communications this week, for a moment I was reminded of the classic football chant – “Who ate all the pies?”  The general consensus is that the chant was originated by Sheffield United supporters at the end of the 19th century and aimed at their 140kg goalkeeper.  Not sure he would be playing in the top flight nowadays!!

    So what was it that led me to draw a parallel between an overweight football player and M2M?  In the presentation by Ansgar Schlautmann from Arthur D. Little, an interesting and revealing view of the holistic value chain for smart solutions was given.

    The individual players in the spread of total revenues need not however be concerned by the splits shown; even in fact for the CSPs who see their connectivity portion with a distribution of somewhere between 15-20%.  With the anticipated value of the M2M market projected to reach approximately $86 billion[i] by 2017, even this slice of the pie should be enough to get their teeth into.

    The analogies associated with balanced nutrition and how the industry will ensure that each participant will get its own healthy share can be drawn in a number of ways, so let’s consider them.

    Use by

    If we have to be honest, it’s a good thing that the M2M industry has come to us with a long shelf life.  It’s been a number of years to even get us to this point where we see on the horizon a potential explosion of new product/service offerings being crafted for the market.

    There will always be those people who want to be early adopters and will derive the niche, well crafted packaged service for their market, but surely one of the keys here is to just start thinking M2M in all areas of our lives, we need to start using it, to start realising the potential it can bring to daily routine where in a sense – decisions are made for us.  This isn’t to a Skynet level, albeit the goal there was for speed and efficiency and to reduce human error – even though M2M can bring us that.  To reap the benefits of M2M, we need to build it, we need to use it, when by?  The sooner the better.

    Best before

    Even though we can get excited by cars that will arrange their own services; highway maintenance being done based upon vehicular data relating to potholes; smart cities that will see routine maintenance programmes scrapped for self servicing provisioning and so on – the reality is we are a little way from reaching this best before point.  Now I say best before not in the context of a product/service will expire in it’s usefulness at some point in the future.  I mean with regards to when we will see offerings come to us as consumers that will encapsulate all of the richness that M2M could potentially bring to us.  It is getting closer, advancements are being made in all sectors of the industry, but to reach a best before point – I don’t see that happening until we see wholehearted adoption within the verticals themselves.

    Ingredients

    Having the right ingredients, i.e. providing energy, protein, carbohydrates etc. in the right quantity, quality and packaging in many cases are a key factor when we hit the supermarket or the online grocery sites.  As consumers in this M2M arena, will we be so different?  We want well packaged, well balanced, quality products and services.  As participants in this M2M value chain, the balance will come from the blend of services that can be offered; the partnerships that are built; being able to craft simple, yet wholesome solutions to the consumer flavour of the day.

  • Why do Telcos settle for less?

    Why do Telcos settle for less?

    What makes a Telco settle for less? Is it the budget, fear of survival in a highly competitive market or knowledge and skill issues?

    Bangladesh recently opened up the Interconnect landscape with 21 new ICX and 22 new IGW licensees entering the fray. This, without doubt, has fragmented the entire Interconnect market and has put significant pressure on the incumbents (to fight emerging competition) and for the new telcos (to have a viable business case for break even and eventually survive).

    In a recently concluded InterConnect Conference at Bangladesh hosted by Subex, I had the opportunity to interact with a wide range of audience – CXOs, consultants & IT personnel. While it was acknowledged that a billing system is important to start the operations and convert “usage” to “cash”, it was evident from the discussions, that price was the driving factor in deciding a billing platform and to that end operators were scouting for “low cost” billing systems or looking at developing it in-house. Severe cash-flow issues, as the roll-out along with statutory payments to the regulator for obtaining and maintaining the license, was proving to be very costly. Hence cash-flow and total cost of ownership (TCO) were the main contributing factors to look at a low-cost billing option. The new telcos, in addition, were also exposed to the following risks:

    • Survival : Accurate and prompt billing will be a significant differentiating factor in the highly competitive market
    • Agility : As competition intensifies they need to be flexible to adapt to market needs and offer innovative products and services at the shortest possible time
    • Revenue leakages : Bangladesh as a market is highly prone to fraud and as per the regulator more than 10% of the revenue is lost due to illegal bypass

    So, how are the telcos going to remain agile, competitive and eventually break-even at the shortest possible time? Do they have to settle for less and allow the forces of the market to dictate the future?

