{"id":15332,"date":"2018-02-02T14:55:15","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T09:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.subex.com\/?p=15332"},"modified":"2018-02-02T14:55:15","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T09:25:15","slug":"assurance-by-any-other-name-reflections-on-rag-sydney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.enki.studio\/test\/?p=15332","title":{"rendered":"Assurance by any other name\u2026 reflections on RAG Sydney"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my role leading business solution consulting for Subex Network Analytics, I traverse a lot of time zones.\u00a0 People assume I have sage advice and perhaps an elixir to cure jet lag.\u00a0 Sadly, I slog through the transitions like everyone else, employing a variety of coping strategies.\u00a0\u00a0 I just read about an intriguing approach that some members of the US ski jumping team will use at the Winter Olympics.\u00a0 They are embracing<\/em> jet lag, purposefully showing up just days prior to competitions.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 For them, it is best not to think too much as they soar into the abyss.\u00a0 Being in a foggy state may be an asset for some, but the rest of us still need to find ways to stay on our game as we trot the globe!<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I managed to keep my edge for the Risk and Assurance Group (RAG) conference in Sydney, after traveling 18-time zones to get there.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a very worthwhile event, held on the Optus campus, with a good mix of operators and vendor partners.\u00a0\u00a0 Anamitra Mukherjee (Optus) delivered the keynote and provided material examples of how his team is challenging the traditional boundaries of RA, branching into areas such as handset assurance and network assurance.\u00a0 Members of his team, Sujith Dissanayake and Gihan Samarawickrama, provided more insights on handset assurance during their talk later in the conference.\u00a0\u00a0 Anamitra explained that Network Assurance enables operators to determine whether they are spending the \u201cright dollars\u201d on the network.\u00a0 Are there opportunities for cost savings such as harvesting unused assets and redeploying them?\u00a0\u00a0 He went on to describe the benefits of reconciling the fixed asset register against the physical network.\u00a0 Payoffs include better asset visibility, more accurate depreciation schedules and efficient tax strategies.\u00a0 Calculating the profitability of cell sites is another area his team is exploring.<\/p>\n

From Anamitra\u2019s talk one got the sense that it is time for operators to ask: \u201cIs there more to assurance<\/em> than RA?\u201d\u00a0 The consensus at the event was a resounding \u201cyes\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 This was a major topic of discussion.\u00a0 Eric Priezkalns, one of the event organizers, expands nicely on this theme in his blog post<\/a> about the event.\u00a0\u00a0 Jayne Hunter of Vodafone Hutchison Australia explained that her role has migrated from RA to Margin Assurance.\u00a0 \u00a0Darren Rinaldi of Foxtel described how his team performs \u201centitlement reconciliation\u201d within the broader context of process assurance.\u00a0 \u00a0Geoff Ibbett from RRM Solutions chimed in with the importance of contract assurance during a panel discussion.\u00a0 I could go on but you get the idea\u2026<\/p>\n

To the list of assurances, I joined the party and added device assurance. \u00a0Subex is observing that usage-based frauds have been in decline (although IRSF continues to be popular) and there has been a sharp uptick in device and equipment issues.\u00a0 Device\/equipment frauds, thefts, reverse logistics breakdowns, etc. are becoming endemic.\u00a0\u00a0 During my talk, I pointed out that such issues are not limited to mobile handsets.\u00a0 CPEs, set top boxes and even small cells can be considered devices and all have their own risks to mitigate.\u00a0 To this mix you can add vCPEs and the need to control for excess license costs.<\/p>\n

There certainly is a new world of assurances to contemplate.\u00a0 In my book, there is only one missing.\u00a0 Any takers for jet lag assurance?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my role leading business solution consulting for Subex Network Analytics, I traverse a lot of time zones.\u00a0 People assume I have sage advice and perhaps an elixir to cure jet lag.\u00a0 Sadly, I slog through the transitions like everyone else, employing a variety of coping strategies.\u00a0\u00a0 I just read about an intriguing approach that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[217,16],"tags":[17,105],"class_list":["post-15332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-credit-risk-management","category-revenue-assurance","tag-revenue-assurance","tag-risk-management"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.enki.studio\/test\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.enki.studio\/test\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.enki.studio\/test\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.enki.studio\/test\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.enki.studio\/test\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.enki.studio\/test\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.enki.studio\/test\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.enki.studio\/test\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.enki.studio\/test\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.enki.studio\/test\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}