Revenue Assurance - Maturity of Revenue Assurance

Maturity of Revenue Assurance

There is no formal maturity model for Revenue Assurance which is universally accepted. However the Revenue Assurance processes can be pegged against a generic five stage maturity model. The five stages are listed below and are described in terms of a Revenue Assurance Strategy, People, Process and technological advances.

• Initial: At this level that they are (typically) un-documented and in a state of dynamic change, tending to be driven in an ad hoc, uncontrolled and reactive manner by users or events. This provides a chaotic or unstable environment for the Revenue Assurance processes. At this stage there is no formalized Revenue Assurance strategy in place. Teams run adhoc queries on various systems. It depends entirely on personal ideas & initiatives. It encompasses substantial manual effort. There are undocumented repeat processes.
• Repeatable: At this level that some processes are repeatable, possibly with consistent results. Process discipline is unlikely to be precise. This is where the Revenue Assurance functions starts to take some shape in defined procedures and outputs. However they still don’t cover the entire revenue spectrum of the telecommunications company nor do they cover all aspects of a specific revenue stream. People are still learning the skill set of revenue assurance. There are specific measurement and analysis outcomes received at this stage.

• Defined: At this level that there are sets of defined and documented standard Revenue Assurance processes established and subject to some degree of improvement over time. These standard processes are in place (i.e., they are the AS-IS processes) and used to establish consistency of process performance across the organization. There are specific tools for Revenue Assurance identified and implemented. There is clear sense of what revenue chain coverage does, what the Revenue Assurance department cover and road maps are in place for the future. All major revenue streams are covered by now. There is a formalized and approved Revenue Assurance charter and strategy in place. There is a specific year on year budget for the department.

• Managed: At this level with the use of process metrics, management can effectively control the Revenue Assurance AS-IS process (e.g., for Issue Detection, Root Cause Analysis, Closure). There is a formalized strategy and long term road map for people, process and technology for the revenue assurance department. In particular, management can identify ways to adjust and adapt the process to particular Revenue Streams without measurable losses of quality or deviations from specifications. Process Capability is established from this level. The people have the right skill set to execute daily operations and have subject matter expertise.

• Optimizing: At this level that the focus is on continually improving process performance through both incremental and innovative technological changes/improvements. A risk based strategy is in place to evaluate the coverage of Revenue Assurance at specific intervals of time. Controls reach a maturity where Revenue Assurance only acts as an improvement agency for other process areas including product development, product deployment, customer retention, billing, collections, dunning etc. At this stage the RA processes are concerned with addressing statistical common causes of process variation and changing the process to improve process performance.