    Subex unveiled a cloud offering for the Interconnect operators in the roadshow. It gives the best of both the worlds – low cost and superior technology, and help the telcos be ready for the future. The cloud model mitigates the business risks and provides the following benefits to the ICX and IGW:

    • Low cost of deployment & operations : With a TCO less than 30% of a licensed/in-house model and completely managed by experts, and CapEx requirement lesser by 50-60%
    • Low commitment : Volume based pricing to fit the business needs and scale as the business grows
    • Minimal risks : Easy sign-on and sign-off to the cloud model
    • Ready to launch: Pre-configured application requiring minimal customization (about 20%) to suit telco specific needs
    • Minimal domain knowledge: With service provider completely managing the core activities, knowledge and resource requirements from Telco are minimal. They are already constrained with resources and those can be used for growing their business
    • Flexibility : The cloud model can very easily extend into Revenue assurance, Fraud Management, Analytics for future

    Naturally the excitement was evident when such an option was presented to the telco representatives. The only objection was around security (which was expected) and security is very easily addressable with the right technology and stringent processes.The “best-in-class” solution is available on a “best-in-class” service model which suits the pocket and addresses the business risks. It was time for the operators to go back and “relook” at their business case.

    After all, when they have a great option, why do they have to settle for less?

  • Why inline fraud management is necessary to combat POS Frauds?

    Why inline fraud management is necessary to combat POS Frauds?

    Over the years Fraud Management teams have been more reactive in nature and Frauds were usually detected once the event has occurred and the losses are incurred. With the revenues from the traditional services such as Voice & SMS crumbling down and operators looking for newer avenues to sell products and services, it is essential that the wafer thin margins are well protected. This has also forced the Fraud Management teams to be more proactive in nature.

    One of the key focuses of being proactive is to prevent Fraudsters from entering the network. Fraud protection at point of sales stage has got an increased focus in the recent years. CFCA Fraud survey report of 2011 estimates global Point of Sale fraud at almost $5.5 billion. One other startling fact reveals that UK Mobile Operators lose £136M annually to fraudulent transactions at Point of Sales.

    Some of the traditional challenges at Point of Sale include Subscription Fraud and loss due to Handsets being bundled to subscriptions. However with 4G and data heavy environments coming into play there would be more products, services and content sold over various sales channels such as Web Stores and Retail Centers.

    To meet such requirements Fraud Management systems have evolved from being just Near Real Time systems to Real Time Inline systems which can integrate to various Sales Channels. On receiving the orders the system evaluates various order attributes such as Location, Subscriber demographics, Type of order, Type of Retailer and evaluates whether the order is genuine or not.

    If an order is found suspicious, the request can be routed through various workflows within the system such as generating an alert for analyst approval or declining the order directly. Fraud Management system should be flexible enough to add new rules and workflows as the

    new products are launched by the product teams. Behavioral profiling can be also used to track and monitor suspicious behavior patterns on the orders that have been placed.

    Benefits of proactive and inline fraud management is unchallenged. Banking & Payments industry has been practicing these for a long time. By configuring and fine tuning the rules over a period of time it would be possible to detect and prevent majority of Fraud events. One of the recent implementations of Inline Fraud Management for Subscriber Acquisition helped save the operator nearly 2 Million $ in losses and it was observed that Fraud Hit ratio was about 60%. It was also noted that the Fraud Hit over the weekends where as high as 100%. However care has to be taken during such an implementation that only confirmed fraudulent orders are directly rejected by the system as any rejection of genuine orders can give a direct blow to Customer Experience.

    To download infographic, click on the link: Inline Infographic

  • Chasing the Elusive Business Case

    Chasing the Elusive Business Case

    Let’s say that you’re ready to take the plunge and  launch a business optimization project to make the world a better place.  You’re convinced that the benefits of the project will be quite compelling.  Who could argue the value of reducing revenue leakage, mitigating fraud risk or recovering stranded network assets?   There’s only one thing standing between you and your dream of making a significant impact to the bottom line—a winning business case!

    In times past, the decision to pursue a new project was generally driven by a combination of need and budget.   If there was a manifest need, and appropriate budget had been allocated, then it was generally a matter of stack-ranking solution alternatives and picking a winner.   Ah, for the good old days…  today’s reality is that Opex and Capex are tightly managed and projects need to sink or swim based on rigorously scrutinized financial metrics such as NPV, ROI and Payback Period.    Business optimization projects that remove costs from operations, improve the leverage of Capex dollars or manage risk more effectively tend to score quite favorably against these metrics compared to many other candidate projects competing for enterprise budget allocation.

