IT Giants Reshaping Telecom Revenue Assurance

The market for telecom revenue assurance (RA) applications is now undergoing significant changes, driven both by increased interest from network operators and by strong attempts by technology suppliers from the IT sector to position RA as a key component of larger, integrated back-office application platforms, according to the latest report from Light Reading Insider.

"Revenue assurance vendors are on a potential collision course with suppliers from the IT world," says Danny Dicks, research analyst for Light Reading Insider and author of the report. "An increasing number of IT suppliers are touting their systems as tools for RA -- or at least as essential components of an RA solution."

The main competitors for RA specialists are vendors of data warehouse tools, as well as business intelligence (BI) and data analytics software, Dicks says. "As RA becomes subsumed into something bigger, there's the chance for the giant IT services and solutions companies to take on revenue assurance as part of major IT projects," he adds.

Key findings of the report include:

• Ever-shrinking margins for telecom services are forcing network operators to deploy revenue assurance more aggressively -- despite internal resistance in many cases
• Operators must respond because real money -- and strategic relationships with content partners -- are at stake
• Revenue assurance vendors are undergoing a change as the capabilities of tools outstrip old requirements to compare data sets for anomalies, and IT vendors have bigger visions of platforms for multiple analytic and assurance applications.

Posted to the site on 2nd September 2008