    Which brings us back to the business case.    Years ago, when I worked for a major North American operator, the business cases I developed to get IT projects over the line were founded on “guestimates”.  Remember those?   They were cool because everyone knew that once the budgeting exercise was done, and the project approved, no one was going to come back and hold you accountable.   Remember what I said about the good old days?   In today’s business climate, defending a business case is akin to defending a master’s thesis.

    In our Managed Services practice, I have spent a lot of time coaching clients on their business cases.  Before you read this as “here’s how to overstate the case to bump it to the head of the line,” think again.  Executives and finance departments are too savvy.  Plus, overstating a case ultimately serves no one’s interest.  My approach is to gather the best possible information to produce a solid and realistic case.  Look at the business case as a tool—it can help ensure that you are pointing scarce resources in the right direction and may indicate that your original direction needs to be changed.

    Based on my experience, a well-constructed business case should:

    • Illustrate not simply costs and benefits but the expected timing of each.   It may be just as important to understand how long the project will be generating negative cash as the 3-year NPV.
    • Garner buy-in.  No, not just from the executive committee who will evaluate the project, but from the impacted stakeholders.   Do the groups most impacted by your projected Opex or Capex savings agree with your assumptions?  When they line up behind you, they can be a powerful force to help promote the benefits of the project.
    • Avoid “MBA math”, i.e. a small percentage of a large number is still a large number—look what we can save you!   Benefit calculations need to be specific, as granular as possible and have defensible and traceable assumptions– ideally using data sampling techniques or a limited-scope assessment.
    • Use a WACC (Weighted-Average Cost of Capital) that is approved by Finance for calculating discounted cash flows.
    • I could go on, but you get the idea…

    Once you have completed a draft of the business case, there are other questions I suggest you consider, including:

    • Do I have Opex or Capex dollars to spend?
    • Does the project need to be self-funded?
    • How is the case improved if there is limited up-front investment or if I spread out my payments?
    • Do I need an operational assessment to derive my business case assumptions?
    • Will my solution and/or services partner stand behind the numbers in the business case and offer to put some “skin-in-the-game”?

    Admittedly, these are leading questions.  Managed Services can influence the answers to these questions in a significant way and may just give you the flexibility you need to get the business case, and your project, over the line!

  • 5 Questions to consider before starting RA activities

    5 Questions to consider before starting RA activities

    In my last post, I tried to highlight the “revenue” aspect for RA and the way KRA’s should be worked on. In continuation to that post, here are 5 questions that should be considered before starting of the RA activities:

    1. Who is responsible for RA?  It has to be a collective responsibility across the organization where every team/department has their role to play. Being in the Revenue Assurance department, is almost as good as being a Product Manager- where the individuals do not have a lot of control on the rest of the organization, yet they are suppose to own and be “solely responsible” for the role/product in the company. Hence, aiding in RA activities is as much a responsibility of Marketing and Network departments as it is for the core RA team.
    1. What should be viewed as the tactical task for the RA department?  All actions/activities that has the ability to allow the operator to generate revenue needs to be monitored to make sure there are no leakages.
    1. What is the ideal number of controls that should be worked on by the RA teams? This depends on the maturity of the organization in terms of organization, influence, people, process and tools. Hence it is always preferable to perform a quick maturity analysis, based on which primary focus areas would be identified and controls created. Not all controls would necessarily impact revenue. Understanding the maturity enables the creation of a roadmap for improvement across the organization. Typically there is NO need to have hundreds of KPIs to monitor each segment or process. This is because of the 80-20 rule. 80% leakages can be found by 20% of appropriate controls. Hence it is essential to work on controls/KPis that have maximum impact, rather than trying to monitor hundreds of them.

     

    1. 4.       Is Cost Management a part of RA activities? Only when the RA team is capable enough to secure the top-line for the organization, should they focus their activities on more strategic objectives like cost and margin assurance and management. Revenue maximization should ideally not be a part of RA department activities.  Most RA teams should venture into this area solely to ensure they provide ample Business Intelligence for marketing and sales departments to take the information to the market to generate more revenues.

     

    1. 5.       What are the most important parameters to report on?  RA departments should look to quantify the findings from data analysis to provide view of
      1. a.       leakage detected
      2. b.      leakage corrected and recovered
      3. c.       leakage corrected and recovered as percentage of detected
      4. d.      leakage detected as percentage of revenue
      5. e.      leakage detected as percentage of EBIDTA
      6. f.        time to recover from detection of leakage.

    In a nutshell, RA is not rocket science, but it is an extremely important and challenging aspect of business- not only telecoms but across other industry verticals as well. The effect in telecoms is much more because of the complexity of operations.

    In following articles, we would talk more on RA, scope, new horizons and verticals for RA. Stay tuned.